Meet “Ju” – Julia Berrios | Digital Artist & Founder of SANARTE Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with “Ju” – Julia Berrios and we’ve shared our conversation below.

What was your process behind starting your own business?

I have lived with ongoing disabling conditions since 2011-2023, including Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, LYME and Glioblastoma. I am also a brain cancer survivor since 2019. I have spent years battling these conditions and not finding appropriate treatments, let alone cures. This frustration built inside me with the passage of the years and I came to the realization that no treatments and cures were found because research funds were lacking, or else treatments and cures would exist!

While homebound and bedridden due to ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) I created voluminous collections of hundreds of digital artworks.  I then decided that my artistic collections could be a vehicle to help fundraising for medical healthcare research so that more medical breakthroughs could be found to treat and cure chronic diseases such as ME/CFS & LYME disease, as well as many other worldwide health illnesses.  This focus and intent led me to create a non-profit organization called SANARTE Foundation. SANARTE means healing in Spanish language.  My philanthropic organization’s primary purpose is to help raise funds for medical health research in the private sector, while also exposing would-be donors to my digital art collections and enriching their donation experience.

Your Shoutout

Is there a person you would like to dedicate your shout out to? Who else deserves a little credit and recognition in your story?

There is no question that Dr. Nancy Klimas and all her physicians and staff at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine (INIM) at NOVA Southeastern University deserve a lot of credit and I would not be as functional as I am today if it weren’t for their efforts and the science-based treatments they delivered to me in the past 10 years.

I must also thank my Glioblastoma brain surgeon, Dr. Komotar, at the University of Miami who saved my life twice in 2018 and 2020.  He is currently the Director of the University of Miami Brain Tumor Initiative, Director of Surgical Neuro-Oncology at the University of Miami, Director of the UM Neurosurgery Residency Program, and Director of the UM Surgical Neuro-oncology Fellowship Program.

What would you like your legacy to be? What do you want people to remember about you?

I would like to be remembered as someone who tried her hardest to make a difference in the quality of lives of those battling life crippling and disabling conditions by helping bring about a positive health impact on others through my nonprofit organization, SANARTE foundation, and for my Foundation to keep working to improve the lives of so many long after I am gone.

Favorite Spots in the City?

My favorite spot is an award-winning 40^th floor rooftop and lounge, Sugar, which is Miami’s ultimate destination in the Brickell area.  I can go up there to have a beautiful dinner outside in the open air and see the most vibrant Miami skyline.  Sugar offers the best views from its lush garden to its iconic hand carved Balinese bar. Accompanied by DJ sets and paired with-decadent cocktails, sushi, and other Asian inspired bites, it is the place to meet and be seen. It’s an absolutely classy building and a great place to enjoy with friends and family.

You must also check out the beaches in South Beach. They are amazing, unforgettable beaches.

Your ART Work

I created my artwork collections while homebound and bedridden due to my Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, LYME & Glioblastoma.  My work depicts an experience reflective of a “state of grace”; and it is meant to inspire all medical scientists to continue their research so that cures and treatments for worldwide illnesses affecting humanity overall can be found.

This art work makes a “compassion” statement, encouraging our fellow man to gather and contribute valuable monetary resources in the form of financial contributions, private philanthropy, and all other types of donations in order to make a difference worldwide.

The purpose of my non-profit organization is very fresh, unique and different from other similar organizations because it uses post contemporary Art collections as a vehicle for a more spiritual and “awakened” states thru mindfulness to elevate “world health consciousness”. We are gradually moving from the “Age of Information” into the “Age of Oneness”.  We are slowly beginning to look for answers within ourselves in the search for fulfillment.  These Art collections invite you to become aware of, and grow closer to, our mindfulness within our “higher conscious self”. I believe this energy can be un-leashed to co-create a more beautiful world that is surrounded by higher emotions such as love, peace, compassion, generosity, courage, prosperity, and integrity through the use of “oneness” for our world.

Each piece of my art collections was carefully meditated upon through mindfulness, and positive “intentions” were transformed as energy on canvas.  Allow the art pieces, like crystals, to choose you as opposed to you choosing them.  You will attract what your subconscious “seeks” or “needs”. The “intention” will bring clarity in your life and you will receive and attract as you bring your unconscious higher self to a conscious state making it part of your belief system. I allow my emotions (energy in motion) on the canvas to flow through freely without any resistance, hence, opening the divine within to serve a higher purpose in our life. I transform “obstacles” into “missions” through spirituality that raises our environmental consciousness and values of “human health” in our world.

You are Unique
Never change to something others want you to be. Your unique essence is what you came here to be and, by trying to change that, you are trying to change your soul’s purpose. The world needs you, because there is no other like you.

Website: WWW.SANARTEFOUNDATION.ORG

Instagram: @sanartefoundation

Twitter: @SanarteArt

Facebook: Sanarte Foundation