Getting the Sphinx Gate to Burning Man 2025 Team
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Co-Lead Mareesa Stertz
Co-Lead Tania Abdul Architect Jason Chase 3D Designer Goose Manriquez Welder/Rigger John Howell Immersive Art Lead Melanie Pincus Graphic Design Miles Seiden Build Lead James Logistics Project Manager Franzi Ponzi Foundational Ops Support Persepsion Wing Design Evan Paul On Playa Ops Tony Lieras Portal Build Lead Nick Johnson Portal Build RyanClark Camp Lead Meredith 'Fiver' Slater Camp Lead Emily Savage Immersive Art Ops Miranda Milbauer Steward Training Marjorie Boggs Vasquez Ritualist Xochitl Bernadette Moreno Accounting Haven Houston Operations Rachel Ratliff Tech Thomas Vass & Massimo Bardetti Sound Design Govinda Ram Pingali Foundational PM Support Judy Zhou Proj Management Kate Swearington Steward Lead + Kate Levis Williamson Architectural Core Anael Bonsarte Core Early Team Tanner Wells Core Early Team Peter Martin Core Early Team Cara Thomas |
Welder Layna Joy
Ritualist Nicole McGinley Sound Ryan Michael Robbins Camp Chef Nerine Redington Photographer Mark Whalen Party Planning Candace Collins "Cee Cee" On Playa Sound Jahknow Wright Power Sam Ausden Welder Andrew Purcell Welder Dexter DevinAuld Lasers TaranAllen - Precision Lasers Seamstress Kimberly Spillman Seamstress Jennie Brittingham Builder Tal Weiss Builder Boaz Gelber Builder Zac Deane Builder Dave Pufki Builder Ashur Bratt Builder Will Lucas Power Joe Kromer Power Jay Swain Builder Michael Towes/Potter Builder Necklace Nate Graphics Erin Wallace Visuals Morgan Lavery Power Team Matt Gillespie Power Support Dave Hodges |
Joshua Trevino
Jazz Tigan Luliia Jaz Cadoch Bijan Ghiasi Nianede Sa Mike Unger Alessandra Markus Aless Pablo Happy Astro King Nico Tony LallyTone Sven Kaufmann Dari Donhuysen Mike Margolies Joshua Trevino Jazz Tigan Solar Stephan Lämmel Kate Brower Darren Stukes Peter Mattsson Shelby Pfeifer |
Willie
Isadora Tang CitaValencia Marlena Roxi David Sabba Nazhand MJ Wolfie Austin Joshua Tones Mellow Gage Shayna James Whewell Hannah Jordan Brigitte Tyler Hanson Galen Dorian Joe Garcia Michael Morgenstern |
The Team
Chief Dream Officer
Mareesa Stertz is a filmmaker, storyteller, artist, and community organizer dedicated to fostering collective healing and transformation. As a co-steward of the Global Psychedelic Society (GPS) and co-founder of Lucid News, Mareesa has been building platforms that destigmatize, educate, and build community around psychedelics. Her film work includes producing and hosting the documentary series The Healing Powers (of Psychedelics and Other Mindful Practices) and the feature film, Damanhur, both streaming on Gaia TV and Amazon. Drawing from her own journey of trauma and transformation, Mareesa is passionate about using storytelling and art to deepen understanding and bring visibility to the process of healing and wholeness. She has shared her experiences on international stages and through teaching, workshops, and retreats Her first burn was in 99, she's been to somewhere around 18 burns, been a part of Zendo Operations Team since 2019, and first brought art to the burn in 2024 with the Talkbox.
Visit her other work at YourStoryisEverything.com, GlobalPsychedelic.org, ConfessionsofaPsychonaut.com, and TheSeeingMachine.com.
Mareesa Stertz is a filmmaker, storyteller, artist, and community organizer dedicated to fostering collective healing and transformation. As a co-steward of the Global Psychedelic Society (GPS) and co-founder of Lucid News, Mareesa has been building platforms that destigmatize, educate, and build community around psychedelics. Her film work includes producing and hosting the documentary series The Healing Powers (of Psychedelics and Other Mindful Practices) and the feature film, Damanhur, both streaming on Gaia TV and Amazon. Drawing from her own journey of trauma and transformation, Mareesa is passionate about using storytelling and art to deepen understanding and bring visibility to the process of healing and wholeness. She has shared her experiences on international stages and through teaching, workshops, and retreats Her first burn was in 99, she's been to somewhere around 18 burns, been a part of Zendo Operations Team since 2019, and first brought art to the burn in 2024 with the Talkbox.
Visit her other work at YourStoryisEverything.com, GlobalPsychedelic.org, ConfessionsofaPsychonaut.com, and TheSeeingMachine.com.
Architecture and Design
With over two decades of experience, Jason Chase brings his unique magic to the world of design. His journey has spanned from tradesman to architect and interior designer, and to the design of buildings and artworks. He thrives on the challenges of creating immersive experiences that engage and inspire and has brought multiple interactive pieces to regional burns and festivals over the last decade.
With over two decades of experience, Jason Chase brings his unique magic to the world of design. His journey has spanned from tradesman to architect and interior designer, and to the design of buildings and artworks. He thrives on the challenges of creating immersive experiences that engage and inspire and has brought multiple interactive pieces to regional burns and festivals over the last decade.
Co-Lead of 2025 Sphinxes at BM - Vision and Impact Artivist
As a producer of immersive art and events, and the co-founder of a movement-building nonprofit for environmental justice, Tania Abdul is pushing the frontier to create deeply personal, interactive experiences that expand participants’ understanding of themselves and their community connections. A lifelong activist, her current projects utilize hope, innovation, narrative and documentary content, and visual & performing arts to engage people to create change in themselves and build movements that change the world.
Tania’s past work has included multimedia events (in Los Angeles; Flagstaff, AZ; Fort Lauderdale, FL; and the SF Bay Area), artivism in San Francisco, and experiential art for immersive festivals. One of her goals is to increase access and longevity of impact with hybrid digital formats. She is investigating the potential of VR, AR, and alternate reality experiences to help create vibrant containers that catalyze and support vital relationships within and across communities.
As a producer of immersive art and events, and the co-founder of a movement-building nonprofit for environmental justice, Tania Abdul is pushing the frontier to create deeply personal, interactive experiences that expand participants’ understanding of themselves and their community connections. A lifelong activist, her current projects utilize hope, innovation, narrative and documentary content, and visual & performing arts to engage people to create change in themselves and build movements that change the world.
Tania’s past work has included multimedia events (in Los Angeles; Flagstaff, AZ; Fort Lauderdale, FL; and the SF Bay Area), artivism in San Francisco, and experiential art for immersive festivals. One of her goals is to increase access and longevity of impact with hybrid digital formats. She is investigating the potential of VR, AR, and alternate reality experiences to help create vibrant containers that catalyze and support vital relationships within and across communities.
3D Designer of the Body of the Sphinx
Goose Manriquez is a 3D designer and industry veteran with over 30 years of production experience across 2D and 3D art, animation, and interactive media. His work spans film, television, games, web, mobile, and XR platforms. Over the course of his career, he has served as an animator, animation director, art director, manager, and executive, leading teams and creative pipelines for studios including Mondo Media, Electronic Arts (EA), Bigpoint, Metamoki, Cinematic, Mantis VR, YUR, and Meta. In recent years, Goose has expanded into CNC foam cutting and large-scale fabrication, bringing digital design expertise into physical form. He designed the full body of the Sphinx, translating complex sculptural vision into a build-ready, monumental structure.
Goose Manriquez is a 3D designer and industry veteran with over 30 years of production experience across 2D and 3D art, animation, and interactive media. His work spans film, television, games, web, mobile, and XR platforms. Over the course of his career, he has served as an animator, animation director, art director, manager, and executive, leading teams and creative pipelines for studios including Mondo Media, Electronic Arts (EA), Bigpoint, Metamoki, Cinematic, Mantis VR, YUR, and Meta. In recent years, Goose has expanded into CNC foam cutting and large-scale fabrication, bringing digital design expertise into physical form. He designed the full body of the Sphinx, translating complex sculptural vision into a build-ready, monumental structure.
Neuroscientist and Wonder-Worker
Melanie Blair Pincus, PhD, is a neuroscientist, inventor, and artist who researches and designs transformative experiences that enhance emotional resilience and cognitive plasticity. Melanie received her B.S. from Stanford University, her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Emory University, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. In her doctoral work, she studied the legacy of early life trauma and stress on emotion regulation circuits in the brain, spurring an interest in the types of experiences that can build resiliency and rewire the brain. She is now an independent researcher studying how psychedelics and non-ordinary states of consciousness impact the brain and promote neuroplasticity. Melanie also teaches a course at Columbia University on how childhood play shapes the brain and promotes socioemotional development. Melanie designs play-based installations that blend the educative power of play with biosensing technology to cultivate emotion regulation, connectedness, and complex cognitive skills in children and adults alike.
Melanie Blair Pincus, PhD, is a neuroscientist, inventor, and artist who researches and designs transformative experiences that enhance emotional resilience and cognitive plasticity. Melanie received her B.S. from Stanford University, her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Emory University, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. In her doctoral work, she studied the legacy of early life trauma and stress on emotion regulation circuits in the brain, spurring an interest in the types of experiences that can build resiliency and rewire the brain. She is now an independent researcher studying how psychedelics and non-ordinary states of consciousness impact the brain and promote neuroplasticity. Melanie also teaches a course at Columbia University on how childhood play shapes the brain and promotes socioemotional development. Melanie designs play-based installations that blend the educative power of play with biosensing technology to cultivate emotion regulation, connectedness, and complex cognitive skills in children and adults alike.
Ceremonial Extraordinaire
Xochitl Bernadette Moreno is a long time activist and media maker, creator. Co Host & producer for KPFA Radio’s, La Onda Bajita; and Creative Director of Earth Amplified Media, co-producers for Entheogenic Roots, The Indigenous Origins of Psychedelic Culture. Co-founder/Co-Director of ESPHERA.earth and Essential Food and Medicine,who re-indigenizes our community's relationship to land, food and medicine working with the houseless, indigenous, and formerly incarcerated. She is a ceremonialist who works in the healing arts . As a leader with, Solestial.Church, she combines medicines and sacred traditions from her own ancestral Mexican/Australian lineages with various paths from the places she has traveled to study. She blends music, clinical herbalism, bodywork and curanderismo to create balance. She first set foot on the playa in 2007 and was a longtime collaborator with the sound camp Root Society from 2008 to 2019. For the past five years, she has brought healing to GP&E through her co-coordination of Healix.
Xochitl Bernadette Moreno is a long time activist and media maker, creator. Co Host & producer for KPFA Radio’s, La Onda Bajita; and Creative Director of Earth Amplified Media, co-producers for Entheogenic Roots, The Indigenous Origins of Psychedelic Culture. Co-founder/Co-Director of ESPHERA.earth and Essential Food and Medicine,who re-indigenizes our community's relationship to land, food and medicine working with the houseless, indigenous, and formerly incarcerated. She is a ceremonialist who works in the healing arts . As a leader with, Solestial.Church, she combines medicines and sacred traditions from her own ancestral Mexican/Australian lineages with various paths from the places she has traveled to study. She blends music, clinical herbalism, bodywork and curanderismo to create balance. She first set foot on the playa in 2007 and was a longtime collaborator with the sound camp Root Society from 2008 to 2019. For the past five years, she has brought healing to GP&E through her co-coordination of Healix.
Orchestrator of Clarity
Persepsion is a master of complex logistics, managing big visions, spreadsheets, and operations. She has served on multiple Burning Man boards, helped run large BM camps, coordinated hundreds of volunteers, managed large scale budgets and accounting, and made many art dreams come true.
Persepsion is a master of complex logistics, managing big visions, spreadsheets, and operations. She has served on multiple Burning Man boards, helped run large BM camps, coordinated hundreds of volunteers, managed large scale budgets and accounting, and made many art dreams come true.
Architectural Consultant
Anael Bonsorte is a Los Angeles-based Production Designer and Art Director who has translated theoretical visions into tangible realities for many clients such as CBS, Universal Pictures, SONY, Time-Warner, NBC, Revlon, MTV, Fox and for many feature films. Through the fabrication of Egyptian inspired set elements on the film "Stargate," to sculpting the interior of the RA at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, to the carving of alien spaceships of "Independence Day," to building model ships for "Titanic", Anael's creativity channels his abundant love for art and enables him to produce breathtaking builds that elevate imagination and exceed clients' greatest expectations.
Anael Bonsorte is a Los Angeles-based Production Designer and Art Director who has translated theoretical visions into tangible realities for many clients such as CBS, Universal Pictures, SONY, Time-Warner, NBC, Revlon, MTV, Fox and for many feature films. Through the fabrication of Egyptian inspired set elements on the film "Stargate," to sculpting the interior of the RA at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, to the carving of alien spaceships of "Independence Day," to building model ships for "Titanic", Anael's creativity channels his abundant love for art and enables him to produce breathtaking builds that elevate imagination and exceed clients' greatest expectations.