“Art serves a purpose. It is the universal healer. It allows you to express things that can’t be expressed in any other way. It chronicles history, feelings, emotions. It presents a different perspective on society, if you’re paying attention. It has a resonance that goes beyond anything else I’ve ever seen. It really a kind of magic thing”. Mark GreenfieldWhat is Art that Breathes? a perpetually in-process/ in-progress investigation
What is Art that Breathes? a perpetually in-process/ in-progress investigation
Art that Breathes aims to foster a spirit of engagement with the Natural World through creative and sustainable practice, combining art techniques with foraged and found materials. Working with the seasons and learning which materials are available at different times of year provides us with another way to connect and integrate creative activities into natural bioregional cycles.
Just like herbalism is a lifestyle, and a practice, so is creativity. The way we move through our days is our art – whether we are painting, creating a meal, writing encouraging words, setting a beautiful table, doodling while we wait, or simply the way we curate our home.
“Plants have enough spirit to transform our limited vision.”– Rosemary Gladstar
Art that Breathes is deeply rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition. The Wise Woman Tradition focuses on healing through nourishment of one's whole being; body, mind, heart, and soul. This tradition does not solely belong to one person, but instead is a healing that is of the people. It's a doorway through which the paradigm shifts. Many women experience a deep resonance—a cellular memory of a way of life and a belief system that embraces a spiral that includes the both/and as opposed to a linear either or world. A system where we honor our natural cycles—our ebbs and flows. The wise woman’s role is to support transformation in whatever form it takes, including death and disease which are seen as vehicles of transformation, messengers, teachers, and at times, great allies. Without healers, without diseases, without cures, without certificates, without guarantees, it exists. It has no rules, no right answers, no promise of life eternal. The Wise Woman Tradition embraces mess.
For me it often begins with a long walk (at least an hour), during the first 10-20 mins I am letting go and landing, often during this time my thoughts are racing a mile a minute and then I begin to integrate. Next, I start to look around, to notice colors and textures, seasonal changes and differences. As I fully land and become present my creativity starts to bubble then I can begin my investigatory exploration. Which plant has shown up since my last walk? What colours are new? What is happening in response to climate changes? What is more abundant than before? Is there a tree down? Art that breathes is a holistic regenerative approach to making Art. A way of studying and understanding where we live, and learn about the ecosystem around us.
“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
― Andy Goldsworthy
The Manifesto
Art that Breathes develops a connection between place and material. Notice, Find, Collect, Dream, Experiment. Fall in love with place! Become a Topophiliac!
Art that Breathes is low impact. It is our responsibility to live with a small enviromental footprint. It is important to remember that just because something is natural does not mean it is low impact. Art without harm to the environment just like Hippocrates counseled physicians to “revere the healing force of nature” in the “Hippocratic Oath”. In order to do this you have to begin to understand the seasonal cycles and patterns. Fall in love with the earth become a biophiliac
Art that Breathes works with natural processes often elemental. Observing relationship with materials the art only exists because of our relationship with the materials/environment. Art that Breathes promotes engagement with the environment and re-invovement-evokes ecological responsibility
“The creative process, like a spiritual journey, is intuitive, non-linear, and experiential. It points us toward our essential nature, which is a reflection of the boundless creativity of the universe.”
— John Daido Loori
Use local materials whenever possible/make your own/ if not source responsibly. (It is understood that that means different things to different people) Do the best you can! Define your local? Become a locavore!
Over time I find myself shifting from using natural materials as equivalents to their conventional counterparts, just like herbal remedies are not replacements for conventional and OTC medications. I believe in letting the plants and minerals lead the way, and in doing so you’ll create pieces you could never have imagined. My process taps into both scientific inquiry and a sense of wonder often seen in early childhood style play. It's all about building a relationship with specific plants and minerals.
Art that Breathes is process based, not result oriented. The artwork is not end result but a focal point around which ideas are formed and disseminated. Not being too attached to outcome but observing the process. What are you learning / experiencing simply by making the art.
Art that Breathes is reciprocol practicing the principals of Ethical Wildcrafting or as Robin Wall Kimmerer writes the Honorable Harvest
“Collectively, the Indigenous canon of principles and practices that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honorable Harvest. They are rules of sorts that govern our taking, shape our relationships with the natural world , and rein in our tendency to consume--that the world might be as rich for the seventh generation as it is for our own.”-Braiding Sweetgrass, The Honorable Harvest (p.180).
Art that Breathes encourages commons thinking, community, collaborations. Become a community advocate, a champion for the Commons movement. In order to gain knowledge and improve practices, relationships, connections, alliances of mutuality must be built between all life forms and disciplines.
Art that breathes is seasonal, be in the moment, enjoy it while it lasts and look forward to the next season. Don’t waste energy trying to figure out how to preserve, save, make fresh, seasonal materials last. Enjoy the ephemeral, fleeting and fugutive.
Art that Breathes is Sensory. In Sensory Herbalism there is a focus on how we as humans can restore our own health by interacting directly through all our senses with the plants themselves. There is a strong focus on creativity, placing great emphasis on connection to nature or spirit through storytelling, drawing and poetry. It asks you to draw on the power of intention as you grow, craft and take herbal medicines, the same goes for art making. It is an approach developed to create and strengthen a mutually beneficial relationship between plants/nature and humans. It is also known as participatory science, a Hoethian technique to get to know plants deeper, recognize patterns, by using your senses. It’s also a dynamic group process.
Art that breathes uses hand processing whenever possible, Haptic Knowledge An understanding of the world gained through the sense of touch. Inherent in the act of making is a body of knowledge formed from the intuitive decisions involved in the process. These are decisions that are not verbally predetermined but arrived at in collaboration with the material itself,
Art that breathes is fluid, Art that Breathes embraces cycles of change. Just like Health; health is not static, health is a momementm, health is flow, health is flexible, malliable, not stuck, stagnant, but changes over time, art too. It’s a dynamic event between you and something else, a constant state of flow, birth and death. The World Health Organization defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,’ health is not about the absence of anything; it’s an active state, we have to work at it.
Art that Breathes embraces Impermanence. Our art does not always need to out live us. Art that will last forever…is that just litering? or endulging our ego’s and sense of attachment. Think of the beauty (and drama) of the Tibetan Sand Mandalas. Can we make a connection here between things needing to last forever and the way we respond to aging?
“The Closer things get to non existence the more exquisite and evocative they become”- Leonard Karen
Art that Breathes adopts principals from the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi (based in Zen Buddhism). Wabi Sabi is the relationship/conversation between nature and people. An ancient Japanese aesthetic philosophy deeply rooted in Zen Buddhism buildings/ Temples around the 13th Century. A way of being. A way of experiencing the world and a way of creating things within the world: gentle , peaceful aesthetic. It celebrates imperfection, simplicity, humility, earthiness and natural flow of life. It celebrated everything in constant motion, either coming from or returning to nothing where all the creative energy of the universe lives. Definition:Wabi- spiritual wrorld, inner world. Philosophical framework. Sabi- material objests, art and literature, outer world. The aesthetic ideal
Art that breathes adopts principals from the slow movement. The slow movement is a cultural movement which advocates slowing down the pace of human life. It has been suggested that the movement emerged from the slow food movement, and Carlo Petrini's 1986 protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in the Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Slow stitching, slow drawing, Mindfulness.
There is a Bulgarian word “ailyak” meaning the subtle art of slow living, doing things calmly and slowly without the need to rush
Or as the Italians say “Dolce far Niente” literally 'sweetness [of] doing nothing, sweet idleness')
Art That Breathes encourages a long term vision- a move away from the dopamine rush, mindless consumerism. Art that Breathes encourages starting with what you already have, reusing,recycling. It is easy to accumulate/aquire stuff without having to think too much about consequence. Art that Breathes is mindful. How we practice? Accessibility to all, Individual practice should be economically sustainable, equitable, modest in scale, of high quality, noncommercial, supporting values and principles which put the Earth health first. Herbalism is the medicine of belonging, the direct experience of the whole healing the part
There are 5000 weed seeds in every square foot of healthy soil. These are natures healing mechanism, to reboot any ecosystem. We just need to change our perspective. As gardeners we were told to pull weeds out constantly. As a result we were removing structure, nutrition, protection and connection from the soil. The native weed seeds, annual and perennial, are so important. They have evolved alongside our insect populations in the local food web. 90% of insects still only eat the things they have evolved to eat. They cannot keep up with the rapid changes we have enforced upon them. So we really need to step back and see what we can do to support insects because the relationships between plants and insects are the starting point where everything grows from. Plants have really impressive protection mechanisms and insects have only adapted to eating Specific plants. Without these plants being present in your patch of the planet, you will not be allowing insects create a new healthy generation. Native weeds are the foundation stone of all our ecosystems. The first line of nature’s defence, her first effort to restore her health.
Plants are alive, plants breathe, plants are living beings.
Plants are sentient beings
Working with plants is a collaboration, a dynamic relationship,
where there is no controlling the result.
It’s about process,
It’s relational,
It’s being in the moment, feeling the connection.
The results are fluid, gently changing
Life is not stagnant, life is always changing.
Constantly in motion
Health is not stagnant, health is flow, in the flow
Nothing in Nature is static
There is gentle movement even in the stillness
Nothing lasts forever
As humans we are always trying extend life, to beat the odds, we are so rarely present enough to notice the gentleness of the moment,
Feel the breath of the plants.
Make art that breathes.
Nothing lasts forever
“Weeds – even many intrusive aliens – give something back. They green over the dereliction we have created. They move in to replace more sensitive plants that we have endangered. Their willingness to grow in the most hostile environments – a bombed city, a crack in a wall – means that they insinuate the idea of wild nature into places otherwise quite shorn of it. They are, in this sense, paradoxical. Although they follow and are dependent on human activities, their cussedness and refusal to play by our rules makes them subversive, and the very essence of wildness.” Richard Maybe
*all photos in this piece are Artworks made by myself as part of the Art that Breathes investigation
__________________________________________________________________
Summer Classes/Events Round up:
Twiggs Gallery, Building Books 2: New England Book Artists’ Members Exhibition. June 1 - July 14, 2024
Fri June 14th Art that Breathes Art show opening at Jo Smith Gallery Northampton, MA 5-8pm
Fri June 21 Shepherd Maudsleigh Studio, Newton MA
Daylong Eco-Printing Intensive
Sat June 22 Shepherd Maudsleigh Studio, Newton MA
Day long Artist Book Making w/ecoprinted papers
Sat June 29th Creative Retreat in the Garden, Cyanotype, Conway MA
Sun June 30th New England Botanical Garden at Tower Hill
Intro to Eco Printing workshop
Art Show at Ashfield Post Office! (month of July)
Wed July 10th Westborough, MA Library (Free)
Artist Book Making demo(free)
Sat Aug 24th Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, Boston
Intro to Eco Printing (free)
Fri August 30th Creative Retreat in the Garden, Eco Printing with Flowers on Paper Conway MA