I took this photo and wrote this almost a year ago before all of this inspiration began.
Dealing with some big changes, and emotional and physical disruption, I found myself at the water constantly. Somehow feeling the healing power of it. I had no idea that from this pain, an entire project would emerge…
I am documenting my process for this new project, and hopefully future projects in this blog.
“We are basically fluid beings that have arrived on land. All living processes owe their lineage to the movement of water. Our implicate preexistent memory beginning with the first cell, lies in the mysterious deep, quietly undulating, circulating, nourishing this aquatic being on its mission to planet earth.” — Emilie Conrad
INSPIRATION:
We had an extraordinarily long and dark winter here and I would go to the ocean for a bit of hope and inspiration. During one of these trips, I watched the sea life and kelp and its activity along the seashore and felt such a strong kinesthetic link to it. I sensed a sort of co-regulation with this being and the ocean in general.
As someone who has experienced trauma, somatically integration, and healing, as well as helping others to do the same, I recognize the need for co-regulation and relating to our bodies, others, and our environment in a deeper way.
My work involves exploring and revealing these ecosystems as landscapes that we can sense almost as if they were our own. Observing the relationships within this biosphere and how it supports the life that resides within it, we begin to recognize that we feel the same sort of interconnectedness within ourselves and our communities but might not know how to express it. When we connect with the living world through our senses, we also connect to our own emotions and our entire nervous system as a co-regulation. For many of us, this is easier than co-regulating with humans. It’s almost as if our cells recognize the safety of where we came from.
