The Sonora Series

It all started with a question:

How do we connect?

-With Nature-With Place-With Ourselves-

How do you connect with nature anyway? It’s a phrase that get’s thrown around a lot but what does it really mean? Are there techniques, procedures to follow? Do you just go on a hike and boom, you’re connected? How will you know if you’ve done it?

I had the opportunity to spend 5 months in rural New Mexico and decided that I would try it. At a loss for guidance, I ended up falling back on something I’d learned in herbalism: Organoleptics. That’s a fancy word for employing all of your senses in plant identification and I quickly discovered, it works for everything. Turns out the gateway to connection for me was using my senses, mindfully and intentionally. I would like to share that connection with you in this desert inspired series of work.

The desert taught me that to connect with a place, that it takes more than an afternoon, it requires that we slow down, forget the time, engage our senses, feel awake in our bodies.

Let your senses take you there. Allow yourself to feel the warmth of a sun-drenched stone, the cool breeze on your bare arms, to smell the scent of sage on the air, and hear the crunch of dried grass as you walk. Taste the air. Let the unrelenting blue of the sky fill you up.

These feelings are what fueled the creation of these pieces. I hope that connection carries forth into your experience of it as well.