Organs of the Earth

Organs of the Earth is a journey into the bodyscape, which is more than us and at the core of us - a landscape to which we deeply belong.

Investigating the liminal spaces where beings feel to and through each other.

How can humanity’s propensity for being in relationship expand our ways of knowing? Where does our anatomy of perception begin, end or weave through? Are there senses or ways of perceiving that we have lost or gained?

Our planetary anatomy is physical and etheric, imaginal and dense, fixed and fluid. On and on it goes… where it stops nobody knows.

Somatic Art Sessions explore the myriad of ways humans feel about, with and through the earthbody. Jote helps to transform stories from the sessions into watercolor and prose.

Organs of the Earth merges story with image to create fresh narratives about humanity’s relationship with our earthbody. We are living in a time when everyday literally 100’s of things pull our attention away from being in loving presence with our earthly body.

The paintings serve to remind the storyteller of stories that arose in the session. The paintings also transmit, sometimes better than words, the kind of relationship many of us have or long to have with the earthbody.

How would human consciousness shift if our connection with the wild animate earth was what we shared with each other most often?

Libation

Excerpt from the somatic session that led to this painting:

“There’s something about when I’m near water. I allow my sweetness to come out- and a different part of my femininity to show up. In a lot of indigenous African traditions, water is depicted, specifically sweetwaters like rivers and lakes, as a really curvy woman. Oshun is what many call her. I think about how I feel when I’m in the water. The way you can’t move too jerky or too fast. It’s very sensual and supple. And sweet. It allows me to drop into this more sensitive, sweeter and more receptive part of myself. There's a practice in African diaspora tradition I do called a libation. It’s a practice of whenever you begin a ceremony, or begin anything, to take water and pour it on the ground with a specific prayer. This one is for the ancestors. This is for all the humans who are here now, and this one is for all the ones who are coming.

I'm learning so much about hair, it’s such a big thing in the black community. One of the things that we did when folks were being brought over here during the transatlantic slave theft to stay connected with our land and plants was to carry seeds. The reason they call some braids cornrows is because they would braid the seeds into their hair. The resilience, the knowledge that “I need to be close to the plants that I know. If I can’t bring anything else, I need to bring this.” That's why they took us and brought us here, because we are such natural tenders of the land. It feels like an homage wear braids. That’s part of the beauty and part of the trauma.”

Fuzz and the Fern

Many queer people look to nature to affirm the ways they look, feel and love. In the wild diversity of bodies, textures and ways of relating expand beyond today’s human cultural norms. It is a cultural fad these days to remove most of the hair on our bodies, something that has been long normalized for AFAB folks. AMAB people are picking up on this trend now as well.

Elders of many traditions think of the hair as antennae. When we remove it, we remove a strong possibility to share in the subtler realms.

This painting was made to celebrate the fuzziness of nature and the fuzzy hair on our bodies. Ferns called out to be painted and Riv jumped into the center when I needed a model- offering that their fuzz be painted for

Lake Me & Lake Me Too

These are two self portraits- Lake Me and Lake Me Too. When I was growing up, we spent much of the summer at my grandparent’s house on Diamond Lake in Michigan. Spending long swaths of time there literally kept me alive as a youngster. Long moments watching snails crawl at the bottom of the lake gave me access to states of connection that expanded beyond the aspects of human culture I found so challenging. It gave me a sense that I belong to a larger and mysteriously beautiful story- that there was much to learn beyond the cement walls of my institutionalized modern education.

My mom helped me shoot the series of reference photos for these paintings. I told her that I couldn’t possibly wear a bathing suit for this project- that swimming naked is one of the greatest pleasures of my existence. She worried about the neighbors and understood what she would do. Later, in an exhilarated tone, I heard mom telling her sister “and we took the photos naked. It was art”. It really couldn’t have happened another way. The work is meant to be exhilarating for everyone involved. Thanks mom.

When I see this image I am transported to the watery calm of being hugged by the waters on all sides. Sun streaming in, playing a brilliant song against the sand. Illuminating another world below. I multifaceted. I am home.

The Mother Who Stays

The inquiry process we used to find this potent image followed Meg’s the body through impulse, sensation, memory and inner vision. Once the story emerges and the art is made, living with the painting brings another dimension into the process.

After one somatic session, we decided that we needed to go into the redwoods for another round to explore what was coming up. One of the stories Meg was living through was the need to make constant reminders to the world that she is gay. At that time Meg had long hair and a femme presentation. People would repeatedly ask if she had a husband or boyfriend. She tried sporting rainbows and signaling in any way she could that she was not a part of the heteronormative vibe that was going on. When we went to the forest she said that part of her experience faded. She desired to blend into the wild diversity of life forms and life force in the forest. There was something to lean into and be embraced by that was steadier and more expansive than human culture- more reflective of the intricacy of who she is.

As Meg lived with this painting she discovered that the forest is the mother who stays. Meg has a rocky relationship with her human mother and living with the painting is reminding her to get out into the forest when she wants to feel secure attachment. The trees and the dirt are there for her.

Heartbeat

In this session we slowed down enough to feel the breath of the trees, and the heartbeat of another organ of the earth. Slowing down enough to tune in. This process of feeling into the more subtle movements of the trees opens awareness. Proprioception becomes possible, feeling branches blowing in the wind. Unguarded, deep rest is one outcome of the connection between this human and tree.

Water as Lover

Water teaches freezing and thawing. When sexual experiences are not consensual, the body, the nervous system and the emotions can freeze in response and they can get stuck that way.

I supported Raz in a somatic inquiry process to dive into the pleasure of their relationship with water. A tender delight spread through our process when Raz realized and remembered that water had actually been their first lover and that water has been a partner in healing from sexual assault.

Water makes pleasure available in safe, gentle and consensual ways that crescendoed in our somatic inquiry with Raz’s invitation to witness their pleasure practice with water. From that ritual art container, from that revelry, I created a watercolor showing the joy and release of Raz’s lovership with water.

This is on the sexier side of what somatic art making can look like. With ritual containers and informed consent, great healing is possible. For Raz, who has not wanted human lovers, this was an opportunity to explore pleasure with human witness and care while the physical, sensual interaction was expressly with the waters of the Earthbody.

Consensually witnessing each other's pleasure without trying to get more involved rebels against modern societal norms of how and with whom pleasure gets expressed. Receiving loving witness in our healing processes allows us to go deeper, knowing that support is available if we get into challenging landscapes. Having a supportive witness also magnifies the focus and intention of the somatic process.

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