This week is the first of a series of monthly articles from members of our Whole Earth Care Virtual Community. Each month, a Guest Writer will share his or her thoughts, insights, experiences and celebration as an Earth Family member.Welcome our very first Guest Writer, Lani.
Lani is an artist, art therapist, teacher and puppetmaker. And, she is so much more. Check out her website and blogs to find out more about this lovely woman and her work and play.
Wishes for 2009:
Lots of
Subversive Seeds of Art and Nature
By Lani Gerity
Lots of
Subversive Seeds of Art and Nature
By Lani Gerity
My wishes for 2009 are that our lives be filled with good things; wild and poetic seed packets of possibilities, filling the cracks and crevices of our urban industrial lives with art, magic, colour, beauty, and nature. I'd like to create seed packages to stimulate all kinds of generative things. They could be little packages of art supplies, small objects found in nature, or maybe even a story on a blog in cyberspace to stimulate thinking about art and nature. With these seed packets we could create sustainable corners of beauty where people could enjoy the mingling of greenery, flowers, life, and art. Doesn't that sound delightfully subversive? So here's a subversive seed of a story for you.
There is a group of artists who run a center (Boreal, Art/Nature) in Quebec, located in the Laurentian mountains. Their mandate is to find ways to explore and create new links between contemporary art practices and nature. Their research is undertaken with the hope of community building, with an interest in history, evolution and also with a growing concern about what they see as a widening chasm between nature and popular culture.
They work to create possibilities for artistic experimentation and collaboration within wilderness settings. To that end (when they have funding) they create artists’ residencies with concluding “open trail days” where the public is invited to meet the artists and experience the work.
There is a group of artists who run a center (Boreal, Art/Nature) in Quebec, located in the Laurentian mountains. Their mandate is to find ways to explore and create new links between contemporary art practices and nature. Their research is undertaken with the hope of community building, with an interest in history, evolution and also with a growing concern about what they see as a widening chasm between nature and popular culture.
They work to create possibilities for artistic experimentation and collaboration within wilderness settings. To that end (when they have funding) they create artists’ residencies with concluding “open trail days” where the public is invited to meet the artists and experience the work.
One fall, I was invited to be a part of one of these artist-in-residency programs. My first day in residency was an “open trail day” for a large group of art students up from Concordia University in Montreal. These students had been brought out of their virtual, competitive, urban environment and placed in the forest, set free in this much greater than human environment to interact and create with materials they found there. The land became the art room, and one of the Boreal, Art/Nature artists became the benign facilitator, explaining the rules, “find your own special spot,” “use only bio-degradable materials or materials provided by the forest,” and “do no harm to yourself or the forest.” Very simple, clear rules. The results were awe inspiring, heart opening, and integrating for the artist and viewer. There were structures of wood and stone, earth and leaves, there were caves in roots, expressions of wounding, sorrow, and loss, there were amazing performance pieces, milkweed pod boats being kissed and sent down a stream to freedom and an uncertain future.
As we walked along viewing their work, almost all of the students expressed feeling connected to the environment, reconnected to memories, history, and as they shared their stories you could feel strong connections being built between presenter and viewers. They talked about the magic of finding their own spot, and wonder and acceptance of natural life cycles, the passing away of things; the needing to let go, to say good bye. The amazing thing was the way in which this art studio, the forest, could so easily absorb and contain such passion and feeling from these students, and reflect back to them something reassuring and quiet. They were so deeply moved and moving, and so gentle with each other and with the forest.
One of the students had recently lost her mother. She took us to various spots in the forest where she had set up wooden frames. We could look through the frames and see what she had seen. At the last frame she said she had wanted to think outside of the box, she had wanted to look at all this stuff outside of these frames, but her “industrial mind” just wants things in boxes, it wanted things unchanged, safe and permanent. She’d wanted to feel her mother’s presence in the forest but because her “industrial mind” wanted to keep her inside of a clean box, separated from illness and suffering...and death, it also kept her separate from the forest and separate from her mother’s memory. She felt that she was missing so much by looking only at what was safe in the frame, that she was missing reality, authentic expression, and she’s missing her mother.
One of the students had recently lost her mother. She took us to various spots in the forest where she had set up wooden frames. We could look through the frames and see what she had seen. At the last frame she said she had wanted to think outside of the box, she had wanted to look at all this stuff outside of these frames, but her “industrial mind” just wants things in boxes, it wanted things unchanged, safe and permanent. She’d wanted to feel her mother’s presence in the forest but because her “industrial mind” wanted to keep her inside of a clean box, separated from illness and suffering...and death, it also kept her separate from the forest and separate from her mother’s memory. She felt that she was missing so much by looking only at what was safe in the frame, that she was missing reality, authentic expression, and she’s missing her mother.
As I listened to her talk about her wishes for more authentic expression and feeling, I found my self wanting to create a really big frame that could serve as a doorway, one that could be walked through. What would happen then? How would that feel?
So my wish for 2009 would be to step through the frames of my industrial, urban mind, into a world of artistic freedom, wild nature, and things more than human. Of course, it would be fun to meet other humans there, and make some wild art together.
Post Script: The Spiral Garden of Toronto has this to say about wishes and seeds:
“If you want something, keep it quiet, be secretive and respectful. When the seeds are buried deep in the earth and you act like a gardener cultivating precious orchids, your inward secrets will one day bloom and bring lasting beauty to your garden. Manifestations is a secret alchemy that happens between you and love. Be like a magician, be a secret you cannot tell. Live it every day. Make you life sacred, but don’t tell.” (Spiral Garden, Cosmic Bird Feeder, Annual Report 2000 p.93)
“If you want something, keep it quiet, be secretive and respectful. When the seeds are buried deep in the earth and you act like a gardener cultivating precious orchids, your inward secrets will one day bloom and bring lasting beauty to your garden. Manifestations is a secret alchemy that happens between you and love. Be like a magician, be a secret you cannot tell. Live it every day. Make you life sacred, but don’t tell.” (Spiral Garden, Cosmic Bird Feeder, Annual Report 2000 p.93)
My Favorite Art & Nature Links - 
Boreal Art/Nature
http://www.artnature.ca/
http://www.artnature.ca/
Bread & Puppet
http://www.breadandpuppet.org/
http://www.breadandpuppet.org/
Spiral Garden, Toronto
http://www.bloorview.ca/programsandservices/communityprograms/centreforthearts/spiralgarden.php
http://www.bloorview.ca/programsandservices/communityprograms/centreforthearts/spiralgarden.php
Subversive Seeds of FUN and ART (& free stuff) 
Yours, Lani
Thank you so much for this article, Lani. It's wonderful - inspiring me to get out there and play in the woods and see what comes of it.
Here's A Challenge:
Let's go out into the woods or forest and “find [our] own special spot,” “use only bio-degradable materials or materials provided by the forest,” and “do no harm to [ourselves] or the forest." (Boreal Art/nature artists). And if we can't go to the forest, then we can look around the trees nearest us and gather up whatever is offered. Play, create, and then photograph our art pieces and send the photos, and possibly a brief description of the experience, to moczero@sympatico.ca. i'll set up our very own Rogues' Gallery. We'll walk through Lani's,"really big frame that could serve as a doorway " into the experience.
Have fun with this. Hopefully, there may be some pieces "hanging" in the Gallery next week.
The next Blog Posting will be the start of Narratives. To help you remember those special moments you shared with our mother, Earth, here are a few questions.
Have you had a seminal experience in/with Nature?
What was your special spot in Nature when you were a child? How did you find it, what did it mean to you?
Earth Family First,
maureen
Photos from Goggle Images
2 comments:
Those baby animal names were tough! Loved Lani's offering and your suggestions. I am trying every few weeks to incorporate a new earthcare project.This time it is to be extra careful about electricty expenditure. Keep up the great work. It is very much appreciated. Kathy
I enjoyed this week's contribution and particularly connected with the concept of seeds of possibilities and the invite to play in the woods. I appreciated the underlying message that being a conscious caretaker of the earth can be fun.
(Maureen 1 or 2)
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