My drawings and paintings are largely concerned with the human relationship to the Earth – both physical and spiritual/emotional. I have always been, and am increasingly, drawn to the natural world as a place of solace, respite, non-judgement. I guess this is a human thing – we’re part of nature, not separate. It’s our home. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the disconnection we have fallen into as a species, to our habitat. It’s like we have forgotten something vital, fallen out of love. In these times I dive deep into the soil – planting, weeding, composting. It’s almost like there is a need to be submerged by this blanket of earthy goodness, to return to something forgotten. In recent times, my drawings have also absorbed the earth in a physical way – I use clay, mud, bio-char, burning…materials that will become earth again once finished with. The mark-making is a practise in slow time, a meditation, a reminder of what it takes to build soil (a thousand years per 5cm of topsoil!). In their future composted state, my drawings could be part of what Robin Wall Kimmerer describes as the ‘circle of reciprocity’ – a gift back to the Earth, in thanks for all she gives me, and my children.
R. Wall Kimmerer, Braided Sweetgrass, Milkweed Editions, Canada (2013) p.381