The Heart of Matter
The Heart of Matter
Amy Levine, Anya Shah, Chris Warner-Carey, Clare Palmer, Cori Anderson, Barbara Dombach, Cricket Woodward, Dale Rio, Edson Scudder, Frances Bukovsky, George Lottermoser, Jeffrey DeCristofaro, Julia Nagai, Kate Kennington Steer, Kaye Savage, Laura Rudkin Miniot, Lyn Swett Miller, Lynne Buchanan, Megan Driving Hawk, Melissa Blythe Knowles, Nicole Marie, Noel Szychowski, Paul Wanta, Phil Lewenthal, Robert Rollings, Susan Patrice, Susan Preston, Sue Stigleman, Tracy Warren, Valerie Yaklin-Brown, Yvette Meltzer, Yvonne Dalschen
Together, the Kinship community engaged with the element of Earth. This season brought us into a relationship with Earth as living matter-soil, ground, and home. What depths did we find in Earth’s cycles? Did embodied photographic practices inspire earthy perspectives that awakened in us the transformative power of interdependence, connection, and care? Through practice, did we foster co-creative and collaborative partnerships with the living earth that invited mutual flourishing? Here are some of the answers that were given to the Earth call.
Melissa Blythe Knowles
“Creating photographs that gently brighten the way we see, even when life feels fractured or dimmed by loss. I call this Moments Seen, Spirit Felt.” - Melissa Blythe Knowles
“During the Earth elemental season I was rewarded and inspired by a rare occurrence these days in the Netherlands, snow. Through flashes of colored light and looking up through the trees at night I captured the unpredictable patterns of tree branches lined in snow. Suddenly I was looking into a kaleidoscope of branches. The snow became shooting stars.
I uncovered fractals, mathematics, symmetry. I found spiders and creatures when mimicked and mirrored. I saw the cosmos. Imitating the same ramifications that course through our veins, rivers, leaves, branches, diverging and interconnecting and composing the Earth. After transcending through the universe of branches, I was pulled back down to an untouched snow covered bench. “
“In my photographs, I found a different kind of reciprocity between my children, the land, and spirit that I hadn’t noticed before. In my creative ecosystem, l intentionally practiced fallowing. “
“The earth opens when it is seen.” -Sue Stigleman
Cricket Woodward
“Rifting.
I too,
melt,
gather,
rend,
harden…
and flow, following entropy home, scattered back into earth.
A spark warms my heart,
a desire to again
metamorph.” - Cricket Woodward
Robert Rollings
“As one who has always grown up surrounded by nature - lakes, hills, forests, mountains, the beach - I have become more aware over time of the importance of learning about, and adhering to, coexistence with, rather than independence of or control over, the very elements of nature. Rocks, trees, water, soil - these are more than just what we see and feel and touch and taste and smell; they are facets of an expanding, ageless cosmos simultaneously firmly established and constantly shifting. While we are a minute, even microscopic percentage of that cosmos, we are no less a part of it than a hair is to the head, or a fingernail to the hand. Therefore, it is both by curiosity, choice, responsibility, and determination that we can and must not only seek out, travel, discover, explore and learn, but become one with our world on a level that goes beyond the boundaries of every field of interest and education, and ensure through struggle, explanation and contribution, the paramount need to preserve and enhance that co-existence with the elements, not just for ourselves, but for others alive and those yet to be born.” - Jeffrey DeCristofaro
“I believe in the interconnectedness of all beings and the immanence of spirt in this world. My photographic practice focuses on the asynchronous nature of time and how objects and nature can be portals to understanding. Making images helps me connect with the past, present, and future, and reveal the complexity of life at any moment in time.” - Lynne Buchanan
