ESPIRÍTO, 2019

This photographic project is about making soul connections with the land I find myself knowing and experiencing with my chosen family. I am Learning about my own personal heritage and nativity by comparing and connecting this North American location in Tennessee to the land where I incarnated in South America, the state of Espiríto Santo, Brasil. This project speaks to my endless effort to feel a sense of belonging as a displaced person who experienced assimilation (loss of language and culture), due to parental forces.

I was shocked to realize the elements of the Tennessee landscape where I found myself raising our kids, do have a similar character to the landscape where I was born. I discovered this while becoming intimate with the plants, soils, rocks, and bodies of water I encountered during our wanderings within the region.

This project, and realization, really broke open the dam of my subconscious life and connection with my ancestors. This led to my deep dive into plant medicine making and painting. I was gifted some visual forms during dreamtime that finally felt “right” for me, and the “ochre body” paintings began to flow. This marks the transition from photographic work, and processing, to making paintings again.