Artist Biography
The arts, for me, have always hinged on the themes of creativity, play, and imagination. As a child, I insisted on carrying around a small electronic keyboard so I could create songs on a whim. I kept an easel in my family’s kitchen where I sang and danced with my twin, Zach. As I’ve aged, I haven’t stopped creating, playing, and imagining. I have a playful approach to the way I paint, sculpt, sing, and dance. I believe that play is an intuitive and spontaneous exploration of presence, and creating in any form is a process without consequence, all welcoming flow. As an Expressive Arts Therapy student, I see play as a portal to healing. I feel that the arts can open closed doors and connect people to who they are, to each other, and to their environment. After a conversation about how I’d been feeling overwhelmed, with the College’s Director of Spirituality and Belonging, Gail Cantor, I followed her advice to notice things right in front of me, in that moment. After leaving Gail’s office, I saw just one goose sitting in the middle of the pond. I stopped walking and watched it for a minute. The goose was moving so slowly it almost looked still, and when I paused and became still myself, I realized that the goose was actually moving, just simply existing. From there, I began to intentionally notice and appreciate things in nature, and felt a particular draw to the geese. I learned I could count on them to be in certain places at certain times. I gained the awareness that they had a schedule and routine just as I did. At certain times, many geese would arrive, some would sit on the pond, others on the path, or on the grass, some walking, some sitting. At other times, they would all be on the grass sitting, and at my favorite times, there would be just one goose on the pond without another in sight. Learning their routine and looking out for them, and seeing them where I knew they’d be brought me so much comfort. When I saw the geese, I’d stop in my tracks to take videos or pictures of them, but most often just to watch and pause for a breath. Watching the geese helped me get out of my head and into the moment. When I see the geese, it feels like coming home, like coming home to nature. This body of work includes 13 ceramic geese, 6 paintings
Thesis Abstract
This thesis explores how responding to nature through the arts can encourage presence and cultivate comfort. The goal of this thesis is to understand how elements of nature can promote feelings of comfort and well-being and how a creative practice of responding to those elements of nature can further encourage a sense of comfort through presence. Engaging with nature can provide feelings of belonging and promote a comforting connection to what is around us, which encourages feeling present in the moment. There is a grounding nature to creating art. When we use the arts as a tool to respond, it can help us gain a deeper understanding of our feelings, experiences, and of ourselves. In order to investigate how Nature, Comfort, and Art as Response support each other, a variety of materials were used, primarily: clay, acrylic paint, a camera, and an acoustic guitar. The procedure was conducted in two parts: first, the art experiments, and second, the final art. Art experiments consisted of going to the forest, beach, and pond to take photos, sing, play guitar, sketch, and watercolor. Final art consisted of creating paintings and ceramic geese. Future directions and limitations are discussed.