Birth of the World 4

11.13 x 14.88 inches.

Collage with Screenprint and Linoleum Block Elements on Cotton Rag Paper

2023

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Birth of the World is a new series of collages about pleasure and my human body. Colonization forces the human body into a small box, but the human body is an expansive and mysterious container. I am on a journey of re-wilding my relationship to my body and moving into integrity with the natural world around me. As part of that practice, I use my body and my art to unlearn negative messages that don’t serve me, so that I may embrace the wild and natural aspect of my being.  I am fascinated by my body and all it can do. 

“Being a primate growing up under the influences of patriarchy and colonization; we have become domesticated primates. Our sexuality is deeply under the influence of domestication. The ways in which we perceive and experience sexuality and pleasure as inherently suspect and dangerous are mostly the result of our domestication. We just assume that sex is inherently dangerous; misogynistic, male centered, immoral, pathological, out of control by nature. “ - explains Victor Warring @bonobo_man

My “job” as an artist is to celebrate my bodily autonomy, to ignore dominant ideas that attempt to shame me for being wild and free, to reclaim my body and participate in joy which is my birth right. AND to be powerful from a place where I can be my fully expressed self and therefore trust my body’s wisdom.

Body art it’s one of my favorite forms of art and something I’ve been doing for the last 3 years in collaboration with my friend @bobbygordonphoto . I feel honored to use my body in my artistic expression. When we are feral we can more easily tap into nature’s wisdom, and shift ideas about pleasure and how we express it.