Coming Into My Own . . . Again

I start this blog off with this photo because it's my room at the GRUB Cooperative before I packed for my trip to Taos, New Mexico. It's a perfect image to begin with because it all starts with intention and working with energy. The layout of this space was arranged to flow with Feng Shui principles, and the mirror reflects what I desire to attract and create in my life. Working with energy and design, organization, structure and texture are major influences and mediums in my day-to-day life, as they are too exquisite drives behind my will to create and the "hows" of my lifestyle.


This blog is the sharing, exploration, and processing of my return to the southwest - which is all about lifestyle. But first, every story has a backstory. Growing up on an island in the Puget Sound, I have a great love for adventure and the environment (the one not constructed by humans). As a small child I refused going to church because the story didn't make a lick of logical sense. To make things worse for my parents, I told them if I were to choose any form of path, it would be of the earth. Therefore, my parents now had a four year old pagan on their hands. Coming into my adolescent years, I began experiencing great pain, anxiety and depression about the environmental devastation happening around the world so I started trying out some action-oriented approaches. Some of which included diving into organic food, becoming political about food and commodity chains. Needless to say I wasn't the average 13 year old girl.


One of my neighbors, Mr. Schlosser, was a middle school science teacher. He made a huge impact in my life, not only because my dad built his cabinets, or because he kept bees, but because he blew my mind talking about sustainability. He taught me about capturing energy from the sun and the wind. It was a no-brainer super logical way to live. I built a solar oven in the seventh grade and in that moment, I knew that when I was ready to have my own home, it would be south facing and designed in such a way to harness the ceaseless friendships around me. I just didn't know when it would happen or how.


Having my mind blown numerous times since then in regards to innovative ways people I have met in my travels have decided to live and build, it has intensified my desire to learn how to build a radically sustainable structure. This is why I'm setting off to study with architect Mike Reynolds - to become a specialist in Biotecture - to build Earthships.


I started this entry off with an image to demonstrate how I live my life and set up my space by working with intention and energy. My high school art teacher, Ms. Quo, was the first person to speak with me about energy, Tai Chi, Feng Shui and so on. It made a major impression on me and my life has not been the same since. These two mentors, were catalysts in the next level of my environmental activism and pagan ways. Mr. Schlosser, Ms. Quo and I shared these conversations between 1988-1995. I had no idea these conversations would be foundational in the woman I would become or things I would do. Ms. Quo also introduced me to texture. Energy and Texture.


Returning to the southwest after being gone for 10 years, I know - from a molecular place of knowing - that I am returning to an ancient and sacred place. A place where the first humans on this continent lived intimately with their environment, where they obtained a massive savings account of knowledge. Place-based knowledge. Their identity and survival was based on trial and error, learning which plants could be eaten, which could be used to heal with, and where water would be flowing and when. Their cosmology is rooted in energy, respecting the life around them and awesome forces they exist within, and a deep respect and reverence for the Unknown of the great Mystery. This reverence was utilized in their architecture, and can still be seen in many pueblos today. The southwest is scattered with ruins, pottery shards, and texture.


I know my sabbatical to Taos has been influenced by many people and experiences, but when thinking about where it all began, I feel I must show my deep gratitude for Mr. Sclosser and Ms. Quo. The way I live my life, how I want to deepen my arts, and the things I intend to do next are because these two eccentric people inspired me and blew my mind and encouraged me to think for myself and to be radically self-reliant.


My intentions returning to Chico after Taos, are to have an art installation to visually and viscerally express my evolution of expressing my understanding of texture, structure, energy, and science. Learning how to build Earthships and the systems inherently designed within is going to be a quintessential part of completing this series. So to wrap this one up folks (thanks so much for sticking this out and reading), I was a social outcast and had a hell of a time fitting in. Luckily, I had an amazing man and woman mentor me in energy, sacredness, art, and science. Moreover, I am lucky that my parents did not send me off to boarding school when I told them I wanted to worship the earth and energies I can't see or fully understand. Because of these beginnings, I have been on a self-reliant path for a very, very long time. I'm so blessed to be back in the sacred desert, where I first came into my own, as a woman, and now, I come into my own once again, but this time, as an artist.