Fisherwoman; 2019 Handmade ink from burnt cow bones, gum acacia, and water, on handmade paper made from American English dictionary pages.
many bloods
rush through
one blood, unbounded
Mother, I have not
forgotten
you, I wear you
on my skin, my eyes
brown, turning browner
my frame your own un-
bounded
Mother, I have
chosen.
But all I am
that I am
is still, selves
flowing through
Drumbeats Beat Themselves Through Me
In 2022, I completed a Masters of Divinity from the Harvard Divinity School. My thesis explores the call to practice through the intellectual study of contemporary and traditional embodiment and healing practices.
Offerings; 2022 - 2026 Over the last seven years, the land has taught me how to make offerings; to recognize, acknowledge, give thanks for all she offers to me, and to us, and to offer to her in return. Slowly, I am learning, by trying and finding out, making mistakes, and discovering, how to offer, and to recognize when the offering has been received.
At the beginning of every season, I offer one of the first breads, and a part of the first celebratory meals, back to her.
Georgian Feast, Solstice and Equinox, 2023 A feast is one of the oldest rituals, hidden in plain sight. Breaking bread with all beings present. I have been cooking celebratory feasts since I was a teenager. As I learned to make land offerings, I gravitated to the earthy feasting traditions of my family, connecting with the animist current running through the seasonal feast. Eating, and eating together, remembering where nourishment comes from – a ritual that always is.
Bread gave me my hands. Bread gave me rhythm. Bread gave me relationship.
There are very old threads, archetypes, images, and spirits involved in the simple practice of baking bread. It evokes and reminds us of creation itself — a process that we live out in our bodies everyday, in every moment.
The first summer of making bread in a wood-fired oven, I called the project Bread Offering: Baking for Ishtar. My intention was to nourish creative fire within, through exploring the ancient but very present spirits of fire, fertility, and nourishment.
That same summer, Venus, a celestial representation of Ishtar, went retrograde, journeying to the Underworld, where she died, learned of death, and was brought back to life. She returned to the Above-world, changed. One morning, as I tended the fire, I raised my head and caught her rising above the oven as the Morning Star.
Photo credit: Celeste Sloman, 2025
