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In honor of Earth Day last week, I spent some quality time with my favorite nearby trees. Magnolia, Sequoia, Oak, and Sycamore. I find inspiration thinking about hundreds-of-year old trees weathering every storm life delivers. When my own life (and the world around me) feels unsteady, I find it supportive to imagine myself as a deeply rooted tree with flexible, swaying branches - resiliently returning to stillness once the storm passes. In praise of trees and all the rest of Mother Earth's bounty, I offer you a poem below.
Singing Praises to the Roots To all the trees, bushes, and grasses I bow down at your trunks and stems to sing my praises to your roots Never before have I listened so deeply to your wisdom received such nourishment from your beauty and noticed your stunning details ever-changing with the seasons I used to think an oak was an oak and a maple was a maple oh what a narrow and limited view I see you, finally, for who you are awake to your infinite brilliance and elegant diversity You leave me in awe and delight when I pause and truly take you in and heartbroken by the loss of so many of your kin You are bringer of joy, and survivor May we all continue to feed our resilience in this time of many storms! For more poems and altars, please join me on Instagram or Facebook.
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 When's the last time you let yourself play? Could you use some more inspiration, comfort, and nurturing in your life? Do you want to make time and space for play, creativity, and experience being-in-the-moment but feel hesitant or shy to do it alone? Sometimes beginning is the toughest challenge of all. I want to support you in tending to your inner callings, the ones that you may have been putting on the back burner for too long now.
I will guide you on how to connect with nature and the spirit of play and curiosity in order to tap into the sacred creativity that already exists within you. No previous art experience is required! Join us virtually no matter where you are, and be a part of a community of people who appreciate the connection to beauty both within oneself and in the natural world around them. Description and details are below and you can register here. Half-price scholarship tuition available if needed - use this link. Sacred Creativity - Exploring Self & Surroundings through Writing & Earth Altars Virtual Playshop (both online and out in the world) Sunday, May 16, 2021 10-2 Pacific, 12-4 Central, 1-5 Eastern $88 Regular Price ($44 half-price scholarship available) Beauty is Medicine. Nature Heals. In this playshop, we will deepen our creativity and connection to the natural environment where we live. Through simple meditations and writing prompts, we will begin an exploration of our relationship to creativity and nature. Then, we will go outside to gather up bits and pieces of the natural world and create our own impermanent nature art - an Earth Altar. We will come back together to reflect on the process and share our creations (if desired). Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how they may expand creative expression and connection with nature ongoingly. This playshop will begin and end online, but the heart of the experience will be outdoors, where you will wander in your environment and create your own Earth Altar. Register Here (Half-price scholarship tuition available if needed - use this link.)
 Asian American women are facing increasing levels of racist violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, spurred by fear and misinformation. Our culture normalizes harm against low-income and working-class women, immigrants, massage workers and sex workers of color. In the last year, nearly 4,000 anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported in the AAPI Hate National Report - the majority against women. We all have a role to play to stand up for Asian women, #StopAsianHate and #UpliftAsianArtists.
As an act of solidarity with the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) artist community, Earth Altars will be donating 25% of profits from online sales to a non-profit organization called Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWA) during the month of April 2021. AAWAA was founded in 1989 in San Francisco to promote the visibility of Asian American women artists. Since then, AAWAA has been a home for artists, social justice organizers, academics, and volunteers dedicated to advancing the visibility and recognition of Asian American women in the arts. AAWAA offers exhibitions, publications, public programs and a super informative website. Just a few days after the horrific murder of 6 Asian American women in Georgia in March 2021, I attended a beautiful and inspiring event called Illuminate - featuring performances from a number of super-talented Asian American poets and writers. AAWAA hosted this event and this is how I learned about their work. Learn more about AAWA’s Membership platform, their amazing virtual events, programs and speakers bureau, and how to get involved and support at their website: https://www.aawaa.net/ Upcoming for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, AAWAA and Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) in San Francisco are teaming up to co-present SOWING AGENCY: Seeding the Future of Environmental Justice, a multidisciplinary exhibition inspired by the fight for environmental justice, activating AAPI communities to engage in the issues of today’s climate crisis while working to realign our relationships with the Earth and highlighting collective leadership by BIPOC communities. On view at SOMArts Cultural Center and online April 30 through May 23. The exhibition features a number of artistic disciplines that work to realign our relationships with the Earth and highlight collective leadership. With the show’s broad coalition of community partners, Sowing Agency weaves local and global climate resistance into our cultural consciousness and reflects on the grief and resiliency rooted in “seeding the future.” AAWAA says: “This show is birthed from our deep frustration and grief at the impact of climate change on the API community both in the SF Bay Area and globally.” Ready to learn more and take action? “Over the past year, our communities have had to face an increase in racist, xenophobic and violent attacks. Rising against these cycles of hate, art has the potential to make people feel seen, inspiring avenues toward empathy, healing and empowerment. At AAWAA, we provide safe spaces and opportunities for Asian American women artists to speak out through creativity and expression. Uplifting art by Asian American women is one step toward the social change we all envision of cultivating equity in the arts.” (AAWAA website) Anti-Asian Violence Resources AAWAA’s Resource List  This altar is titled Simple Beauty and was created in Ashland last summer. It features a zinnia bloom, surrounded by alstroemeria petals and hops! The flowers were part of a bouquet gifted to me by my friend Marga Laube. The flowers were grown and arranged by Fry Family Farms. The hops are from a tree in my neighborhood. I love their shape and color and didn't know they were hops until I snapped a photo and looked it up online. I am loving learning the names of things that draw my eye - and it's extra fun when I discover that I know a name like "hops" but have no idea what hops looks like growing on a tree! Typically, when I create an Earth Altar outdoors, I leave it there so that nature can take its course. If I'm in a public place, I also love knowing that it could delight passers-by with a little dose of unexpected beauty. Also, I'm usually in a meditative space - not listening to a podcast or talking with anybody. Simply being present with the earth and the precious bits of her bounty that I'm placing on the ground. With this design, however, I was in fact talking on the phone with a friend who was feeling stuck around a difficult situation. I was offering reflection and encouragement for seeing many possibilities - multiple ways to get unstuck. Spontaneously, without really thinking about it, I began placing the flowers in a variety of patterns. I would take a photo and then re-arrange the pieces again in a new design. After we got off the phone, I sent her a collage of 9 different designs created with the same few flowers. I love the simplicity of Simple Beauty - thus the name. And I love the kaleidoscope nature of the "Possibility Series."  Possibility Series
Same few flowers, arranged in multiple designs. The Simple Beauty Earth Altar is available as a 12x12 square canvas print, a 16x20 canvas print, and greetings cards through my online shop. Through April 15th, all Simple Beauty items are 25% off!  This altar is titled SPRING and was created in Ashland in the spring of 2020. It was one of my earliest designs. It features peony flower and petals, snapdragons, statice, arbutus berries, rose petals, green almonds, grasses, and catkins.
Throughout the season of blooming in 2020, my dear friend Nina would drop jars of flowers and greens on my porch - clipped from her abundant gardens. The centerpiece of this earth altar is a gorgeous pink peony that was part of a birthday bouquet from Nina. The green fuzzy things around the border are almonds! I found these on the ground on a walk and was drawn in by their color and shape - I had never before seen what almonds look like wearing their protective green coats. While I'm not typically drawn to pastels, I found myself entering the gentle world of these soft colors. As I worked outward from the centerpiece, I felt both soothed and energized.  A Network for Grateful Living invited me to write a blog post for their website. If you don't know their work - please check out Gratefulness.org. It's a wealth of resources for grateful living.
I write about how I got started creating Earth Altars, how the practice has changed my life, and how you can dive in and create your own earth altars. |
AuthorI love playing with words and things in nature to create impermanent nature art (earth altars) and poems. This blog is a place to share. I post more regularly on Instagram & Facebook - @lauraloescher.art. Archives
April 2022
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