Every love in action empathy card design begins with one of my photographs, a moment in the natural world that stayed with me, which I then transform into the artwork on the cards. Each set uses a single image, with color shifting from card to card to reflect the changes that unfold over the course of a season.
My work is rooted in spiritual ecology, the understanding that we are not separate from the living world but part of it, and that the land has much to teach us about how to care for one another.
For a collection about caregiving, it felt right to turn to the forest.
redwood cathedral comes from a photo I took at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve outside Guerneville, California, on the ancestral lands of the Kashaya and Southern Pomo peoples. The oldest tree in the reserve is estimated to be more than 1,400 years old.
Standing among them, I remember being in awe of their size, and thinking about everything they had witnessed before I arrived and all they would continue to witness long after I'm gone. It gave me perspective. Redwoods often grow in circles, new trees rising from the roots of an older one, each standing on its own while sharing what lies beneath the ground.
When caregiving narrows our view to what's directly in front of us, the redwoods are a reminder that no tree lives apart from the life around it, and that we, too, can lean on those rooted around us.
crowns in the sky was taken in Whistler, British Columbia, on the shared, unceded territory of the Squamish and Lil'wat Nations, along the trails behind the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre.
I was there facilitating a circle on resilience and community care for a group of First Nations people working with survivors of the residential school system and families of those harmed by it. Part of our time together included a silent hike. The conversations in the room had been heavy, and when I looked up through a clearing and saw the blue sky between the treetops, it felt like breath.
When caregiving narrows our view to what's directly in front of us, nature reminds us that no tree lives apart from the life around it, and that we, too, can lean on those rooted around us.
seasons of caregiving launches on november 1.