Barbara Clark Interview
WOMXN | NATURE Stories of Rematriation
One of the most tender interviews in this art series was with my mother Barbara Clark. I am so appreciative to her for being willing to be a part of this series. She shaped me as a womxn and my connection to Nature and the Earth. It was a powerful opportunity to ask her questions about her history, and experience as a woman, as well as, my matrilineal line. We also explored the work she does tending and building soil on her land, and her approach to gardening and sustainability.
OUR INTERVIEW
Stories Of Rematriation Art
The Truth Be Told ~ You Cannot Improve on Nature
36x36" (Acrylic on Birch Wood)
This piece is about my mother's connection to the land she tends. One of her primary focuses in her garden is building healthy natural soil and replenishing the land, instead of taking from it. We also spoke at length in our interview about motherhood, parenting, and childhood, and the parallels between those and within Nature. I see in this piece my mother as a child, held by the greatest Mother, Mother Nature.
Quotes from our interview:
"Healing the land means for me not to grab or take more, in my garden I don't push it. All I'm doing is building soil and healing the Earth in a very gentle way. Just observing Nature you can learn everything, all the highest teachings are in the rhythms and in the way Nature and every system naturally balances itself. And you can learn that, it's all cycles, every day the sun rises and it is continuous."
"I think where humanity errs the most, is actually not looking enough to Nature and how Nature does it. I would always say you can't improve on Nature, Nature is brilliant. And somehow we think we would make it better by controlling it, I think we would have to learn from it. Because Nature will affect all, we are all interconnected and we cannot think I can profit at the detriment or at the cost of someone else."
"When I think of the oceans filled with plastic, how can we do that? That's our mother and we are trashing our mother and then thinking we can live healthily in her. It makes me cry, to just think of it." ~Barbara Clark