Ceremonialist
Ceremonialist art is a branch of performance art in which the artist engages in meaning-making through symbolic actions.
For me, ceremonialist art is performance, but not performative. As a ceremonialist artist, ritual and ceremony (words I use interchangeably) are how I make sense of the world. It is at once an artistic practice, a spiritual practice and a catharsis.
This work takes many forms--burning paper or herbs, gathering stones, washing hands, tying string. This work allows me to process complex emotions and intersecting realities. While this work can be considered a type of performance, it is not created for an audience--whether performed alone or in a group setting, it is deeply personal and transformational.
Ritual is ephemeral—it is moments in time—and these moments at the intersection of artistic expression, spirituality and meaning-making are the focus of my ceremonialist art practice.
Digital Collage
I have recently been responding to the ephemerality of ceremonialist work as artform by being more intentional to document these moments in time through photography.
I subsequently combine these captured moments using digital tools like Photoshop and FotoDa resulting in digital collage. This process involves carefully selecting photographs from my ritual practice and layering these images with varying opacity, saturation, contrast, etc. until the resulting layered image resonates with the same feelings and emotion that I experienced during the ritual.
This digital post-processing has proven to serve as an exercise in experiential post-processing, helping me to visually see these moments in time as an expression of a singular experience. Processing both photographs and experience through the creation of digital collage allows me to reflect upon personal and shared ritual by bringing awareness to the relationships between the ephemeral and the tangible.
Sculptural Ephemera
My ceremonialist practice is rooted in relationship with place and nature often serves as my studio. While spending time outdoors, I gather natural objects like shells, driftwood, stones, and feathers, appreciating the beautiful imperfections hard-won of being of and from the Earth. In doing so, I am reminded to appreciate and honor my own imperfection and that of those my life intersects with.
I feel drawn to create dialogues between these elements and human-made items like beads, jewelry, and mirrors. I will sometimes incorporate pieces of jewelry that have been gifted to me by friends or family, sometimes ancestors. The integration of natural elements and artifacts of human connection creates a synergy that allows for complex meaning-making to emerge in each piece.
We All Come from the Goddess
Driftwood, Mirror, Garnet and Glass Beads, Metal Chain and Findings
2025