Tethered

We are bound by the earth because we are of the earth. And although we try to shut it out, we seem to keep wanting to return.

In Sexual Personae Camille Paglia discusses Dionysius as it correlates to female sexuality. “Dionysian liquidity is the invisible sea of organic life, flooding our cells and uniting us to plants and animals.” This idea resonates with me.

In my experience, even as a child, I felt connected to the elements. I felt like I belonged to the wind, the trees, the dirt and there was always a yearning to abandon myself to it. Prudence begs us to curb this desire and so the denial of instinct in our society is pervasive.

There is not just this romantic oneness with nature, but also a very dark feature of women’s sexuality. There is a horror, a deadly and grotesque reality that we can’t escape. We are attached. “The fatty female body is a sponge. At peak menstrual and natal moments, it is locked passively in place, suffering wave after wave of Dionysian power.” (Sexual Personae) Out of our bodies are birthed more bodies. Blood, flesh, and ooze drip from us, are pushed from us, and rot with us.

My work revolves around these varying qualities of sexuality, even my poetry.

Recently I wanted to start creating photos based on ideas I had exploring sexuality. I’ve worked with my husband Grant with his nude photography for two decades and he is shooting these images with me. We planned it out, sketched it out and shot it. Here is one of the images that we did.