Art & Ecology
On Presence
With Sarah Gillespie
Published by The Letter Press April 2019; reprinted October 2019
“After a period of settling, several hours into the drawing, I find myself becoming absent. The presence of the tree, or the nest, or the light on the water, whatever it is I am making a study of, comes up and towards me.”
“My visit to the orchard is an everyday ritual. It has no practical purpose. Nothing special, and yet immensely special. For I am part of the orchard, and the orchard is part of me.”
On Sentience
With Sarah Gillespie
Published by The Letter Press in 2021
"An early morning mist hung low over the meadows, the air was fresh, with birdsong all around; but beyond that, almost subliminally and certainly not open to clear description, I felt the Earth herself gently beating”
“Without a godhead our art will only go as far and as deep as our love goes — love that embraces loss and wounding as well as beauty.”
The writing and drawing in this booklet draw directly on our explicit and implicit adoption of this perspective. If we open ourselves, if we call, the world will respond. The place of art is to foreground this perspective.
On Sentience draws together writing and drawing reflecting on the living presence of the world, a world experienced not as a collection of inanimate objects but as a community of life we can encounter and of which