Nature Dialogues: An Expressive Arts-Based Inquiry

This series is grounded in expressive arts research, focusing on sensing, relationality, and poiesis. The body of work emerged from walks near my home. I engaged in dialogue with nature and allowed it to move me. I touched bark, soil, and stone; followed scents carried by the wind; and observed light shifting over surfaces. I collected materials that attracted me, along with sensory memories of the encounter, and brought them to my studio. There, these experiences developed into visual artwork and creative writing.

At the heart of this research is pre-reflective perception: meeting the world before naming it, noticing how sensing and being sensed arise in a mutual exchange between my body, the materials, and the world around me. Letting the encounter become a form, and a way of knowing: How do I sense you?  How do you sense yourself?  These questions opened up relational and imaginative ways of meeting the work. Each exploration ended with a poetic response capturing the essence of the encounter.

My research examines three threads: the qualities of the pre-reflective self that appear through practice, the role of poiesis, and the multimodality of sensing.

Every artwork is a multi-layered encounter.

I meet my curiosity – an impulse to explore, to play, to question, and to discover.

I meet the material – an invitation to engage, to feel the texture, weight, sound, and movement. I reach toward it, and it reaches toward me. I touch you, you touch me, I touch myself through you.

I meet the flow greater than myself – a creative life force that takes us on a journey. And when I let go and listen, the direction reveals itself.

I meet myself in creating – my attractors and my resistance, revealing themselves to be seen, felt, and acknowledged.

I meet a sense of beauty and composition – a sense of what feels right, a rhythm, a balance, and a resonance uniquely ours in this moment.

I meet a surprise – an opening, the magic of what’s possible.

Our emergence is born – a living expression of this one-of-a-kind encounter.

The seeds fall from the stems, 

Drifting and sinking into the deep beneath the surface, 

Sowing new stories, where life pulses.

The stem no longer bears the weight –

It simply is. A serene and powerful presence,

Gently embraced by new forms that carry life and vitality.

My longings radiate with light and spread like hot lava.

The lines fracture and open, 

Inviting new adventures.

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Ready to slip through the opening and leave this cosy space behind,

I float upward, searching for a way out,

Not realising that the true passage is beneath me.

All I need is to soften, let go of the resistance that is holding me suspended.

Then I will slide effortlessly,

Gently guided by the tender brush of the leaves.

Their touch will lead me softly on my way.

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A wave-like movement stirs in my core –

Left, right, left, right,

Growing into

Forward and back, forward and back.

The motion carries me.

My arms stretch to the sky. 

My fingers spread wide.

I become a growing tree.

I lengthen, reaching a little higher with each movement,

Carried by the pulse of the wave that began in my core –

Left, right, left, right.

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Hands reach and stretch 

One moves softly like a wave,

Pulling my core, hips, and legs to join the motion.

My leg lifts, I lose balance, and almost tip.

I feel lightness – a tender force carrying me.

Unstuck and liberated,

I let go of the weight of experiences,

And ready to bloom into wild roses in the garden of life. 

My wings unfurl, freeing me from the cocoon. 

I fly into the clouds of my dreams – 

Dreams that have always been with me,

Waiting for the moment I take off the ground.

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My roots spread wide.

My lungs breathe in exchange with the world,

The touch of the air gently envelops and grounds me.

My inner currents burst forth,

Flowing in passionate dance along paths they discover.

I’ve accumulated so much intensity inside me, 

If I don’t let it out, 

I will slowly burn up from within.

Small sparks are already heating me up.

I long to stretch wider and open up, 

To allow the movement to continue, and

Pour out in its full expression.

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A self no longer hiding behind what it has outgrown. 

The skin that once served as a shield is peeling away, revealing a colourful world beneath. In some places, it has already outlived, and its shedding feels like liberation. This nakedness is fully alive: raw, burning, and highly sensitive. 

The old skin can be hard to let go of. It has always been there for you: familiar and protective. Yet if it is there for too long, it also becomes rigid and confining. Until the self is ready for the new, the old skin remains.

Both are beautiful: the bark, which holds experiences, strength, wounds, and fragility, and the life beneath, which holds essence, vessels, and its own unique pulse, truth, light, and darkness.

Experience and essence, protection and freedom coexist.  They share the same space of “I am.”

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Farewell to clothing, and welcome to nakedness.

What once pleased the eyes bursts

in a culmination of burning, bright yellow warmth.

Then falls away – to decay, to rot,

and to become nourishment for new life.

A gentle whisper, a crackling rustle beneath the feet,

The earthy scent, with its spicy, woody undertones, brushes against the senses.

I strip myself bare.

Everything that was hidden from the eyes is exposed.

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A fierce gut breaks free from the captivity of thoughts. Ache burns in the fire of life. Ashes smoulder and fade. The smoke whispers a bittersweet farewell, bowing in reverence and dissolving into the air.

Intensity travels through the veins. Warmth spreads with the blood within the heart. It envelops the inner organs, wakes them up, and strives to emerge from the surface and further into the world. Muscles flex and stretch, easing into the elasticity of movement.

Life unfolds with trembling in desire and radiant vitality.

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The space is clean, not in the sense of emptiness, but in its fullness.

Illusions, limitations, convictions have burned in lived experience, united, and become that experience.

Like white, a combination of all colours, this foundation holds everything in full.

Now gravity sows the seeds for something new.

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The relief in the death of form, and the beauty of it.

Burning and smoke, fading and deconstructing, liquids vaporising. Something that once was alive is dead now. Only the leaf veins remain, holding the structure together – the last reminder of what once lived.

As the shape that used to contain the being slowly disappears, the freedom of movement arrives. Whatever this form once held is now free – alchemised within, ready to move on in a stronger, more vital version. The form was a temporary home until it was time to leave and experience the freedom beyond it.

The form was never the source of beauty. The beauty was within. The beauty was in the essence. And when the essence departed, the form died. Beauty can only be felt – without that feeling, any visual representation is empty. Presence is beauty, and the presence of death is what makes it beautiful now.

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You are both your own shelter and your own fire. 

Both can save you, and both can destroy you. 

The fear of not knowing can trap you in your shelter, lost in a hostile solitude, where it feels like you are with yourself, and yet farther apart than ever. 

Or, it can drive you to burn yourself down in your own flames as you reach for the stars you never needed to reach. 

Let go of the need to know. 

You may not know, and yet see more clearly than ever before. 

You may shine, carrying the courage of a flame and the peace of home within you.

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Deep waters of love cradle the ripening seeds, nurturing new beginnings.

My whole being expands in aliveness, breathing fully in wonder.

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I smell of wood and dampness.

I feel the weight and moisture warm and soften my muscles.

The pull of the Earth, the reflection of the Moon, and the steam of Air move through me. I am decaying, yet still remember the joy of motion.

I sense my depth as I expand across the surface, surrendering to a widening quiet.

I exhale my last deep breath.

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Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts or comments.

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