I am currently moving away from this work in this form. Please check blog for more up to date activities.

The body remembers

I’m exploring stories from childhood, looking at nostalgia, memory and trauma. My interest is in how the body remembers. Inspired by the Book by van der Kolk, Bessel. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York, Penguin Books, 2015. Van der Kolk asserts your body will react much the same way as it it did when reminded of past events. Through thought exercises with trauma patients he has shown that heart rates will increase, language centers will be hijacked, fight or flight responses will be enacted along with other natural body defenses. This project started as a way for me to understand my interest in this subject as part of my Graduate Studies. It is has now become my practice.

I am writing stories from my past that include vivid memories that I feel shape who I am today. Some of them are happy, others sad, some are about sexual assaults and other traumas. These stories will be jumping off points for artworks. I am especially interested in the language of fibre arts and it’s relationship to the body and gender.