gather hold enter

you are welcomed here

this is a digital expression of a 3 part performance-ceremony series.

click here to view interior presences.

~gather hold enter~

together, we gathered and weaved and tied these long grasses to eachother and to ourselves – for 33 minutes as the sun set. where do we begin? where do we end?  what forms arise of our belonging to ourselves and to the land and to eachother?

we were held by and we moved with the braided forms created in the land. i noticed the first baby apple on this beloved apple tree. i had to tell you! we were together.

when is release and loss and death an act of entry? how do we begin again? we cut the grasses. we said goodbye to what had been birthed. we entered the unknown — together — for 33 minutes as the sun set.

i am so very grateful to each person who joined me in this, and to you for your presence here.

i opened and closed each 33 minute performance series with a reading from DUB: Finding Ceremony by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. this text has been a potent guide in the creation of this series. click here to read the words which held us as we moved into and out of these circles of togetherness in time.

Multnomah and Chinook and Kathlamet and Wasco and Cowlitz and Clackamas and Molalla and Tualatin and Kalapuya. these are the of the names that i know, of those who create and have created life on this land. i feel the loss of those whose names and ways i may never get to learn of or from or with.

thanks you for exploring this offering.

as i deepen into my vocation as an artist, i am in a discovery process. how can i continue to follow the path of offering and learning, and being, and sharing, and creating — in this world — in my ways? the creation of this series was a labor. it was a birthing and it was a dying away.

do you have ideas? connections? models? resources to offer ?

i sense that the resources are out there to support and nourish my process and my offerings. i am open to all kinds of support and companionship on this! please reach out to me via email: araoshinartlife@gmail.com.

<3 ara