Sapwood

The most immediate connection between you and nature is clothing. Though often subconsciously, you wear the Earth on your skin every single day. I chose to name this project after the part of the tree that is alive, Sapwood, because it reminds me of what it means to be human. We clothe ourselves in dead organic matter to protect our living bodies, like the bark of a tree concealing its live Sapwood. Trees are held up by the inert heartwood, like humans standing upon their skeletons. We stretch ourselves across communities, creating bonds not unlike those of trees within their mycelium networks. Put simply, the closer you look, the more similar we become. 

To instill this work with a sense of ecological joy, I collaborated with the plants as much as possible. The fabric of the dress is dyed with botanical extracts, saturated with color from madder root, purple logwood, and weld. The backdrop is overflowing with sword ferns, Western red cedar branches, and Oregon grape leaves–silhouetted on the fabric using sunlight through cyanotype printing. To me, these plants possess the familiarity of lifelong friends. Countless hours of my childhood were spent filling my pockets with Oregon grape berries, scraping the spores off the undersides of fern leaves with my sister, and laying cedar branches over our makeshift log bridge to cross the creek by our home. 

If all environmental art was created to provide proof of the Earth’s distress, we would become prone to unwittingly accepting our “fate” that it is too late to save our planet. Sapwood is a reminder of our connection to nature, and an invitation to reflect on the honor it is to have a role within it. My personal ecosystem lives in every inch of this piece, but I would imagine yours does too. Do any of the colors have significance to you? Any of the plants? How do you offer gratitude to the delicate Sapwood which lives within us all?