This October and November, I am participating with two other artists in the Terrain Biennial grassroots public arts festival (1st October 2023 to 15 November 2023).
We three have been in conversation over recent years, online and in person. For Terrain, we are hosting one another’s self-portraits, in the public-facing spaces that are in front of our homes. By hosting one another’s self-portraits, we are acknowledging that our conversations act as mirrors, and that the conversations and the connections we have made with one another hold meaning.
In recent months, we have been holding zoom calls where we have been making drawings together, led by Roz Moreton, and many of the self-portraits that are being shown were created during, or inspired by, those calls.
These recent years have felt like civilizational thresholds, as well as personal thresholds in each of our lives. Engaging with kindness, and being witnessed by each other, we have been able to move towards seeing ourselves with more clarity.
We are inspired by these words from Audre Lorde:
“The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives”.
Audre Lorde, Poetry is Not a Luxury (1977)
It is in the long work of self-scrutiny that we can find the deeper material of our dreams, our fears, our desires; and can see clearly our own pain, and within that pain our beauty. And through this work we are gathering courage, to find ways forward both in our work as artists, and in playing our part locally to bring about positive change in our communities.
The artists involved in “mirroring” are Roz Moreton, Jen Herzig Smith, and myself.
Self-portraits by Roz Moreton will be on view at 13 Furnace Terrace, Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, SA155AE, UK.
Roz Moreton is a Visual Artist living and working in Carmarthenshire. Her health issues including chronic migraines, Ehlers Danos Syndrome (EDS), and her neurodiversity influence how she approaches her creative practice. Exploring elements of the emotional and the physical, she observes, records and captures the human imprinting of our natural and man-made landscapes.
Website: rozmoreton.com
Instagram: @rozmoreton
Self-portraits by Jen Herzig Smith will be displayed on Morlan Terrace, Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, UK, SA16 0NG.
(You will find them on the outside of a garden wall, at the end of the street where it meets Woodbrook Terrace.)
Jen Smith:
“I live and work in the North East Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock on the ancestral and traditional lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva people. I create ink and art with plants and am mother to two beautiful boys. Over 30 years alongside my design profession, I’ve continued to create work in mixed media painting, installation, printmaking and bookmaking.
This artwork explores my deepening relationship with this land and our responsibility to cherish that which nourishes us.”
Website: www.jenherzigsmith.com
Instagram: @jenherzigsmith
My own self-portraits will be on display at 1631 Fair Park Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA.
(Find them in the narrow gap or alley, between two neighbouring gardens.)
sian barlow 