Desahogamiento, literally translated as “the act or process of undrowning,” has always been with me. I grew up hearing this word from my mother who believed in grieving as medicine. She would describe desahogamiento as the self-directed, embodied “grief work” which makes healing possible. But it wasn’t until reading “Woman Who Glows in the Dark” by curandera Elena Avila that I learned desahogamiento is a literal healing technique within curanderismo, or Mexican folk medicine. My practice is centered in the union of intuitive ways of knowing(particularly dreamwork and storytelling), our changing climate realities, and the role of art as a somatic healing technology. In this, my paintings manifest from the act of undrowning.
I am interested in the study of ecopsychology, the idea that our bodies (including unconscious aspects of the psyche) are sensitive to the transitions of the biosphere; somatic ecology, the theory connecting our relationship to our bodies to the environmental crisis; and what Gloria Anzaldúa termed “La Facultad: an intuitive form of knowledge that includes but goes beyond logical thought and empirical analysis.” These narratives are moving, urgently, to the forefront for a generation of artists concerned with realigning nature-culture relationships and reframing dominant narratives surrounding bodies of color, indigenous lands, and the cultural impact on both.
