Entries from Carleton Students, Faculty, and Staff - Spring 2011
Find Your Center
Find Your Center
On the 2011 Studio Art Seminar in the South Pacific, my peers and I took advantage of every opportunity we could to engage with nature. The natural environment played a large role in our trip, as we spent hours each day drawing and painting directly from our surroundings, memorizing each curve and shadow of a tree or studying the movement of rippling waves, building an intimate relationship with every object we drew. Our interactions with nature didn’t stop there: if we weren’t drawing or painting, we were hiking, swimming, or even – as this picture shows – doing yoga on the beach. On this trip, I remember several moments when I felt like I had become *part* of nature. Going on solo hikes, swimming without clothes – even the experience of constantly swatting sand flies away from my body made me feel intricately connected to the natural environment. I found a part of myself that I didn’t know existed: a part that is connected to something bigger and cares passionately about preserving the natural beauty around us.
Location: Abel Tasman, New Zealand