Connecting the rhythms of the land and the subtle bodies
This week we welcome Janet Morgan, whose art practice spans painting, public art, dance, environmental work, curation and children’s books. Among the themes of her painting are newly created deities, Body Temples, Wild Women, musicians and dancers. Morgan has painted and taught all over the world, from Antarctica to Kyrgyzstan. She has taught in New York City at the Rubin Museum and the Art Students League and upstate at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors and the Omega Institute.
She has been an artist-in-residence at Death Valley National Park, Weir Farm National Historic Site, the Babayan Culture House in Turkey and the Luminous Bodies Residency in Toronto. Morgan has exhibited in venues including the National Museum of Art of Kyrgyzstan, the Coney Island Museum, the Women in Power Conference, the Parliament of World Religions and Burning Man. She has curated exhibitions and created catalogs for the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) and Artfront Galleries in Newark.
In Janet’s words: “My artwork is grounded in the body, in the kinesthetic: in movement, music and dance — and in the subtle forces – the emotional, spiritual and healing energies. The quest to reveal the underlying energy source runs through all of my work — like the Sufis I find no separation between the divine and the body, the visible and the invisible. With feet on the ground, we can own ourselves and stand tall. Being in contact with our own energy helps us to be embodied.”
“And why is this important? We live in a time of much anger and violence, and communication is often disembodied. The disconnect between ourselves, our bodies and the natural world is causing serious problems. We need to come home to our bodies, our animal-ness, our human-ness, our body-temples. I worked for 18 years as an expressive arts therapist at Sloan Kettering with adult cancer patients, and I understand that there are times when it is advantageous to not be in our bodies. However, fully inhabiting our bodies gives us knowledge of ourselves and our home, with the opportunity for healing and connection.”
