In the Roots of Wise Women
Self-portrait with my grandmother, Michel, with Goldenrod and Violet
In the Roots of Wise Women
by Shauna Caldwell
Being an Appalachian woman, artist, and herbalist, I am committed to honoring the women in my community. In setting out to create this work, I knew the project would have an interdisciplinary approach as I wanted it to be collaborative and to showcase the multi-faceted experiences of the women involved. The women in this series have an intimate connection to the land and a beautiful and poetic way of communicating through plants and herbal medicine.
As I began this project, I asked each person to think about what a portrait of themselves should look like and to take me to the place where they wanted to be photographed. I also asked them to bring along a plant they felt most connected to or had a story about. When we arrived at the various sitting rocks, flower farms, or bramble patches, we made their portrait, and I made a lumen print of the plant-- using an alternative photographic process which utilizes silver gelatin paper and sunlight. As often as I could, I exposed the lumen print as the digital portrait was being made, thus grounding the work deeply to that particular place. I then asked each woman to compose an introspective piece of writing to give voice to her portrait. These three components create the archive of a time spent sharing, making, and dreaming together in these mountains we call home.
Through this work, I want to express my gratitude for these inspirational women while deepening my relationship with the soft and quiet wisdom of plants. My intention for this ongoing series is to create images in collaboration with my mentors, teachers, and elders because they have their own histories, their own stories, and a connection to the Earth that we need right now.
Funnily enough, I was spending some time in the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University last fall and was chatting about my current research with the staff. As I shared about how I worked, in broad strokes, with women and plants, someone who knew the collection very well, and regularly helped folks locate resources for their research, started telling me about this artist whose book he had seen in a show the previous year. Soon, we figured out he was describing my own work to me-- turns out, he frequently suggested acquisitions for the collection. While I never intended for this small but mighty little series to have a life inside the special collections of a library, the university purchased the gallery copy of the artist book to be used by students and other researchers.
Shauna Caldwell is an artist from Boone, NC. She received BFAs in both Studio Art and Art Education. In addition to working as Assistant Director of Arts Education and Outreach at Appalachian State University, she is currently pursuing a MA in Appalachian Studies. Her roots in Appalachia and relationship with the environment shape her creative work. She uses artistic processes that connect her to her home, such as making paper and photographic emulsions with local plants, to discuss themes of sacred relationships and transformation.