Art: ~ M Y : M O T O N U I ~
Seaglass and ink on driftwood (2020)
This piece is inspired by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 voyage with the Kon Tiki raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to Rapa Nui/Easter Island. Thousands of years before Moana, Motu Nui was the home to the world's first great navigators, able to find their way solely by the constellations of the stars and the currents and temperatures of the water. The Polynesian islanders used sophisticated wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition from master to student, often in the form of song.
This is a tribute to all explorers of inner and outer waters, and the adventurous spirit of the child, with the curiosity and determination to find out what lies beyond the vast horizons.. The outer journey also represents the inner search for HOME, our deepest source of love and belonging – as put by Heyerdahl: “You will find paradise in your own heart”.
This piece began appearing in 2006, on a voyage from Madeira to the Canary Islands. The pieces of polished sea glass are collected from all over the world ~ from the shores of Lebanon, Scotland, Fuerteventura, Ula, Brazil, Japan, France, Morocco.. The driftwood was found in Viksfjord, Norway, and has been with me on my travels for many years, functioning as an altar-piece, drawing board and bedside table. The unified image holds the fragmented pieces of my own heroine’s journey and heart, finally coming together in a natural expression of wholeness and ethereal beauty..
Which compass are you navigating your inner waters with?
・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
‘Wash it Away’ 2020 - Art of Alice X Norwegian Sage
Female artists come together in the Moroccan coastal village of Tamraght to raise awareness of clean oceans and a clean conscience.
Female artists come together in the Moroccan coastal village of Tamraght to raise awareness of clean oceans and a clean conscience. The mural ‘Wash it Away’ is a tribute to the oceans of mind, body and spirit - and the fine balance of natural equilibrium. Avid environmentalists, Caroline Hargreaves (Norwegian Sage) and Alice Linford (Art by Alice) are also well travelled and have witnessed the destructive effects of pollution on our inner and outer nature - from the shores our global seas to the shores of our psyche and following experience of reality.
The artists hope that the mural will inspire more people to make active choices that care for - and honour nature’s flow. The imagery encourages the audience to open their eyes to the beauty and delicate interplay between aquatic life and human consciousness. Moroccan berber and islamic symbolism is woven together with eastern mantras and mandalas - honouring the deep-rooted wisdom of local culture and the inherent power of the yogic path.
“The mural came to life and 'spiralled to the surface’ short after my first meeting with Alice. I never seize to be surprised by the spontaneous ways of uninterrupted creative spirit and the blending-together of our human brush strokes.” - Caroline
The piece measured 8x4 metres, took 60 hours to complete. It is located on the upper terrace of Bagus Surf Camp, a local and authentic gem in Tamraght Village - home to a growing community of creatives and wanderers. Bagus offers unique yoga and surf immersions in the ocean and deserts realms of the Southern Moroccan coast.
Quoting the song that inspired the title - ‘Wash it Away’ by Nakho and Medicine for the People:
“Holy holy grandmother, we sing
Wash us clean of our pain and suffering
Give us strength for our new beginnings
From my deepest grace I sing
Wash away, it will wash away
Lift 'em up.”
Caroline Hargreaves - Norwegian Sage /@norwegiansage
Alice Linford Forte - The Art of Alice /@artofalice
Harvest Project - Source ‘R Us Art Exhibition
In November 2019, I held my first exhibition, co-created with three other talented artists and friends. For me, the exhibition became the manifested creation and culmination of my own heroine’s journey and ‘dark night of the soul’ - having begun as early as in 2009 and come together in a mosaic of healing arts. During the past decade, I had received notebooks upon notebooks of poetry, songs and imagery, symbolic mandalas and archetypal illustrations - so when the final practicum of forest therapy training with Association for Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) included a ‘harvest project’, it felt natural to weave all the strings together in a shimmering tapestry of impressions from my own Source.
The Harvest Project became a journey to wholeness and a deep healing of my core wounds. While ecstatically roaming the forests of my childhood in newfound joy and wonder, my own paintings were made with a set of watercolours I got for my 9th birthday, and I painted them all in my cabin in Ula, Norway. The exhibition also included a market where I could display natural remedies and gift cards for forest therapy walks.
2019 became the year I began harvesting medicinal plants that opened for me on walks along the nordic coastline, forests, roads and mountains. I make them, but they also make me.. Through the dialogue with the plants, I have restored a deeper connection with my inner and outer nature and learned to listen to my body and the symbiosis that is created in the meeting with the essence and life force of the wild plants.. Their beings reveal themselves to me when I am in flow with my organic surroundings, often during or after forest bathing. Each wild plant has a biological and psychological effect on the mind and body, and infuse our organisms with source codes of wholeness.. This year, I have made tinctures of Mugwort, Rose Root, Dandelion Root and Chaga - infused with amethyst and rose quartz.. Together, the tinctures make up a nordic medicine-kit that keeps me healthy, radiant and flowing through winter.
With its core focus on deep embodiment and rooted experience, the practice of forest therapy has revealed my innermost essence and medicine, and re-attuned me to my senses, the power of council and the dialogue between my inner and outer nature. From an eagle’s view, it seems that ‘rising rooted’ is not only possible, but a golden key to navigating and mitigating the core challenges of today’s planetary challenges - leading to my next journey - regenerative leadership.
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The exhibition Source ‘R Us is a tribute to the sparkling light of the divine child; a result of the union of the masculine and feminine principles inside us. To our family, to our friends, to artistic rebellion and poetic wordplay. To letting go of expectations. To the unfolding of the world we want to live in - through each stroke of the brush and each act of compassionate co-creation. To innocent play and deep remembrance. And most of all a visual and sensory celebration of unconditional love, seen through the eyes and hands of the childlike soul.
We come together to evoke balance between primal wildness and healthy boundaries, the nourishing of our community with soft vulnerability over forced pressure, and to be seen in wholeness - honouring the individual and collective quest of doing the best we can with what we have. For after all, we all come from the same Source.
〜 WEB OF INTERBEING 〜
If we truly know in our hearts that what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves - and what we do to ourselves we do to the Earth - we would think very carefully of the consequence of each action, each word and gesture, each thought.
The beings of my garden are all connected in a great web of spirit and matter. We depend on each other for co-creating sacred harmony. With bare feet in wet grass, the divine child walks in innocent all-knowing. All-being. All-seeing. All-receiving. The cycles of Earth turn and spin, leaving traces of stardust carbon. We are One. Each breath, each heartbeat, each seed. Each weed. Curandera. Kurere. Cure - Our Collective Essence. Web of Indra, Our Innernet. Let Nature's organic wholeness be thy medicine. Come, come to my garden. Let the dragonflies dance in the holy fractals of life. We can co-exist in unity and ecstatic song. It smells of rain where I am. What weaves you closer to nature today?
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"Just as every person is within me, bound to me in interbeing, so is all of Nature. Nature is our 'larger self.' All our environmental problems stem from the illusion that there is a basic difference between the human self and nature. Once we see through this illusion, we extend our compassion to every other living being. We respond immediately, in the present moment, to suffering anywhere in Nature. But we understand that suffering anywhere is our own suffering. So we must also take care of nature to ease our own suffering.
If we truly know in our hearts that what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves - and what we do to ourselves we do to the Earth - we would think very carefully of the consequence of each action, each word and gesture, each thought. We would think and see beyond our immediate needs and desires, and see how our lives affect the seventh generation. We would be gentle with ourselves, and with our planet for the wonder and love of life we would feel as we realize the miracle and magnitude of our creation. We would love the planet as ourselves."
Painting: Norwegian Sage, Practicum assignment for Shinrin-Yoku.org / Association for Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT)
Work in progress (2017)
As I started going deeper into myself, I also developed a deeper sensitivity to the external world. The vibrations in the food I was eating, the feeling and sensation of my clothes, the quality of my relationships. As if I was accessing the whole story of every single thing - and impression of my surroundings, tracing its energy from creation to its current state. I have had this sensitivity my whole life, but learning to live and rest more deeply in my own presence allowed me to channel it instead of reacting to it.
The time devoted to meditation practices opens a space for insight into the inner constellations and currents which constitute my being. In this light, I am learning to access blockages in the charged flow of nowness, techniques to accelerate their re-solution. Using sensitivity to fine-tune and calibrate the inner compass. Anxiety and insecurity became positive forces, leading me to fully understand the changes I need to make in my life in order to spiral forward. I became more resilient to other people’s energy. My food sensitivities slowly eased, and I learned how to organise my environment so that energy would flow more freely. I am still (in) the process.
In the teachings of Tibet’s age-old warrior culture, Shambala, they call it ‘invoking drala’, using your sensitivity to raise a sense of the sacred oneness in your everyday ecology, paying attention to the ‘life’ in your systems, whether it is about food, household, clothing or your own body and mind, or any other aspect of your reality. I am learning that sensitivity is a strength, and that learning to master it is an art which not only leads to a profound sense of gratitude but allows me to experience each passing moment facing the radiance of the Great Eastern Sun.