Sense of Place Turns Four: Reflections on an Ecofeminist Art Journey in Northern New Mexico

This summer marks the four-year anniversary of Sense of Place, my ongoing ecological art project rooted in the layered terrain and history of Northern New Mexico. In 2021, I began by gathering discarded materials from the land I steward. This simple act has grown into a complex, interdisciplinary exploration of memory, land use, ritual, and repair.

Sense of Place is a site-specific, multimedia documentary project that asks: how do materials like glass, metal, wood and ceramics become story keepers? And what happens when we reframe what has been discarded, when we treat the land itself as both canvas and collaborator?

The project site is located in Po-Woh-Geh-Owingeh, “Where the water cuts through,” on ancestral Tewa lands—once a homestead ranch and now an interstitial space bordered by the Pueblo of San Ildefonso and shadowed by the legacy of Los Alamos, birthplace of the atomic bomb. These overlapping histories weigh heavily on my process. Guided by Ecofeminist principles, I examine how land use, colonization, and environmental overuse intersect with issues of gender and ecological disconnection.

Over the past four years, Sense of Place has taken shape through:

This work continues to be deeply informed by theories of ecological art, the Reggio Emilia approach, and the pedagogical philosophies of David and Frances Hawkins. Through the lens of “Messing About” and the Theory of Loose Parts, I treat materials as provocations: What stories do they hold? How might they be reassembled into something healing?

My prior work, especially Art of the Bayou (2011–2013), an eco-activist experimental documentary rooted in community-based art in South Louisiana, laid the foundation for this current inquiry. Like that earlier project, Sense of Place combines environmental awareness with storytelling, reflection, and a commitment to place-based learning.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue expanding Sense of Place through:

At its heart, Sense of Place is an invitation to slow down, to notice, to remember, and to mend. In this fourth year, I’m more committed than ever to holding space for the complexities of place and time, and to using art as a vehicle for ecological and cultural healing.

Thank you to everyone who has witnessed, supported, and engaged with this journey. Here’s to the next chapter.