The Hermit: Nature as a Container
Jess Winnicki-Reinsch (BA, BSW, RSW, DKATI)
Winnipeg, MB
As a trauma-informed art therapist and social worker, Jess (she/her) bears witness to the transformation in others and in herself as she bends over her potter’s wheel and moulds the clay into vessels of containment. Healing manifests in that containment - and art is the leavening agent that feeds the growth of the individuals she works with as they traverse the circuitous journey that is life.
I would like to acknowledge while I was in the area near Thompson Manitoba (Kwasitchewan Falls), I was on Treaty 5 territory, the homeland of the Cree.
Nature can provide us a space of holding for processing and art creation, it influences and acts as a container. Nature provides for us materials, creation and exhibition space, and the context in which to create. Respect for nature and its natural process is a key element. Our inner landscape can be mirrored by the outer environment we place ourselves in. We can find a circular connection: the individual connecting to nature, the individual creating with natural materials, moving back to the individual and their own process. Spending time in nature and creating in nature can be a support for our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.
“Our inner landscape can be mirrored by the outer environment we place ourselves in. ”
Now picture this, we (my partner and our very good friend) have been hiking now for thirteen kilometres, through the forest, dense and covered by a mossy floor that was so soft you could curl up and go to sleep on it. Climbing over downed trees, seeing the power of the wind firsthand. Carefully moving with each step, making sure to avoid any mushrooms that were growing on the path. After this part of our journey, we arrived at the place we would set up our camp for the night, an area set right beside a set of rapids, a clue of what was in store for us the next day when we would reach Kwasitchewan Falls. It was here by the water’s edge that we set up our space for the night. This area provided the container for us to create in art in – I started collecting items and soon all three of us were creating this piece together. We collected natural materials we found from all around our campsite, from the water’s edge and deep into the forest. We collected berries, sticks, rocks, leaves, and grasses. It was a spontaneous and collaborative process, and there was something truly connecting about us all creating together in this magical place. The photo of our creation is the only physical piece of the artwork we have to hold, but that moment remains in memory, and the art created remained there. I like to imagine it being blown back into the forest, maybe stepped on by a moose, or munched on by a squirrel. The piece itself shifted and morphed from a landscape to a face, to its final form. I titled it ‘The Hermit’ – representing soul-searching, introspecting, and inner guidance.
The Hermit, natural materials, 2022