Emma Smith

The world today is constant and continuous. There is an infinite amount of work to be done all the time and no reason not to do it. Escapism is needed to feel sane today. My remedy has been going on walks in nature. When I am outside surrounded by trees, the rest of the world melts away and I feel timeless. I can finally take a breath. There is no pressure to be productive or put on any act. I can just exist and that is enough. I tend to gaze up at the trees when I walk. I am amazed by them and sometimes just stop for a minute to admire them. Their beauty is unintended and innate. I want them to be seen as I see them, hear nature as I hear it. What is your relationship to nature? How do you care for it like it cares for you?

Dreams are a window into our unconscious. They tell us what we need to hear in an indirect way. They also tell us what we’ve been avoiding. Within my own dreams, shame is a theme that I’ve realized comes up pretty frequently, mostly in the context of my body or physical intimacy. I realized while making these that I was still censoring, cropping, or editing out the more vulnerable parts. This piece is about dreams, shame, intimacy, and my own journey through it all. Surrendering to sleep and vulnerability. Surrendering to your own mind and allowing it to take you wherever it decides.

These pieces are a part of a series I called Reminiscing on Nightmares. It started with me not being able to tell which memories were from dreams or real life. In an attempt to break the cycle of vivid dreams and memories of them, I recreated them in a way. Relived them. I plucked my dreams out of my mind and placed them on a physical object (a pillowcase in this sense). An object that I imagine could act like a dreamcatcher.