Dana Henry Martin

Dana Henry Martin

  • My Accounts

    It’s not easy to write about some of the situations I’ve encountered in poetry. I do it because most people… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Hope Hall

    Now, Hope Hall is an empty and quiet place, one where footsteps echo down tunneling hallways. Bob McDonald, who once… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Averse Wind

    We have been carefully guarded by kind and zealous instructors from every averse wind of thought and every taint of… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Brackish

    I’m not going to tell you how my arms are tingling and why, how a patch on the back of… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    2–3 minutes

  • The July 24 Executive Order

    From the ACLU. This is appalling. Link in comments: President Trump signed an executive order yesterday directing states to criminalize… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    3–4 minutes

  • One in Five

    People who live with bipolar have a one in five chance of dying by suicide. I’m one of them. My… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    2–3 minutes

  • Documenting Social Death

    There’s a lot happening in this paragraph from Shuko Tamao’s “Picturing the Institution of Social Death: Visual Rhetorics of Postwar… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • On Civil War Photography

    As with the much larger corpus of Civil War photographs, which as Keith Davis asserts, become endlessly “new” in a… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • What I Do

    I want to understand the origins of the universe, but right now understanding the origins of hate is more pressing.… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    3–5 minutes

  • ‘Socially Dead’ Others

    Disability researcher Shuko Tamao on using photos of patients in an attempt to bring about reform in postwar asylums in… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

PROCESS

  • Map and Research: Investigate the historical, geological, and ecological context of each collection site or reverse the direction, mapping sites based on ancestral and historical narratives.
  • Forage: Gather natural materials ethically, respectfully, and with permission.
  • Transform: Process foraged materials into custom mediums and physical resources for art-making.
  • Weave: Track the stories held within the land, braiding personal, ancestral, and ecological histories.
  • Create: Generate studies and finished artwork informed by the sites and physically composed of the materials collected.

  • Limits: Not all sites will be safe or accessible, which means some spaces cannot be entered, and some stories will remain incomplete. An empty container can signify these omissions.

purpose

ethics

Responsible Exploration: Committing to mindful presence, permission-based foraging, and minimal-impact exploration on every site.

Meaning

Embodied Storytelling: Engaging in sensory, place-based creation that connects the maker and viewer to the specific location and to the physical earth.

Reclamation: Unearthing and honoring lost, fractured, or overlooked histories embedded in the landscape.

Material Transformation: Celebrating the alchemy of turning raw, gathered earth into tangible, expressive art.

community

Public Education: Sharing the ecological and historical narratives of the sites to foster a deeper collective awareness.

Active Participation: Creating opportunities for community participation, engagement, and shared connection through the work.