Dana Henry Martin

Dana Henry Martin

  • Pinfeathers

    There are some things you can’t show, things you can’t share once you’ve seen them, so you turn them into… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    2–3 minutes

  • The Oklahoma History Most Oklahomans Never Learned

    On the desegregation of American psychiatric institutions and structural racism in American psychiatry. Link in comments. — Oklahoma,1964: Taft State… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Consciousness and the Sonnet

    In The Birth of the Modern Mind: Self, Consciousness, and the Invention of the Sonnet, Paul Oppenheimer argues that …… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Alliums

    I booked my accommodations in my hometown, where I’m traveling to document and research Griffin Memorial Hospital, the psychiatric hospital… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    2–3 minutes

  • One of Them

    When I was in the hospital in Colorado, I saw a young man, only nineteen years old, almost die by… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    7–10 minutes

  • The Shame of the States

    Public [psychiatric] hospitals became overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of patients. In the 1950s, there were only 26 U.S. cities… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Stack of Heads

    I dreamed I was attempting to find the seat of consciousness, which I believed was perched at the top of… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • Flame and Ash

    I’m toying with the idea that people are beings who live and die every moment, and any sense of continuity… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    1–2 minutes

  • T4 Centers

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s language about people with autism in some ways parallels what Nazis said about Germans with physical… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    3–4 minutes

  • Intergenerational

    Family trauma is passed down genetically and epigenetically, through family stories and family preoccupations, through family experiences, through details like… 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.