Dana Henry Martin

Mental Health

  • Frictions

    “Nothing about us without us.” That’s a guiding principle in the disability-rights movement. It applies to the mental-health justice and… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    5–8 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

  • 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

  • ‘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

  • 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

  • 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

  • The Letter

    Several years ago, the poet who sexually assaulted me circulated a letter about me within the poetry community. In it,… Read more.

    Dana Henry Martin
    2–3 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.