Image-making is an integral and life-enhancing part of being human.

The artist book I will give you is an invitation to you to engage in image making as a threshold, an opening to that which has been left unspoken in your life. Perhaps the engagement will inspire you to reverie, to noticia, to reflection, dialogue and a desire to speak what has been silenced, unnoticed or forgotten. Clarissa Pinkola Estes speaks of “el rio debajo del rio”, the river under the river.

It is in these underground waters I ask you to swim, float, linger, feel the water on your skin, take a drink. It is my hope that the elixir will release unspoken image and story.

This project focuses on image making as a form of narrative and its ability to call forth story and act as a witness.

I also invite you to share the image with me as well as the story as oral history. I invite you to engage in dialogue with me regarding the image-making process as well as what the image(s) mean to you and the story it called forth. If you have an interest in this project, please contact me at msn48@aol.com.

Mary Noesen

Orcas Island