top of page
ARTIST'S STATEMENT /
At the Pace of Mule is a cultural illumination journey, walking overland of the eastern sierra high desert by mule*. The 350 mile trek is an immersion into primal experiences of a slower and more interconnected life way, centering the pace of relationship. It engages with postcolonial influences upon land, people, culture, and, ultimately, consciousness. The project is a deep inquiry into ways of life that nurture access to relational wisdom and Indigenous intelligence, while revealing contemporary cultural ways that conversely limit or obscure these paths of remembrance needed during these times.
The journey explores how placing our bodies in the patterns, movements, and lifeways of ancestral rhythms and relational webs awakens our own ancestral consciousness and memory from within. Through the abstinence of mechanistic transportation, technology use, immediate water and food accessibility, material excess, and modern conveniences, I will open my experiences to the pace and purpose of travel that keep my senses engaged with the the natural world, moving at the speed of relationship with biological intelligence and the inner navigational capacity that arises from this nurtured belonging. The journey will also be a study of the effects of land privatization and ownership on the ability to access ancestral relational wisdom, as my route interfaces with many land-use boundaries.
Giving life into the entire journey is the meaning of storytelling. When deep listening becomes a kind of embodied remembering and the stories that come through elders, water, intuition, vision, land, and others, that ultimately give rise to instructions and guidance of restoring our right place in the living world. In its essence, the journey is a dedication to our collective futures and the resilience in remembering our greatest generational wealth is that of relational wisdom and its potential to heal original wounds of colonization.
At the Pace of Mule is an artistic demonstration and hopeful articulation intended for various publications that describe the confluence of past and future, and the significance of our present moment to choose to remember.
*mule, horse, burrow, or "pony".
ARTIST BIO /
Melle North is a cultural illumination artist whose work centers the remembrance of earth’s living wisdom. Her work explores relational consciousness and both its endangerment in colonized culture, as well as ways of regeneration that guide us in returning to our belonging within the intelligence of the natural world.
Living in the wilderness for eight years, Melle studies culture and listens for the medicine of these times, tracking for root disconnections and then creating inclusive ways to bring awareness and healing. She lives, thinks, and creates at the threshold where ancestral wisdom meets the relatives of our futures, occupying the responsibility of the living fulcrum between the two.
My experience as an artist, curator, circle facilitator, community organizer, creative placemaking strategist, cultural & environmental activist, cross-cultural advocate, conflict resolution student, ceremonial leader & apprentice, and wilderness communion guide have diversified my ability to understand and creatively respond to the needs of the times, in service to restoring relational wisdom.
Major former works have taken shape as a collection of large-scale portraits of Indigenous Wisdomkeepers, with their inter-tribal wisdom stories and emphasizing art sale reciprocity to their local regenerative initiatives. The People's Mural Project gathered the under-heard narratives of culturally and environmentally siloed communities to bring awareness, belonging, and advocacy to greater community power and local tourism for support and healing engagement.
mellenorth.com
bottom of page