About Liz Clow
ABOUT LIZ
- The Kootenay School of Art, Nelson, British Columbia: Diplomate
- Goddard College, Vermont: Bachelor of Arts, Sustainability (focus on Water Use and Water Tables)
- Santa Fe School of Massage, New Mexico: Certified Massage Therapist, Certified Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist
- Nationally Registered Craniosacral Therapist
- Certified Permaculture Designer
Hello, I’m Liz Clow. Here is a brief bit of my story.
This journey began in the arts: Music, dance, mixed media and metal work were fun ways to move, interact, and manifest beautiful objects. In 2002, towards the end of my art school days, I began to feel concern about the sources of all the materials used in artwork. Into my world, like a year-long lightning bolt, jumped the term “sustainability.”
photography by Robb Heckel
For a time, I set aside the art world and began learning everything possible about sustainability. I dove into cooking and composting. I put myself into motion to create and implement sustainable practices on my land in beautiful British Columbia.
After building a lovely timber frame home, I renovated two existing structures on the property, one of which was an historical building. I tilled the soil, built a food forest, and most importantly…talked with the land… the land talked to me. Working with that gorgeous property in B.C. became the fertile garden that still feeds all my interactions with the living environment. Ironically, you can’t abandon yourself if you are an artist:The art mindset crept back into everything I was doing–and do to this day.
Through my artwork I aim to have people rethink concepts and encourage more day-to-day interactions that are sustainable. My earthworks give me strength in all that I am, and are my greatest teacher in relations on all levels: spiritual, communal, and intellectual. My bodywork practice in Santa Fe has brought everything together.
Each section on this website will provide more detail about the particular fields of my work, and there is a core tie between them all: The art of sustainability is in everything we are and all that we do. Nature wants to be sustained, and our own nature wants to be sustained. In his book Intro to Homeopathy, Vithoulkas states that an unhealthy person is self-serving and destructive while a healthy person is altruistic and creative. I believe that if we are healthy we want to take care of our environment, each other, and ourselves.
Massage, craniosacral therapy, and other modalities provide a way to relate with people that encourages healing internal patterns, healing that can release and open us to deeper connection, less pain, and more joy. Bodywork is my touch with the individual. Artwork is my touch with community. Landscaping and permaculture is my touch on a Global level.
THE FERTILE EDGE
In the formal study of Permaculture, the Tenth Principe is called the Edge Effect. This is an ecological concept that suggests there is greater diversity and overall health in a region where the edges of two or more adjacent ecosystems overlap. An example might be where a creek, a meadow, and a forest all come together, and in that fertile intersection of all three systems exist not only plants and life from each of the three ecosystems, but also unique species not found in any of the ecosystems themselves. The Fertile Edge is the name I apply to my business: It is an intersection amongst healing arts, environmental sustainability, and the creative world of art. These systems overlap to support and nourish themselves and each other, and at the same time provide the fertile ground for ever more sustainable growth for us all.
If you want to know more please contact me, or browse this website that continues to grow like my garden!