In a culture of “me, me, me!” I am changing “me” to “we” as a way to remember that we are of Nature—ever-changing and part of a larger ecosystem.

Ahjo Sipowicz’s journey of initiation begins at a political protest when they expose their naked female nipples in a gesture of resistance. Charged with public indecency, Ahjo constructs an unusual defense—a pastiche of letters, journal entries, essays, poems, composite photographs, Tarot card images, and performances. EarthBodyBoat is this collection.

Part visual journal, part memoir, EarthBodyBoat chronicles Ahjo’s journey of discovering their nonbinary essence, of using art to heal their infant trauma and the multiple selves within. The Crone’s voice is a guide that prods Ahjo to express their wild, unruly “earthbody” wisdoms and disrupt the status quo. Ahjo’s art-making and embodied practice in Nature become the foundations, the keel, of their Earthbodyboat—a vessel sturdy enough to navigate the storms, inner and outer, and head toward home.

Under the surface, EarthBodyBoat shows how a dialogue between art and self, using different expressive mediums, is an endless creative stream that can become a tool to excavate meaning for one’s life. Viscerally, the book captures the chaos of the creative process, while searching for deeper expressions of artistic form and identity sensed through one’s own body.