Making Forest Prayer Flags
The ForestSong project centers on the ancient belief that winds carry blessings depicted on prayer flags across the landscape to all beings. Here is a one-minute video of my painting site in the midnight sun during a sea kayaking expedition in Prince William Sound, Alaska. I worked next to our tent, using a brush attached to a long twig. The line drawing was made with a quill carved from a large feather found on the beach.
Painting Forest Prayer Flags, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Ink on kozo
Still photo ©2023 Lisa Moorehead
The Forest Prayer Flags Process
Below is a description of my Forest Prayer Flags process along with a few tips if you’d like to make your own.
Materials
The Forest Prayer Flags palette is intentionally somber: black and white ink and paint, found wildfire charcoal, and tree resin on Japanese kozo. Sometimes I also use watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils. Pictured are some of my materials with the handmade rollup case for carrying my tools outdoors. What I choose to bring depends on where and how far I plan to go.
Going Light
Here I am sitting on a comfy log using the ultralight easel I designed for this project. It breaks down and fits into my pack or kayak, along with my other art and outdoor supplies like food, stove, fuel, tent, binoculars, water, clothing, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. This easel setup allows me to work on large sheets of paper in remote places. Clips hold a corrugated plastic sheet and paper to the legs of a camera tripod. I carry my paper rolled up in a tube or sometimes accordion-folded.
Tip: Go as light as you can.
Where To Go
I paint each Forest Prayer Flag onsite in burned or green forests. I like to walk or paddle as many miles away from roads as time and energy allows, seeking out less frequented places, often repeatedly returning to the same spot. I usually work alone to enhance focus and receptivity. Solitude also increases wildlife sightings.
Tip: Carry an emergency beacon and let others known where you are going.
Finding Place
When I enter a forest, I slow way down, and drift about for awhile, letting each particular place sink into my being. I send out a prayer to the trees to open my heart and guide me where I need to be. There’s always a particular spot that eventually calls out to me, and that’s where I settle in and get to work.
Tip: It’s helpful to find a place to work that is physically comfortable.
Invocation
Once find my place, I sit down on the ground, and set everything out for painting. Then I close my eyes, express gratitude that I am able to be in the presence of what remains wild and beautiful, and invoke hope that what I do may be towards the protection of all forest beings.
Embrace Solastalgia*
I sit quietly and invite the beauty, as well as the environmental devastation I often observe, deeply into my being. I ask that I may be open to all forest energies, above and below, seen and unseen, wonderful and terrible. I ask that my energies will entwine with the vast forces surrounding me. I invite the full spectrum of emotions in. It is a gift to be in the presence of wild trees, plants, and animals, I want to bear witness to the changes in their habitats.
*Solastalgia is a word coined by environmental philosopher Glenn A. Albrecht, to describe the emotional pain produced by environmental degradation impacting people in their home habitats.
Painting Process
When I am ready, I open my eyes and start to paint. As I work, I pause regularly to gaze steadfastly into any emotions that arise. I revel in moments of delight and I allow despair. I take in the beauty, the horror, and the mystery. I often cry. I consider illumination and shadow, black and white, growth and destruction, death and life, interconnection and separateness, past and future. Mostly I paint.
Tip: When we fully embrace any sadness that arises, it is likely we will more deeply experience delight. It’s a human being thing.
Celebrate Biophilia
So often, once we experience the fullness of our sadness, joy returns. Whenever this happens to me outdoors, it is all about an experience of deep biophilia.* Embrace and celebrate those moments completely!
* Biophilia has been defined by Edward O. Wilson in Biophilia (1984) to mean “the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms.”
Taking Leave
When it’s time to go, I thank the forest for my time there. I bless my supplies and I thank my small body for getting me there and taking me back home. And, or course, I thank the trees!
Where Might You Go?
There is a place out there that calls to each of us… a place that needs to be appreciated and loved, a place where you can bear witness to the changes of our times. It might be right outside your door, or down the street, or in a faraway forest. Can you go there? Soon? I hope you will go.
Tip: Leave cars and devices as far behind as you can.
Who Can Participate?
Everyone! All ages and abilities experience biophilia, and also experience solastalgia. And all can share the ForestSong process!