Listening to the Earth painting by Naima Penniman 6.8" x 9" print on textured watercolor paper

Artist Statement: 

“Listening to the Earth” is a visual love song attuning to the voices of nature.

We are listening to the Earth as we would our beloved, to her uncontainable joy and her unimaginable wailing.

On this full moon, this human being who is all of us, is dissolving into the landscape. As she holds her ear on the rim of the horizon, her hair becomes roots reaching deep into the soil, her crown becomes water descending into tributaries, her chest opens to the midnight sky. 

At this crossroads of peril and promise, the Earth is our beacon and compass, offering models for metamorphosis, blueprints for symbiosis, and frameworks for evolution. 

The creation of this piece was a meditation, crafted at the base of a tree, on the top of a mountain, by candle light and sunlight. May it inspire deeper listening. 

Made of acrylic, wildflower seeds, spring sapling roots, pollen and clay. 

By Naima Penniman 2021

This painting is the visual embodiment of Black Earth Wisdom, a new book by Leah Penniman that “weaves together the voices of today’s most respected Black environmentalists, those who have cultivated the skill of listening to the lessons that Earth has whispered to them.”

Follow the book on Instagram and learn more at Black Earth Wisdom.