Alyssa Leigh Thorn - Within the Veil, We Find Ourselves — School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina

Alyssa Leigh Thorn
Within the Veil, We Find Ourselves

BFA Photography Senior
www.alyssaleighthorn.com

In this life, we are deeply connected to our roots, and to the roots.
We are here to connect, to respond, to collect, to grow.
There’s an irreversible feeling that we are meant to be with nature,
and there’s a whole world that awakens when we realize that we are inseparable from it.
Putting your bare feet in the grass,
The waves of the water gliding against you,
When it’s so hot and that salty breeze hits your cheek,
Frozen fingers warming next to the fire.
These moments fill our spirit and nourish our soul.
The elements grant us momentum and an ineffable comfort.

Currently I am dedicated to making image based media related to soul, spirituality, habitual repetition, echoes, and alluding to the elements of our world: air, earth, water, fire, and spirit.

In the past year of my life I have been going through a spiritual awakening, and identifying and listening to the signs of the universe. I’ve been researching and practicing witchcraft, specifically ancestral work and rootwork, wherein we can invoke and collaborate with the elements of nature as something we are entwined with to create changes in ourselves and our environment. Witchcraft has untethered my understanding of the relationship we as humans have with the earth, and how the elements are the magick. I’ve been photographing these experiences as visualizations of my spiritual practice and how that manifests in my life. The universe is always speaking to us, we just have to learn to live as interpreters and become receptive to it.