The Ecological Transcendence of Elsa Muñoz
In the fourth interview for The Psychic Landscape series, co-curators Francisco Donoso and Veronica Petty have the pleasure of speaking with artist Elsa Muñoz about her fascinating body of work that connects the ecological, psychological, and spiritual landscapes.
Rooted in lived experiences, Elsa's exploration began with her encounters with yerberos, herbalists who offered plant medicine when Western doctors fell short. These formative experiences laid the foundation for her understanding of the interplay between physical ailments and spiritual well-being. In her painting MEDICINE BAG- CHICAGO TAP WATER, $1.73 & THE ALLEY PLANTS THAT KNOW ME, Elsa articulates her personal narrative with abstracted resonance.
As part of the exhibition, Muñoz's canvases breathe life into the interconnectedness of the ecological, psychological, and spiritual realms. In this conversation, we explore how ecopsychology, somatic ecology, and re-enchantment come together in Elsa’s art as a form of spiritual activism amidst the unfolding climate crisis.
Elsa Muñoz is a Mexican-American artist born and raised on the South Side of Chicago (1983). Muñoz credits her interest in both nature and healing to her experience growing up in an underserved and often unsafe community with little access to green spaces. Her work explores the threads connecting ecology, culture and spirituality.
Elsa, your work is described as embodying grief work, "Desahogamiento'' or the act of undrowning, and renewal, drawing connections between the ecological, psychological, and spiritual landscapes. How do you navigate these intricate relationships in your creative expression?
These connections began in the body, in my lived experience. I was deeply influenced by my own experience of being sick a lot as a child and being continually taken to see yerberos (herbalists) when western doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me. Receiving plant medicine to heal conditions that western doctors wholly dismissed was a profound lesson. And it was this experience that gave me an education in the blindspots of western ways of thinking about health and illness. The yerberos taught me that we could have physical symptoms for problems that began in the spirit. And that the spiritual body was both real and indivisible from the physical one.
I think from that starting point, I was able to extrapolate larger conclusions as I observed the world around me. I keep thinking about the book The Body Keeps the Score [by Bessel van der Kolk], which talks about how trauma lives in our physical bodies. That lens shapes my understanding that the earth is a body and we are many bodies within that large body. I’m interested in somatic healing practices like desahogamiento (practices that release trauma through physical manipulation or expression). That interest helps me think about controlled burns as a somatic healing modality because setting fire to something transforms the original material into smoke and ash. And that transmutation is a form of somatic healing. Because I have that language of somatic healing, I think about it in those terms. The earth needs to release and transmute its trauma, just as we do.
When I paint, my core drive is to do the same–to release and transform.
MEDICINE BAG- CHICAGO TAP WATER, $1.73 & THE ALLEY PLANTS THAT KNOW ME, 24” x 18”, oil on panel, 2022
How has the influence of curanderismo, particularly the concept of desahogamiento as a literal healing technique within Mexican folk medicine, which you learned through the writings of curandera Elena Avila, shaped your overall artistic approach?
I was deeply influenced by Avila’s writings in one very specific way. She defines one type of curandera as being a consejera (counselor). Consejeras offer deep spiritual medicine by simply listening to someone undrown themselves, by being a witness to someone telling their story without interrupting. I think that is so powerful—this idea that simply being a deep listener is literal medicine. It made me think about my own powerful encounters with works of art that have made me feel “heard.” This perspective clarified that I wanted to make images that can hold space and listen.
How did you arrive at your “controlled burning” series?
I had the good fortune of seeing the after-effects of a controlled burn during my childhood. We took a class field trip to a local forest preserve just outside of Chicago. It was there that our forest guide explained the concept of controlled burning– a forestry practice where fire is used as an agent for cleansing and regeneration. The idea that something that seemed as hostile as fire could be used as a tool for health and regrowth moved me to my core. Violence was prevalent in my community and in my home, so learning about the concept of prescribed fire suddenly opened up the possibility of an alternate story. After that trip the destruction I was seeing around me didn’t seem so total. The realization that a completely barren forest ground was concealing and incubating this whole other world that was slowly coming into being just beneath the surface– I found kinship in that metaphor.
“Controlled Burn 30,” 24 x 24, oil on panel, 2023
Your works are often intimate in scale, and suggest a very methodical approach- can you tell us about your process for painting- do you have rituals you carry into the studio?
If this counts as a ritual, I’m very mindful of what I’m listening to as I paint. I like painting in silence quite a bit, but I also enjoy listening to certain types of stories. There are a few podcasts I listen to which feature people telling personal stories that are usually quite difficult – come to think of it, they’re literally strangers’ desahogamiento stories. I feel that the act of listening and holding space for others helps me create from a place of tenderness.
LA LUZ VUELVE A MI, 12”x12”, oil on panel, 2021
Your interest in ecopsychology, somatic ecology, and re-enchantment as spiritual activism is fascinating. How do these concepts relate to the developing climate crisis?
I see climate catastrophe as the physical illness that results from suppressing Indigenous wisdom in the name of “progress.” The processes of colonialism and Cartesian dualism sought to desacralize the world–removing spirit from matter, severing mind from body and humankind from the natural world–ultimately resulting in a devastating collective soul loss.
I believe the overarching goal of ecopsychology, somatic ecology and re-enchantment is to help address that soul loss. Through encouraging an intimate, mystical encounter with the natural world these philosophies seek to restore knowledge of the innate connection between our personal health and the health of the environment. I believe that this kind of intimacy with the world around us is a kind of spiritual activism (a spirituality for social change which begins with self-healing), and that this practice can ultimately help us build a bit of resilience to face both our uncertain climate futures as well as our immediate daily struggles.
“Fire-follower”, 8”x8”, oil on panel, 2023
Thank you Elsa for sharing such a personal and moving description of your practice. Your insights have added so much more to our understanding of your paintings. We appreciate the vulnerability and depth you bring to the exhibition.
Elsa's work is a poignant testament — gracefully exhibiting the synergy between ecological transcendence and her expression as an artist. In a delicate dance, her art becomes a reflection of the Earth's imperative to release and transform trauma.
As The Psychic Landscape opens at the NYC Culture Club on February 1st — along with works by artists Paola de la Calle, Francisco Donoso, Kathryn Godoy and Marisol Ruiz — we anticipate that these themes will captivate and resonate deeply with viewers.