Introducing Unearthed: A Season of Grounding Through Art
- The Human Amy
- May 12
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Unearthed began as an idea I had for a spring collection but shifted into what feels more like a reawakening process. I’ve been peeling back layers creatively and personally, fixated on the fact that not everything that grows bursts into bloom all at once. Like the wildflowers staggering their growth patterns, some things lie dormant beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to rise. That stillness is grounding.
The Disappearing Act
I tend to disappear in seasons of change, and for a long time, I felt guilty about it. As if I owed everyone my attention, like I had to apologize for taking up my own space (which, I admit, I'm still working on). But as I’ve worked on healing my relationship with simply existing, I’ve come to love these moments of detachment. That quiet period matters so much to me.
I want to disappear into practice. Into sketchbooks. Into the private parts of art that never make it online. I let myself go a little reclusive for the sake of my craft, and partly for my own wellbeing. The disappearing act feels necessary and deeply sacred. It puts me back in touch with the natural rhythms of life.
As a human being in this world, I’m constantly reminded how much change is baked into our nature. We bloom, we break, we rebuild - like the earth itself. Lately, I’ve felt a deep internal shift: where I once thrived in wild freedom, I now feel the pull toward grounding and intention.
And as that transformation unfolds inside me, the world around me seems to be shifting too. There’s grief in watching humanity stumble, especially when you carry a vision for a more hopeful, wholesome future. Still, like soil after fire, there’s potential in what’s uncovered, which is where I keep my hope.
Unearthed is a reflection of these feelings. A kind of emotional archeology. I'm excavating parts of my self and the art that surfaces from it.
Where The Sprout Breaks Ground
There’s a local artist-led studio gallery that hosts monthly drawing hangouts. It's a space where artists can simply be, without pressure. I started attending as a way to reconnect to community and over time, showing up started to shift something in me. I had spent so long creating in solitude, in the safety of my own little world. These gatherings reminded me what it feels like to let others see my work...and me.
When the studio announced their Secret Garden-themed fundraiser and invited us to contribute, I went home and gave myself one rule: don't use a paintbrush. I wanted to allow myself to just play. No expectations. Just curiosity.
Blinded By Growth was born, and I couldn't be more proud of this 12" by 12" canvas. It's a quiet, subtle reflection of constantly striving for better. It’s a reminder (to myself, really) that the pursuit of progress can cloud vision and disconnect us from the natural world. This piece reflects on burnout and the pressure to always be becoming, even when our bodies and minds are calling for stillness. We are nature: meant to rest, shed, and go inward for a time. Without the pause, we become blind to true growth.
What Emerges
That small act of creating openly and imperfectly led me back to a self-portrait I had started months before, then abandoned. I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d ever finish it.
Originally, the piece had Medusa-like imagery with snakes woven into my hair. But as I repainted, it shifted. Changed. She became something more aligned with the version of me I often come back to. Now, she carries the lore of Persephone’s duality: crowned in thorns and bloom, blood on her fingers, stepping out of shadow (or back into it, depending on your perspective...or mine). That painting held so much feeling for me: grief and power, silence and defiance, shadow and bloom.
That shift from inward reflection to outward creation began to echo in the way I moved through the world. As the seasons changed, I found myself looking closer at the small things around me. Blooming flowers. Little bugs. Natural cycles. I noticed more on my walks. Letting the earth show me how to move through change with acceptance and curiosity.
Emerge is a visual reckoning with the parts of the self buried, silenced, and crowned in shadow. Inspired by the lore of Persephone, this self-portrait speaks to the quiet power of returning to one’s own duality. It reflects on the cycles of descent and emergence, pain and rebirth, and the strength it takes to reclaim your voice after silence.
In Bloom
Spring feels different this year. I’ve been walking the trails near my home, paying closer attention — to the native wildflowers, to the insects that visit them, to the rhythms of everything living. I started sketching what I saw: orchids, bluebonnets, rain lilies, bees, beetles.
My walks became ritualistic. They mirrored something inside me. Like I’d been cocooned in a kind of internal winter of quiet stagnancy, maybe even a little numbness. And then, slowly, something began to stir. Like those wildflowers: I didn’t need to bloom all at once. I just needed to rise, one step, one picture, one sketch at a time.
Unearthed Is...
A collection of works that will release when they’re ready.
A space for my creativity to show up however it needs.
An invitation to stay curious and connected to the process, to the mess, and to the magic.
Some pieces are quiet. Some are bold. All of them are part of something unfolding.
Some will be paintings, others drawings, tattoo designs, or digital pieces. I’m letting them emerge naturally, rooted in themes of transformation, decay, light and dark, and new life. This isn’t a polished, scheduled “drop.”
It’s something slower, softer, deeper.
Where to See Unearthed
New work will appear on the homepage of my website as it’s completed.
Originals + select pieces will be available for purchase directly through my site.
Follow me on Instagram @imthehumanamy or on Bluesky @thehumanamy.bsky.social for progress updates, reels, and sketchbook glimpses.
Check out the Studio Purge at the bottom of the homepage — older works and experimental pieces ready to move, to make space for what’s coming.
Thank You
Thank you for being part of this unfolding. For showing up not just for the finished pieces, but for the process behind them. For letting slowness be sacred. For making space for the in-between.
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