“I hope to create images that inspire people to go outside, to see the beauty that surrounds us in every moment, and to feel that sense of belonging and connection to the world. To realise that we are not alone, and we are not separate from nature, that we are part of the fabric of the world, a thread interwoven into the web of life.” (Karel Jasper)
Pembrokeshire based photographer and artist Karel Jasper has been exploring creativity and spirituality for many years. Over the last three she has been actively developing a mindfulness-based creativity practice combining photography and walking with the mindful qualities of slowness and interconnection.
Early on in her explorations Karel tried a range of approaches and traditions including Eastern Practices, Shamanism, Yoga and Mindfulness for Stress Management. Through this journey she discovered that working with her breath and somatic experience felt like her natural entry points, and that connecting with her senses whilst in the natural world supported her to deepen her connection with her own body, which in turn, supported an ever-widening connection with all that is.
“I felt that formal meditation gave me tools, and the natural world has given me space to open up with mindful curiosity.”
Three years ago, with a group of artists, Karel walked the Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way where she practiced being present and attentive through walking. The project resulted in her black and white photography book called ‘The Way of the Bee’ and led to an MA in Fine Art where she continued to root her creative practice in mindfulness.
“I have developed a creative practice, which is rooted in stillness and slow walking as a way to get entangled with the earth and the more-than-human. Over the last six months, through repetition and ritual, I have regularly journeyed along the same familiar path through a wooded valley near my home. My photographic images are traces of shared moments between my body, camera, land and light.”
This committed creative practice has moved her away from simply documenting nature and conceptualising photos through assessing lighting, settings and focus. Instead, a new approach has shown itself to her. An approach marked by qualities of slowness, reciprocity and listening, that invite her to notice subtler elements and smaller details of the day-to-day and moment-to-moment changes in her environment.
“Carrying just my camera, I am free to move around intuitively, experimenting with natural light wherever it may fall, and to discover the inherent beauty and structure in the apparently mundane and overlooked in our world. When I work from a more intuitive place, the light and the landscape invite and lead me to take the photos. What the earth wishes to show is revealed and the photographs find me.”
Moving forward, Karel’s intention is to create spaces that invite conversations about mindfulness and our connection to the non-human natural world. She would like to bring communities and artists together for healing and well-being for both human and non-human beings. Having now finished her MA, she is considering how to build connections with art organisations and spaces, both to exhibit and to gather in ways that will support this deepening into and widening of interconnection.