Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Meredith Mashburn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Meredith , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful work I have poured my heart into to date is my current work “Human Nature.” Born from a spiritual awakening I was guided to help heal our earth through story telling. This work is a declaration, a promise and a vow to live a life of balance with my natural surroundings. As a photographer, my role has been to deliver my client’s vision. As an empath, I’ve immerse myself others experiences to capture who they are or what they want to communicate. My work has been featured in local, State, and national publications and I have photographed countless individuals, families, nature, food, and live events. What I have never done is turn the camera toward my own experiences.

In April, I looked to my childhood for answers and healing of myself. I went back to where I remember being happiest. A place we called the “fern factory” along a red dirt road, is where we foraged, found moss, ferns, baby trees and spent the day playing as a family. When I went there, I gathered these physical memories from my childhood as if they were pieces of myself and slowly put them together to create living sculptures.

These sculptures inspired questions: Why am I here? What is important to me? What do I want to do with this life? I began looking at my life with the innocence of my child-self in order to tap into the wisdom of my higher-self. The sculptures called me to care for them, as I am meant to care for myself. Nurture them, as I am meant to nurture myself. Learn from them, as I am meant to learn from myself. Heal them, as I am meant to heal myself. And to document this process, because we are all one. We are all nature.

I grew up in Arkansas, exploring and being in nature. As life does, catalytic events have me longing to get back to my roots, let my wild child explore, heal, and possibly find myself by forgetting everything I think I know. Human Nature will be immersing myself in my own experience, capturing who I am and what I want to communicate. The new way we are going to have to live in order to survive and thrive is by balancing our lives with our natural surroundings. This will require a shedding, rebirth, and living into the way we are meant to live. Not only taking care of nature, but releasing our separateness and accepting that we are nature.

This 12 work series over 12 months will document the living sculptures as they grow and follow how my journey unfolds, releasing one work for each month of this year-long path. Leaving room on my journey for miracles and inspired ideas, I will explore food as medicine, solar energy and electric cars, removing toxins from our lives, preventative health, and spirituality. In partnership with area businesses, the works will be supported by an in-person Salon Series of talks by those I meet along the way, and a Photo Essay series to be published on social media. The project will culminate into – and the grant will help support – exhibitions and events in Monroe, Louisiana and Northwest Arkansas.

All will be through the lens of the flow between mind, body, spirit, and nature alignment, creating destination points on the road of how to get from the old world of consumption and synthetic life band-aids to the new world, and inspiration for others toward their own awakening and connection to ourselves, each other, and our world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been a photographer for over 25 years and owner of Meredith Mashburn Photography since 2008. I have worked in fashion, editorial, commercial and lifestyle photography, in addition to documentary photography including portraits, headshots, and weddings. While Arkansas is my home and well-loved backdrop for photos, I travel whenever possible and my work has taken me world-wide, including the Bahamas, New York , and New Orleans, and I’ve worked with companies that include the World Food Championships, Country Outfitter, Interform, Cache, and music festivals including Wakarusa, and Roots Festival.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to save our earth, our precious resources and ourselves. We are nature and we all need to wake up and remember that.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is sharing the message of environmental conservation through visual storytelling.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mashburnphoto.com
• Instagram: @mashburnphoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mashburnphoto

Image Credits
Meredith Mashburn Photography Haskel University 8813 Dr. Daniel Wildcat portrait by Meredith Mashburn Photography