Ancestors

An illustration for 'The Deepest Thing Inside,' a 1995 poem by <n>Naomi Shihab Nye</n>.

Photograph by <n>Marcos Sandoval</n>. San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2019.

Cover art for the songs <n>Beautiful Disaster</n>, <n>By My Lonely</n>, <n>Let You Know</n>, and <n>All Day</n>.

Artwork by <n>Andy Goldsworthy</n> (1982) overlaid with a quote by writer <n>Sophie Strand</n>.

<n>Place of Power</n>, a 3D render by the artist <n>xuxoe</n>.

What the land experiences, I experience. What my body experiences, the land experiences.

The photograph 'larva' is used as cover art for songs by <n>Allie X</n>, <n>The Veronicas</n>, and others.

<n>I Sette Savi</n>, a 1960 sculpture by <n>Fausto Melotti</n>. Photo by <n>Ugo Mulas</n>.

<n>Black Sun</n> (2011), a mixed media on canvas by artist <n>Arkadiusz Danovski</n>.

A visionary artwork by artist <n>Geenss Archenti</n>.

A quote by <n>Dr. Barbara Holmes</n>, via the <n>Center for Action and Contemplation</n>.

Sublime

<n>Deserter</n> (2014) by artist <n>Tomasz Alen Kopera</n>.

In order to be born, you needed:

2 parents

4 grandparents

8 great-grandparents

16 second great-grandparents

32 third great-grandparents

64 fourth great-grandparents

128 fifth great-grandparents

256 sixth great-grandparents

512 seventh great-grandparents

1,024 eighth great-grandparents

2,048 ninth great-grandparents

For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total sum of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years.

Think for a moment – How many struggles? How many battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? – did your ancestors have to undergo for you to exist in this present moment…

<n>Stone-Faced</n>, a vernacular sculpture by <n>Scott Daniel Ellison</n>.

<n>Stonehenge</n> in Wiltshire, England, photographed by <n>Isamu Noguchi</n>, c. 1955.