The Feet 

I remember being told the stars were like the body and each one had a part.

I was born in the throat, but my favorite was the feet. 

That's when we burned the fields down for sowing later in the year. 

The flames were so wild and free.  I wanted to be like them. Keeping everybody at a distance.

Burning everything down.

I was taught the best things always grew out of the ashes.

 

except form the artists book "Black Lung"

 

Jessie McClanahan is an artist and story teller from Southern West Virginia. Her upbringing was spent in the deep lush forests of her mountain home. There she  learned how to reckon with the extractive industries that have been built in opposition to the land based practices she grew up with. Jessie finds inspiration in Appalachian folkways, the beauty of its landscapes, and the connections that integrate the cultural and the natural together. Her research revolves around mountain communities and their connections to land and art making. 
 
McClanahan received her MFA from Syracuse University with a BA from West Virginia State University. She was an artist-in-residence at Taylor Books, A Tamarack Foundation Emerging Artists Fellow, exhibited at Governors Island, with a solo exhibition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Recently she was a co-curator and exhibited artist for the Evidenced By Nature portfolio at SGCI.