PART ARTIST, part activist, part ritualist, and part therapist, Orly Faya’s work reminds us that, as she puts it, “humanity was born from the Earth and it is intrinsically connected to one living biosphere.” Faya first began observing humanity’s distance from its interconnected and dependent nature during her extensive travels, and was called upon to heal this disconnection by painting people into the Earth during a ceremony in Peru.
When she put out a message offering to paint humans into the world, people responded and she created seventeen pieces in the span of twenty days. The images were put into an exhibition, but Faya soon realized the focus of the project “was about the experience with the people that were involved in the process.”
For Faya, the creation of each piece is a conversation between herself, the people being painted, the natural environment, and the mystery of existence. Before agreeing...
