The Telling Trees: A Bundling Ritual Exhibit

The Telling Trees: A Bundling Ritual was presented as a contemplative mixed media installation rooted in the act of gathering, sorting, and intentional bundling.

Each twig, branch, and remnant was foraged from the shoreline and wooded areas of Shelley Novotny’s local landscape. Carefully sorted by type, texture, and felt energy, the bundling process became a grounding ritual — a slow meditation of presence and gratitude.

Wrapped in eco-dyed fabrics, salvaged textiles, handmade paper, and adorned with found treasures — feathers, shells, leaves, fragments of jewelry — each bundle emerged as a small altar. Suspended from a salvaged branch and unified in collective display, the work honored the quiet offerings of the forest.

This installation invited viewers to witness the sacred potential of fragments — how even the smallest natural remnants, when gathered with intention, can become vessels of reverence and renewal.

Both celebration and prayer, The Telling Trees stands as homage to the healing act of gathering, and to the forest as teacher.