Eco Arts as a Field of Healing
In this Fields of Healing podcast episode I speak with Siobhan Madden (Ní Mhadáin) a Socially Engaged Eco Artist. More and more in the health arena and particularly in mental health we hear about disconnection from nature and how perhaps the more we can connect to our broader eco system, the better we can live together as human beings and the healthier we can become. I have come across and engaged in many subsets of this broad field of healing, such as ‘forest bathing’, ‘connecting with nature’ and ‘nature constellations’. Here I ask Siobhan about the broader overarching ideology of Eco Arts and how it can impact on heling in the mental health arena.
So what is Eco-Arts Practice and how does it relate to mental health?
‘Ecological Art’ is a genre that emerged in the 1990s but in which was largely influenced by practices which had come in to movement in the 1960s. Some of the principles and themes which underpin these practices are stewardship of interrelationships, emphatical approach to non-human species, connectivity, ecological and ethical responsibility, exploration of the complexities of life. As well as the ability to bring awareness and pro-activism to environmental issues, eco-art aims to cultivate joy by drawing upon an instinctual love of life in which an empathic connection with Nature births. There is a restoration of the body, mind and soul when direct contact and awareness of Nature. A dialogue occurs where the movement of what crosses you by no longer seems random and meaningless. Nature’s patterns mirror your internal world and when seeking harmony and cultivating better health for the external environment, naturally this occurs inside the human body too, for we are the space we are in, and we are interconnected with all of Nature. When engaging with nature materials like nettle cordage, felted wool or wild clay, it brings a directness to what came before you and empowers you with this recalling, where your body remember a vast language of survival, sustainability and celebration. Pressing in to clay actually interplays with much deeper neurons in the body which opens new neural pathways in the brain. Creativity has the ability to heal. Our instincts naturally tell us to seek green spaces, with shade, food and water. Our bodies naturally relax in these spaces. We co-regulate with Nature with the ions of rain, the rhythm of a waving branch, our hands in the soil, the breath of a horse. Ecological Art is a way of being, an approach and a call and an action to restore harmony between humans and non-human species.
During the period of 2009-2019, I worked as both a Special Needs Assistant in the educational system and a Health Care Assistant in a Public Hospital setting which supported my studies and my travels. I also embarked on a deep healing path beginning with reiki and then to shamanic medicine. In my memory it is times sitting with intention at a tree in the forest, noticing the shapes of shadows and light dancing, sound and movement of water, a fox, a squirrel or a bird that would catch my attention, that really grounded the big energies that were occurring on this path. It brought safety, stillness and sanctuary and allowed my body and mind to come out of flight and fright. This is what brings health. The herd of horses and the way they would signal to move, the sound of their hooves and snorts, the warmth of their breath and rhythm of their large bodies brought me back to my own. My yearly art pilgrimages to a roadless and carless village of Ginostra with Art to Heart brought heart-centred way of giving space to artmaking in myself and in holding space for others with sensory engagement as a central role.
The Interviewee
Siobhán Madden (Ní Mhadáin) is a socially engaged eco-artist. She completed her MA with first class honours in Arts and Engagement at Crawford College of Art and Design in May 2024 with special purpose awards in eco-arts practice and arts and wellbeing. Since then she began an Artist Residency at Respond’s ‘Brain Health Estate’ in Rathcoran, Baltinglass which began in September 2024 until the end of June 2025. This project is part of the Creative Places Baltinglass programme and is funded by Wicklow Arts Office and Creative Ireland. Siobhán engages residents with the newly established community garden beds on the grounds, while also encouraging residents to notice and engage with the biodiversity around them such as the flora in the wild meadow, ‘mini-beast’ exploration, beginning a tree nursery and planting trees with folklore symbology such as the strength and protection of the Rowan Tree or ‘Mountain Ash’.
Siobhán is now also on the Heritage in Schools panel since January 2025. Her work lies in the intersection of health and education. Currently her focus with children is more on the side of wonder, creative expression, play and educational learning. Her work with adults weaves in a deeper aspect of well-being through hand on engagement with Nature and the Arts such as her Community Dye Garden project in An Tearmann Community Gardens, Baltinglass or her more private offerings such as Wellness in the Woods in Talbotstown, or upcoming Eco-Warrior wellness and educational weekend at the ‘Ladybird Chalet’ in Donard in June 2025 through working with naturally dyed wool and the needle-felt process to create a ‘Medicine Doll’. Most of her work has been locally based with one International trip to a Forest School in Piedmonte Italy to run a ‘Arts and Nature’ week at the summer camp there. She also leads pilgrim walks through ‘Brigid’s Way’ which has her cross counties.
Siobhán Madden funded The Natural School of Art near the end of the year 2019. Initially this startup was a container to grow a vision of working with both adults and children through the arts, while nurturing her own eco-arts practice. During the Covid Pandemic period, while becoming a mother to daughter Ayla born in November 2020, Siobhán trained as a Forest School Leader which fed her approach to working with children, as well as her previous ‘Art to Heart’ training. She completed her training, written documents and pilot scheme before embarking on her MA in September 2022.
She had studied analogue 16mm film production at BCFE 2010-2012, and then continuing her artistic training with a BA in Printmaking at NCAD from 2014-2017. It was her self-directed research here that brought her to an interest in the Arts capability to transform and heal society such as Joseph Beuys and his work such as Coyote or 7000 Oaks and his concepts of Social Sculpture, Heart Thinking and Energy Dialogue. She became interested in the approach of Artist as Community rather than Artist for Self.
Interested in the alchemy of the film and print processes, it prompted Siobhán to make her pigments and modifiers from plants and minerals, where she witnessed the visual transformation that Nature directly makes.
During these years she went on a number of repeat trips to a Natural Horsemanship association in Tuscany from 2016-2023. In this 7 year period she cared for and observed a herd of horses and how they communicate to one another, as well as learning the energy and body language to be able to communicate with the horse.
This interest had her studying and practicing Zoopharmacognosy (animal medicinal knowing) which initiated her interest in healing plants and herbs, and observed energy shifts in group consciousness. She observed the interconnection of energy between human, plants and animal.
The ability of art to make what is unseen visible, the metaphor of materials and the direct connection to Nature that natural materials bring, makes the abstract language of energy, alchemy, healing and consciousness tangible. Art has the power to hold more than what we can say in words as more of a story or feeling can be conveyed the longer you sit with it.
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