Joya: AiR / Carrie Foulkes / GBR

‘In the arid landscapes of Sierra de María-Los Vélez I communed with olives, grapes and pomegranates as well as some tiny flowers with striking hues of purple and blue. Realising that I was craving physical work, I found purpose and pleasure in a morning routine caring for baby pistachio trees, carting wheelbarrows full of sawdust-light sheep poop to fertilise the tender saplings. Frida the hound and Fufu the goat were spirited companions.

Every evening I saw the waxing moon rise over the mountains and knew that it was dinner time. We gathered around the long table outside to share Donna's incredible meals, to drink wine and talk beneath the stars. It was a great joy to celebrate my birthday with new friends.

The rare space and time for contemplative and creative practice bore unexpected fruits. I think it may have been at one of our dinners that I was reminded of the saying: a wise person knows they'll never sit in the shadow of the tree they plant. This idea became an animating theme of my time at Joya, inspiring a performance called Tending, in which a solitary figure walks out into the desert with a watering can. There's some kind of hope in this action, this image.

Carrie Foulkes

Carrie Foulkes is an artist, writer, researcher and complementary therapist. Her studies in philosophy, bodywork and multidisciplinary arts inform her thinking and writing on subjects including illness, care, and the mind-body relationship. Carrie is a doctoral candidate in the DFA Creative Writing programme at the University of Glasgow.