For June the imperfecta art & design gallery presented a solo show featuring Portland-based artist Jennifer Gillia Cutshall.

In NEMOPHILIST: Bride of the Wild, the artist mixed a variety of media to pay homage to the female figurehead and the natural world, because, as she states, "the link between the two is inextricable to me."

The movement toward expressing universal struggles and loss "mirror the plight of ecosystems and symbolic motifs of hands, wings, crowns, nests, angels, brides" – all themes that are recurrent in her work. "I am intertwined (or married) to the wilder parts of my inner voice" – Jennifer says – and "I enjoy aspects of clarity within the chaos of the psychic river that carves pathways through the forest."

A nemophilist is someone who loves the forest. For this exhibition, Jennifer Gillia Cutshall symbolically refered to the word "forest" to describe the lush dreamscape that haunts her psyche. Intuition has always played a role in her art process, echoing her subconscious and her point of view as an empath. As the artist explained: "I consider all artists to be empaths (of sorts), tuning in to the world with a unique sensitivity."

Jennifer's interest in the artist as empath extends beyond the brush, linking back to her paternal grandmother: a NYC psychic that, even if she never hung a neon sign to attract business, became highly sought after (by famous entertainers and politicians).