Aiyana Sultan finds that the earth is always yielding new things for her art.
By Alana Merritt Mahaffey
“…My stick had done nor harm nor good… [his] bones beaching in the sunlight / Beautiful as architecture…”
So goes a few lines of Richard Ebehart’s poem “The Groundhog,” in which a nameless narrator revisits a slowly decomposing groundhog as it devolves from life into bone. The narrator, and seemingly the poet, finds a quiet but unsettling beauty in this decay.
For Aiyana Sultan, local natural findings artist, beauty, too, is found. At age 16, she explored painting, mostly, and enjoyed forest walks with her mother. Together they harvested moss, mushrooms, and quartz. “We just foraged,” she recalls.
Sultan learned how to preserve all manner of wildlife from drying for display to “wet” preservation, most often in jars. It was during one of these walks that her craft found inspiration and a course.
“I had this shadow box. I took some of the foraged moss and crystals, displaying them in a way that spoke to me as an artist. This included anything and everything nature had to offer: plant, animal, stone.”
She and her Aussie mix, Freya, roam her acreage looking for items and inspirations. “So many people familiar with my craft bring me things. Bones, animals. Rocks and crystals. Recently someone who cleans old glass and porcelain from Hot Springs Creek gave me a jar of glass pieces dating over a hundred years.”
Sultan has found success with sales in downtown boutiques and pop-up shops, as well as Etsy, and local farmers markets. You can browse her creations on Instagram at alluringdecayartistry and on Facebook: Alluring Decay Artistry.
