Following Muse: An Interview with herbalist, writer, and collage artist, Sabrina Rose Nelson
Welcome to our new series, Following Muse, Interviews with Self-Employed Creatives, Makers, and Healers. Our mission with this new series is to introduce you to your peers in various industries and provide some inspiration for your own work or dreams. The people around us are beautiful mirrors that show us hidden aspects of ourselves, desires we didn’t know we had, and the parts of ourselves that perhaps we would like to focus on more often. This is also part of our effort to focus on community over competition. This is a space where we can support one another, lift each other up, and praise each other’s gifts and talents.
So, without further ado, I am so honored to introduce you to Sabrina Rose Nelson! She is an herbalist, collage artist, writer and we had so much fun getting to know her. Let’s dive in!
Sabrina Rose Nelson
https://www.moonbeamherbs.com || https://www.sabrinarosenelson.com
Tell us a bit about who you are and the creative work you do:
I'm Sabrina, a writer, collage artist & herbalist. I'm a leo sun by day, cancer moon by night.
Earlier this year I opened up Moonbeam Herbs, a line of plant potions for cyclical beings, herbal medicines (teas, tinctures, salves, oils, & some other things as well) formulated to a help others heal their menstrual cycle, realign with their natural rhythms, and remember their magic.
My writing and collage work are grounded in grief, lineage, nature, pain, and the body.
For me, creating is a way to alchemize grief and pain into power, connection, and healing. I view my work both as an artist and as an herbalist as an exploration, crystallization, and transference of specific emotional experiences. How am I feeling, and how can I capture that with words? What does moonlight feel like, and how can I formulate and bottle that up using plants?
They're also both deeply influenced by my own physical experience. I've gotten excruciatingly painful migraines every since I was 11, and had harrowing menstrual pain for almost as long. My grandmother died from cancer when I was 6, my father when I was 13, and my great aunt right after that, so physical dis-ease has been a present force in my life. A lot of my work is centered around that liminal experience.
What is your cultural background or upbringing?
I was born in Enumclaw, Washington, a small town with more cows than people.
From there I lived all over the pacific northwest, from Bend Oregon to Seattle to Port Townsend. I went to college in Portland, and so didn't really leave the pnw until after I graduated. That played a pretty big role in my life, or at least in my love for pine trees, salmon, espresso and the pacific ocean.
What are your big picture, big dream visions for your life, and what you do?
1. Create honest art, and never stop going deeper.
2. Create herbal potions that help others have better menstrual cycles and feel more at home in their bodies.
3. Love as deeply as I can.
What projects are you currently working on that you are excited about?
I have two answers to this question!
The first is a bundle of medicines specifically for menstrual cramps that I'm putting out at the end of 2021. It'll have a tea, a salve, a tincture, and a heating pack (that part is in collaborating with the beautiful Vida of Beloved Packs), and some other magic-- basically, everything I use in my own life when I'm going through a painful period.
The second is a collection of poems and collage art exploring my relationship with my father, and the complex grief around his death I'm still trying to process over a decade later. It's in the early stages of its creative life, but it's been a long time coming.
What are your biggest pain points as a creative? As a small business owner?
I think creativity is inherently at least a little bit painful, as much of the best art involves wading into the darkness. Clarissa Pinkola Estés writes that good art should leave a "small sweet bruise" somewhere on both the writer and the reader. And if your art involves other (living) people... the conversations that arise with them can be pretty painful.
More to the business angle, sustainability is a huge one. I run an e-commerce business, which in general as an industry creates an enormous amount of waste. Almost all of my packaging is plastic free and much of it is biodegradable, but there are elements of business that feel inherently wasteful. Figuring out the most sustainable way to run things (ESPECIALLY shipping) can be really difficult and time consuming.
How do you get yourself into a flow state to create? Do you have any rituals you enjoy performing?
Whenever I'm feeling stuck, whether that be with writing or art or herbal formulation, I use poetry as an entry point. Nothing feels as electric to me as a good poem. Some of the ones I've been reaching for lately are "Winter" by Chen Chen and "The Tree of Fire" by Ada Limón. I'm also an absolute devotee of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and often revisit my dog-eared copy of Women Who Run With the Wolves. There's also a tea blend I drink when I really want to sink into that creative space-- it's a blend of damiana, blue lotus, rose and mugwort that I call "the muse."
What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
Play in the ocean.
Are there any cycles of nature that you pay attention to? How do you align your life with them?
Cyclicality in general plays a big role in my life. I'm very attuned to the cycles of the moon (for the astrology-minded, my chart is very cancer-heavy). I allow my cycles of rest and creation to mirror the moon (Sarah Faith Gottesdiener has some phenomenal writing around this).
Near the dark moon, I sleep in more and generally adopt a slower pace for dreaming and visioning, whereas near the full moon I am in more active creation mode. I also tend to my herbal garden according to the cycles of the moon. My menstrual cycles follow the cycles of the moon pretty closely, which sort of naturally aligns my own energy with the moon.
What's the closest thing to real magic in your opinion?
Kissing.
What’s inspiring to you lately?
There are 3 poets whose work I've really been immersed in lately: Ada Limón, Joy Harjo and Chen Chen. They're all incredible artists and they've been taking my breath away daily.
Mia Ohki's art has also been a huge inspiration to me lately, I just framed a couple of prints I got of hers and I can't stop staring at them.
And Banks, always! Her music has been the soundtrack of the last 7 years of my life.
How do you find inspiration?
Looking at the moon, being around trees, paying attention to my dreams, crying, gardening, looking at my partner, drinking way too much french press, looking at old photographs and reading old journals, inhabiting my physical body.
Favorite song(s) of the moment?
Favorite way to connect with your six senses?
Scent! I am all about scent.
This year I dove into the world of botanical perfumery, and I'm obsessed.
My favorite grounding ritual is burying my head in my partner. And I'm all about incense as well. I've been burning a cedarwood and fir blend a lot lately during my creative practices.
