The Brain In The Woods — Asha Canalos

‘The Brain In The Woods,’ an in-progress graphic novel, features dual narratives, following two distinct characters in different decades. One is the autobiographical account of my life as an artist and farmer who was pushed to become an anti-fracking activist in upstate New York in 2011, taking on a community representative role in a federal pipeline case. It details, among other things, my 2012 arrest for NVDA protest, the U.S. Court of Appeals hearing in which Brett Kavanaugh was a judge, the subjection of my community to oil & gas related illness, harm, threats, and unwarranted governmental surveillance, and overlapping life challenges, leading to my relocation to New Mexico in late 2015.

A second narrative concerns the fictional story of an artist and garden designer, Silvio, who leaves Brooklyn, New York, to renovate the grounds of a wealthy couple’s historic estate in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1990s, at a time when the first energy industry fracking prospecting was occurring in the region. During the throes of becoming ill with Lyme Disease, he discovers that others are covertly living on the massive wooded property, and faces a moral conundrum about this information and its disclosure to anyone.

Image: Detail from next artwork, ‘Sly Spying at Owlton.’

‘Sly Spying at Owlton.’ Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18.” 2026.

Detail from ‘Sly Spying at Owlton.’

Drawing on research in fields including neurobiology, plant biology, ecology, and environmental policy, 'The Brain In The Woods' focuses on the interdependent welfare of landscapes, communities, minds and bodies as felt and lived realities. The two narratives- through text and through their corresponding sets of painted, hand-drawn collages- ask us to look at the connections between harmed land and harmed people, and conversely, to acknowledge the potential resilience of the body, and the living landscape all around us, in the face of trauma, oppressive forces and harm.

‘Neurological Pathway I (Motherwort).’ Acrylic, ink, colored pencil on collaged archival paper with risograph print overlay, 16" x 11". 2025.

Intrinsic to both narratives of ‘The Brain In The Woods’ is the threat of trauma and harm-not only to the land, environmentally, but to our neurological systems. A neurological reality connects the two characters through space and time. This world is traversed through neural pathways.

The project also investigates the reclaiming of these paths, the defense of an inner landscape, an iteration of the peace and space that is needed for both individual and collective healing.

‘Neurological Pathway II Motherwort).’ Acrylic, ink, colored pencil on collaged archival paper with risograph print overlay, 16" x 11". 2025.

I see my nervous system as a landscape, a place that is made of my being, a place made of all that I am. It is a stormy electrical forest, with salty marshes and tidal seas, and bursts of impulses lighting up the sky like lightning and fireworks happening together. Ancient brine holds ancient memories and laps at the shores and tributaries. Wild flowers and fruits discover the memories and transmute them, adapt them. Occasionally, clean-up crews emerge to collect the debris from broken ideas for the never-ending bonfire. Everywhere is the fecundity and wonder of life emerging from decay, embers, and failed things.

The welfare of landscapes, communities, minds and bodies is all interdependent, these are felt and lived realities that co-exist and co-create.

‘Lambsquarters on A Path: Up A Slope.’ Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 17” x 11.5.” 2025.

This distinct internal world of mine is connected to other landscapes, the landscapes of others. At the edges of your landscape is my landscape. They are different, and also not so different. Here and there- much like neighborhood parks, or shared gathering spaces within communities, there are also communal neurological landscapes- those which unite our needs and sense of purpose. They’re not to be ignored. Sometimes we can only heal ourselves and our broader communities when we occupy these shared conceptual and feeling places.

‘Lambsquarters on A Path: Information-Sharing.’ Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 17” x 11.5.” 2025.

‘Arrival at Owlton, South Gate.’ Acrylic, ink and colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18.” 2026.

In ‘The Brain In The Woods,’ actual, semi-fictional and more abstract neural landscapes all unite; they are on the same playing field, examining the same truths.

Detail from previous image, ‘Arrival at Owlton, South Gate.’

‘Strip-search, Paused By a Female Officer Because a Camera Was On, Orange County Sheriff’s Office Jail Room, Goshen, NY.’ Acrylic, ink and colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18.” 2026.

In these narratives, trauma itself is explored not only as an emotional/bodily/ecological phenomenon, but also as a lightning rod for change; the moment or embodiment of a catalyst initiating the alchemy of transformation in the world. Here, the line between 'victim' and ‘warrior' is often blurred. My goal with this work is to connect often fragmented wholeness: the victim and warrior, the personal and universal, the individual and community, and the body and the land.

Detail from ‘Strip-search, Paused By a Female Officer Because a Camera Was On, Orange County Sheriff’s Office Jail Room, Goshen, NY.’

‘Symbols of What’s Happening To The Land I,’ segment of a larger wall installation for the exhibit ‘Into The Woods of Your Brain {Spies, Lies and Nice Tries}’ at Fourteenfifteen Gallery in Albuquerque, NM. Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on collaged archival paper, approx. 16” x 16,” 2026.

‘Symbols of What’s Happening To The Land II,’ segment of a larger wall installation for the exhibit ‘Into The Woods of Your Brain {Spies, Lies and Nice Tries}’ at Fourteenfifteen Gallery in Albuquerque, NM. Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on collaged archival paper, together approx. 16” x 16,” 2026.

‘Symbols of What’s Happening To The Land III,’ segment of a larger wall installation for the exhibit ‘Into The Woods of Your Brain {Spies, Lies and Nice Tries}’ at Fourteenfifteen Gallery in Albuquerque, NM. Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on collaged archival paper, together approx. 16” x 16,” 2026.

Still from short animation, ‘See you Later Snake.’ Image: Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on collaged archival paper and vellum, approx. 15” x 9,’ 2026.

‘Return of the Light.’ Acrylic, ink, colored pencil on collaged archival paper, 16” x 14". . 2026.

‘Barred Owls and a Beam of Light Emerging From a Hole in the Ground Behind Them.’ Asha Canalos. Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil, ink, on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18.” 2026.

Detail from ‘Barred Owls and a Beam of Light Emerging From a Hole in the Ground Behind Them.’

Detail from ‘Barred Owls and a Beam of Light Emerging From a Hole in the Ground Behind Them.’

‘Datura, Mallow, Juniper, Sage.’ Colored pencil and ink on vellum, 8” x 14..” 2019.

‘U.S. Court of Appeals Hearing, Minisink vs. Millennium Pipeline and The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington D.C.' Circuit.’ Colored pencil, ink and acrylic on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18,” 2026.

Detail from ‘U.S. Court of Appeals Hearing, Minisink vs. Millennium Pipeline and The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington D.C.' Circuit.’

‘Silvio, Clearing the Garden Pathway, Suddenly Hears Thocking Noises From Around the Bend of the Creek.’ Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18,” 2026.

Detail from ‘Silvio, Clearing the Garden Pathway, Suddenly Hears Thocking Noises From Around the Bend of the Creek.’

‘The Brain In The Woods.,’ Acrylic, colored pencil, and ink on collaged archival paper, 24” x 18,” 2026.