Listening Through the Body with Erin Desmond

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Desmond.

Hi Erin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been an artist and I’ve always been hyper-aware of my body. My art evolved as an exploration of senses and perception, as well as an expression of an insatiable longing for embodied human connection. This exploration took me from painting to photography to video to performance art, a path that began with homeschool and community college. After earning art degrees from UCLA and Yale, but feeling disenchanted by the institution, I was working three jobs in LA to afford both housing and an art studio where I barely had time to make art, but still hoped I could prove my worth as an artist.

Then one day I got run over by a car. The seconds where I thought my life was over changed everything for me. I somehow emerged physically unscathed, but gratitude had hit me, shifting my entire outlook on life. I knew I needed to help people heal. Serendipitously, I discovered Somatic Experiencing. This trauma healing modality utilizes a language of the senses that was already familiar to me through my process of making art. Studying somatics felt like a natural evolution of my work. But now I wasn’t just performing–I was facilitating immediate, embodied change in people’s lives through releasing stuck fight/flight/freeze responses and creating more capacity for coherence and flow within the nervous system. I’ve had the privilege of studying in person with somatic therapy pioneer Dr. Peter Levine, as well as many other healers, practitioners and teachers in the healing arts. What I’ve learned about the body, the nervous system and trauma resolution has made all of the art I’ve ever created make sense.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper–beyond the turning point you shared, what other challenges have you had to overcome?
I used to see the limitations and conventions of the artworld as obstacles. However, I’ve come to understand that I have more power than that and I am, in fact, my own greatest obstacle. During this time in the world we need free thinkers, rule breakers and fierce lovers. We can’t stop to ask for permission or wait on someone or something outside of ourselves to move. We need to create new systems and new platforms for expression and connection. For me, this kind of movement has required an inner alignment through listening to my spirit speak through my body, learning to hold myself through pain and uncertainty, and developing a strong inner compass and sense of self-trust. I’ve become aware of how seeking external validation can water down and commodify my expression. Now I’m giving my art practice permission to be what it wants to be. Even if it’s raw and still in-process, or in between disciplines and hard to define–I can feel its aliveness and its insistence on being shared.

Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about your practice itself. What should we know about your work?
Using a conglomeration of relational, tactile and lens-based mediums, I create sensory experiences that evoke internal movement within viewers or participants. My practice now extends beyond an art context, and yet I still consider my relational healing work to be art. Often centered around resolving womb-related trauma, my healing work ranges from one-on-one sessions in my Venice bungalow, to workshops in community spaces, to interactive somatic activations in galleries or other art venues. My experiences as a practitioner deeply inform my continued process of making photos, sculptures, installations and performances. My artwork is healing and my healing work is art.

Can you talk to us about what makes you happy?
Aside from living by the beach and watching the sunset from inside the ocean–and perhaps not unrelated–I’m immensely grateful for the feeling of being at home in my body. Life has led me to discover that my longing for other bodies could only be satiated through fully embracing myself. Simultaneously, I feel indescribable joy when supporting the somatic transformation taking place within another person as they return home to their own body–or perhaps it’s the body returning to the soul. Witnessing this phenomenon is a feeling of being both firmly grounded and completely free, as if I’m flying while deeply rooted to the earth. That’s when I know all is well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.erindesmond.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erindesmond/
• Other: https://www.bodyofwater.co

Image Credit:

Opening II (Secret), 2023
UV pigment print on wood
12 × 18 × 2 1/2 inches

Crowning VI (Oliver, Fall Creek Lake), 2019
archival pigment print and resin on plexiglass
22 x 19 3/16 inches

Untitled (Seaweed Curtain), 2020
Archival pigment print
24 x 16 inches

Emergent Behavior (video still from performance)
Gallery Common, Tokyo, 2023

As Within So Without (video still from performance)
The Hollywood Hills House, Los Angeles, 2025