Our Anatomy Project is a journey into the bodyscape, which is more than us and at the core of us - a landscape to which we deeply belong.
Jote Lamar and Lara Catone met through living in a cooperative household in Berkeley, CA, called Soma House. The purpose of Soma House was to support personal exploration and community events centered in somatics, communication, performance and the arts. Our Anatomy Project arose organically out of our co-living. Lara, a sex educator and writer, had been dreaming into this project for a number of years. As the founder of The Artemis School, a training program for educators in women’s holistic sexuality, she found it nearly impossible to find complete anatomical maps to aid in teaching. On a sunny afternoon Jote was painting and Lara began to share about her desire to create accurate and beautiful images of the anatomy of arousal for people with vulvas. Jote, who has made large scale sculptures inspired by vulvas, bones, tendons and the pulse before release, became very excited about bringing this project to life.
The co-creative process of participatory action research is naturalistic and emergent, inviting multiple ways of knowing. Embodiment and awareness practices are foundational for accessing the sensual and intuitive space from which we create independently and together.
Lara Catone (she/her)
Lara Catone is a writer, educator, leadership coach and scholar-practitioner focusing on transforming dynamics of gender and sexuality to harness relational power. All of her work is devoted to culture creation that fosters justice, equality, dignity, beauty, mutual power, epic love, and a thriving earth.
Lara has facilitated diverse groups of youth and adults for 20 years through experiential education. A certified Somatic Sexologist, she maintained a private women’s sexual wellness practice in Los Angeles for nine years working extensively with postpartum women. She is known as an innovator in somatic (body-based) healing and learning and for creating powerfully engaging, alchemical group spaces.
Lara is the founder of The Artemis School, offering adult sexuality education as well as training for health practitioners and sex educators. In 2014-2015 Lara produced the Sex Lab with Lara podcast. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership.
Lara’s work has been featured in Yoga Journal magazine, and she has been a featured speaker and guide at 1440 Multiversity, Lightning in a Bottle, Shakti Fest, and the Telluride Yoga Festival.
Lara lives in New York state as an inter-independent woman resourced through a constellation of relationships with humans and the wild earth.
Jote Lamar (they/them)
Art making is one of the ways Jote digests the poison of our times and redirects the power it holds. Jote Lamar is a queer, non-binary artist and activist listening to catch the stories and give form to the images that offer momentum to movements for positive change.
Personal stories and collective dreams guide their subject matter as they bring forward voices and stories that have been systematically silenced. Through this collaborative weaving, Jote creates imagery as an act of discovery and as a way of giving life to the new, healing mythologies of our time.