I am Alexandra

an invitation…

“my skin, the color of rich soil, a place to root a forest or jungle. Yearning for the warmth of sun, thirsty for a summer storm. Growing in vibrant gratitude and love. Dancing between shadow and light, what a daylight to be awakened and alive. I thrive creating the story of divine remembrance of who we are and where we are. nested in our corner of the stars on this cozy, beautiful, little planet called Earth…”

—alexandra paradis @theuntamedframe

The call has always been to be of service to the wild, natural world. In my belief system, everything has a soul. I always could feel that these beings: plants, trees, animals, even our planet— they all had sentience. I didn’t need science to help prove that for me…

Science is catching up, studies have shown that dolphins have the concept of names within their pod. Trees send help to other trees that are sick, or have been cut down. Some ant colonies have medical ants to help those that have been injured. Jumping spiders are thought to dream. Water, has memory— being able to create a frozen structure that looks like the image it froze upon. Water, microscopically, can also react to words (aka frequency). “ I love you’s,” turn water drops into beautiful ‘snowflakes,’ while “ I hate you’s,” turn water into structures just as disturbing as the sentence.

I could go on. truly.

Remember, just because we do not speak the same language as the other— human, or many legged, winged and scaled… does not mean they cannot communicate and understand. These voices of other beings are LOUD, and I have felt a deep call to listen, and help spread their voice to those who are still learning to understand.

It is a great honor to be in service to them, as one of many channels. How we receive their messages may differ person to person, and that’s the beauty of every conversation not always the same.

Trust that the frequency of emotion expands larger than any verbal language.

My goal with my work is to help create a greater empathy for those beings that are not of the human race. to remind our species that we are not the only living beings on our Earth that are wanting to live— thrive, not just survive.

its time to stop behaving like we are.

I truly believe it all starts with us, as individuals. For if we can have empathy and love for ourselves, truly understanding the inner working of our own, unique, complexity— we can start having it for one another, and then that can extend to our more furry, scaled, winged and photosynthetic neighbors.

So, I leave you with this. We are all living on borrowed time, what are you going to do with yours? Advocating for the natural world through art and poetic, channeled, writing is what I choose to do with mine.

an insight to where it all began…

first off, I would love to extend my deepest gratitude to you, my dear friends and family… maybe even friends I have yet to meet— for taking a glimpse inside the dream I have been nourishing for as long as I can remember. Just a click into this web weaving site means so much to me.

If this is our first introduction, my name is Alexandra Paradis— a lot of people are really surprised that “Paradis” is in fact my last name and not a promotional tool haha.

I was born in the heart of Guatemala— a Mayan, who’s path was to be adopted by my loving, ever-giving, and supportive parents and grow up in a small coastal town in New England. Without them, none of this would be possible.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for gifting me this very fortunate life… believing in me and supporting me through all the ebbs and flows, great mystery of my journey, and yours. I love you.

I was lucky, for at the age of 10, on a family vacation in Aruba, I was trusted with the family digital compact camera. Ever since that trip, I thought how amazing it was to be able to take things I loved most about a place home with me in the form of some photographs (and yes I still have the first ever photos I ever took in a photo album in my closet).

This amazement blossomed into a passion, a dream to capture the beauty I loved about this world through photography. I saved up for my first camera at the age of fifteen, and even created a class plan for the re-emergence of the photography class in high school.

Outside of school, I grew up going to church every Sunday, and in the heart of my teenage years I began to wonder why we praised a “God” inside, when the creation of said “God” was outside— all around us. For as long as I can remember, I was always a child who loved to be outside in nature, Mother Earth. From the crawling worms and roly-poly bugs in the mud of my backyard, the crabs in the tide pools I would capture and release as a toddler, to the whales that swam just off the coast of where I grew up… the winds whispered, the birds sang, and it always felt like nature and I had our own secret language. This language taught me something other than religion, that led me down my own spiritual, and elemental path, that has only become more and more clear as I write this in my late twenties.

In my time on Earth, I have had a beautiful childhood, a not-so-easy middle school/ high school experience, and a successful university experience— graduating with a bachelors degree in Environmental Science, and a double minor in Marine Biology, and Art, and traveling to 12 other countries, 2 territories, and 28 states. Seeing and documenting the wonders of Aruba, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica (twice), Belize, Ireland and Ecuador/ Galápagos Islands, lived in Australia for a month, lived in Indonesia for four months, traveled our country of the U.S in multiple road trips, only to find myself in Iceland, Italy, France, Azores, Puerto Rico, French Polynesia and now residing in the beautiful islands of Hawai’i.

Every challenge, blessing and prayer in my life has led me to this beautiful now. I am grateful for every woe and weary, for every laugh and cry, for it has led me to a path across the land, below the sea and through the sky… getting to share my gifts of digital, multi-media art, and writing with you.