I have been foraging, grinding, mixing, cooking, and teaching about natural dyes and pigments and their historical methodologies for over twenty five years. My initial engagement was to make and use them as paint. Gradually these raw actors asserted their voices more loudly; material comes with its own language, syntax. I listened- delved into the history and context, the science, the uses in culture, conquest and commerce. I collaborate more and intervene less, for a meaning rooted in physicality. Material feminism and culture influences my work, often infused with grief and mourning for the violence and devastation of the world. In a solastalgic act I lament, rage, and celebrate the inescapable material conditions of being in a body.