HEART of Nature is the manifestation of yearning for a world that recognizes how humans treat each other is reflected in humanity’s relationship with the environment. Nsai Temko has spent years creating original characters and stories that capture their concern for environmental conservation, the need for Black and Queer representation, political unrest, and a deep belief in magic. As a loving ode to nature enthused whimsy, this gallery includes paintings of a world mechanic from Nsai’s story, Naturan. They’re called pieces of nature, and serve as a reconciliation of death and ecosystem conservation. This gallery holds multimedia works capturing the journeys of Imerical July, a humanoid plant of a goddess’s dreams, and Jackie Summers, the dream leech fighting sunchild. May this gallery remind you that YOU are an agent of our ecosystem with the bugs, birds, bears and trees.
Nsai Temko is an emerging artist, environmentalist, and community organizer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nsai began creating poetry zines and vending them under Nsai’s Poetry at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair in 2016. Since then, Nsai has performed poetry, starred in independent plays, created a webcomic named Naturan, authored short stories zines, published in various anthologies, and served as a teaching artist. Nsai has been a part of Dream’s of Hope TheatriQ ensemble, served as teaching artist with Assemble, The Black Transformative Arts Network, and Tree Pittsburgh. They received their Bachelor’s from Emory University and wrote a thesis on developing an ecocentric narrative structure in 2023. Nsai’s mission is to bring people closer to each other and the environment.
