Art, Gardens, Horses, and Home: The Many Become One with Melissa Cowper-Smith
Event Type:
- Discussion, Presentation
Program:
- Process Explorations
Theme:
- Compassion, Creativity, and Global Citizenship
Featuring:
- Melissa Cowper-Smith and Jay McDaniel
Organizers:
- Center for Process Studies
Whitehead is famous for saying that, in each moment of our lives, “the many become one and are increased by one.” The phrase well describes the life of many an artist. Melissa Cowper-Smith is a living exemplar of the organic nature of an artist’s life, inspired by her many loves. She is drawn to the arts making visual art, tending the land, caring for horses, and helping people find a home.
Her visual art explores landscape, memory, and our relationship with nature, often using handmade paper made from plants she grows herself. She also helps farm Wildland Gardens on eight acres near Morrilton, Arkansas, growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruit, and fiber plants. Add to this her love of horses and her work helping people find homes and you have a creative and caring life inspired by multiple loves.
In this conversation, facilitated by Jay McDaniel, Melissa will share her story and images of her art, garden, horses, and homes, inviting us to consider how our own multiple loves might shape a meaningful life.
Featuring
Melissa Cowper-Smith is a Central Arkansas-based real estate professional, artist, and advocate for creative and land-based living. Originally from Alberta, Canada, she holds a Master of Arts from Hunter College in New York City and now lives near Morrilton, where she and her family created Wildland Gardens—a thriving space for growing regional plants, making art, and connecting with the land. Melissa is an award-winning artist and dedicated gardener, known for her botanical papermaking and the use of plants grown at Wildland Gardens. She actively supports Arkansas’s artists, craftspeople, and small-scale farmers, and values deep, place-based knowledge and creative, hands-on living. Whether growing herbs, sharing garden starts, or connecting with others through art, she believes in the richness of work that is rooted in care, tradition, and a sense of belonging. Find out more about her work at https://www.cowpersmith.com
Jay McDaniel is a philosopher and theologian known for his work in process theology and open and relational thought. Influenced by Alfred North Whitehead, his writing explores the relational nature of reality, the role of creativity in the universe, and the spiritual significance of everyday life. He has long been associated with the Center for Process Studies and with Open Horizons, where he helps develop resources that connect philosophy, spirituality, ecology, and the arts. McDaniel writes for both academic and general audiences, often drawing on literature, music, theater, and nature to illuminate philosophical ideas. His work emphasizes compassion, imaginative freedom, and the possibility of cooperative and sustainable communities. A teacher, essayist, and musician, he is especially interested in how process philosophy can enrich religious life, interfaith dialogue, and public culture. Through essays, courses, and collaborative projects, he seeks to make complex philosophical ideas accessible and practically meaningful for contemporary life.
RSVP for this Event
Free Online Event
Disclaimer: This event is open to the public and will be recorded. If you choose to enable your camera or participate in any discussions, your voice and likeness will be recorded, and may be posted on the Center for Process Studies websites and social media, or included in CPS materials and/or publications for noncommercial purposes. If you do not want your voice or likeness to be shared in any public venues, please send an email to optout@ctr4process.org.
