Embodiment



Spring 2025 | Columbia University GSAPP
Instructor: Mario Gooden

These selections from the Alien School of Drawing Epistemology and Liberation Workshop are a series of experimental drawings that explore my own bodily relationships with earth, water, air, plantae, insecta, and animalia.

Alongside three-minute films for each of the elements, they uncover personal and spiritual relationships of understanding and practice. The drawings don’t always fit flat on the page. They sometimes fall off or bleed through, or instead materialize as texture or atmosphere.

The visualization reveals a more “true” representation of the subject than a photo of the subject itself.














Insecta









Animalia










Plantae






















marly.mcneal@columbia.edu