Environmental illness patient + advocate, performance artist, and long-time Planet Thrive family member has been recognized in a feature article entitled MONET CLARK — Rise of Raven Woman in Couer + Art magazine. Over the years, when not battling a disabling cluster of conditions that include severe chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), and the concurrent homelessness that can come with these illnesses, Monet has tirelessly thrown herself into her myth-busting performance work. She deftly weaves environmentalism, eco-feminism, ableism, spirituality, and healing medicine into her performances. She is fearless with her work, as all artists using their own bodies to convey provocative themes and transformational experiences for their viewers are.
If you’d like to read more about Monet’s journey with CFS/MCS and how she healed from years of being bedridden so that she could continue her career in performance art, see our article/interview here: Life as art: healing from CFS, FMS, and MCS.
You can also learn more about her on her website monetclark.com.
Julie's life was derailed over twenty years ago when she had a very large organic mercury exposure after she naively used a mouth thermometer to measure the temperature of just-boiled milk while making her very first pizza at home. The mercury instantly expanded into a gas form and exploded out the back of the thermometer right into her face. Unaware that mercury was the third most neurotoxic element on Earth, Julie had no idea she had just received a very high dose of a poisonous substance.
A series of subsequent toxic exposures over the next few years -- to smoke from two fires (including 9/11), toxic mold, lyme disease, and chemical injuries -- caused catastrophic damage to her health. While figuring out how to survive day-to-day, and often minute-to-minute, she created Planet Thrive to help others avoid some of the misdiagnoses and struggles she had experienced.
She has clawed her way over many health mountains to get to where she is today. She is excited to bring the latest iteration of Planet Thrive to the chronic illness community.
In 2019, Julie published her very first cookbook e-book called Low Lectin Lunches (+ Dinners, Too!) after discovering how a low lectin, gluten free diet was helping manage her chronic fascia/muscle pain.
Thank you for continuing to bring these artists and their stories to us.