This artist wants you to come out of your shell — and clothes.
Debbie Baxter, 44, is snapping photos of men and women willing to strip down and curl up inside a human-sized bird’s nest as part of her photography collection about vulnerability and rebirth.
Anyone willing to trek to Boerum Hill’s Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, can give it a crack.
“The Nest Project” hatched after Baxter hand-shaped a roost out of twigs, straw, leaves, moss and dirt in her backyard.
“It was a way of putting myself back in the womb and in this space of unconditional love and holding,” she said.
For Baxter, it was a way to connect to her childhood and address a painful relationship with — and an early separation from — her mother, who suffers from mental illness.
Happy with the result, the Portland-based photographer made a new nest open to the public on a cliffside in Oregon.
“About 22 people came and the photographs were incredibly moving,” said the mother of two.
She has since built a dozen nests, including ones at Burning Man and the Women’s March in Washington D.C. She’s in Brooklyn now because she likes New York City. She’s photographed close to 300 people.
The experience is meant to help people strip away their stress and pain while embracing Mother Nature.
“When you take it all away we’re all the same. We all came out of a pu–y,” Baxter chuckled. “People can really shed their fears and worries.”
Each subject is asked to think of a theme while posing — such as trust, home or nurture.
The artist spends a day gathering twigs, vines, weeds, grasses, reeds, hay and lavender and gradually builds the bowl-like structure by weaving the elements together.
Perched atop a 7-foot ladder, Baxter snaps photos from a bird’s-eye view. It’s up to the subject to decide what to bare — and it’s often their souls.
“For some people it’s just a fun thing to try out, but for others it’s about sharing their story,” she said. “One time I had a pro basketball player strip down and tell me the story of how he lost his parents.”
A mother and daughter posed while embracing after being alienated for many years.
“It was a powerful moment of connection,” she said.
At her first public session in Brooklyn on Thursday, Baxter clipped four white sheets to a clothesline in the far right corner of the garden as a “dressing room” and private photo area.
Carrie Asby, 46, of Ridgewood, was excited to go au natural.
She climbed in the 4-foot-wide nest and curled up in a fetal position.
Baxter placed a pink cherry blossom in Asby’s hand as a final touch and spent 10 minutes snapping away.
“It was much more peaceful than I thought,” said Asby. “ I was worried it would be wet and cold, but once I got in, I felt protected and just wanted to take a nap.”
