An eight month Artist in Residence at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard MA.
The Transcendental Landscape Transformed
SACRED CIRCLE
Circles as format. Arches and pattern.
Created at human scale, with abundant entrances,
the viewer is a participant in this alignment activity.
ROCK GARDEN TUTORIAL
The classic garden at the Ryoanji Temple places an expectation upon the viewer. Patterns of raked gravel surrounding monumental stones present a language of seascape and islands. The ambition of this traditional rock garden is not representational. The design intent is an evocation of place.
The deep shade of a white pine grove – with its perfect vertical trunks and dappled sunlight – is a stage for this drama of buoyancy. Mass is redefined and belief is suspended as insubstantial sapling boats levitate boulders. The event provokes a visceral response. One’s body calculates the weight and is confounded.
Boats rely on the surface intersection of air and water. The boats in ROCK GARDEN TUTORIAL transform the sensation of solid. Weighty imaginings buoyed preposterously.
CENTERING
Long ago I collected a raven skull.
Its bleached white is a vivid contrast to the soot black of its vital owner.
Two raven skulls hung in a pair, poised over a grounded pair, beaks to beaks inspire meditation, centering.
A soundtrack accompanies this piece. It presents a lifetime of bird calls familiar to me: bobwhite and raven, magpie and cardinal, titmouse and chickadee. Birds from my homes in Alaska, Ohio, Oregon, New York and New Hampshire mingle in my memory as I seek to define a single balance point.
STRAW DRAW
Simple straw circles in a White Pine glade. All angles: vertical trunks, straight limbs, sharp needles. A pattern of sensations: Reds of the dropped needles; Bark dark of the trunks; Rich green of the live needles. A pattern of sharded light in sunshine - a burnt glow in overcast.
SNOW HAIKU
Sudden spring snow catches us all by surprise.
fiberglass, ceramic "birds"
4' x 12'x 21' high
PEER
A rather ordinary tree,
encumbered by invasives,
captured my attentions.
A puncture makes clear the sky beyond.
Lined in golden saplings.