Georgia O’Keefe said once that she wanted real things – Music that makes holes in the skies. I love that statement. Indeed, it is part of my fabric and who I am. After those holes are made and the music flows the models and drawings evolve. It’s the joy and the challenge of art – to manifest the eternal using the mundane ( Mundane here means what’s physical, not that materials are mundane….). I have put in a fair amount of work for the installation that Dan Snow and I are doing in Oregon, but up to now, it’s all been on screen or on the drawing board. This is to be living sculpture that people will live with, generate their own relationships with. I wanted to see what it would be like to live with a very, very modest analog for my own experience.
With the help of some talented and patient men from Hilltown Tree and Garden, I maneuvered a large river cobble onto some granite cribbing. Plants from Prairie Moon nursery came the next day, and I was able to approximate the feel of what the final installation might be like.
I have always loved this particular river cobble. I had never ever seen any thing like it before, such a deep red with the ochrey marbling. It had sat half buried for the longest time, and I now had the ultimate spot for it. It proved easier to move than I imagined, and getting it onto the cribbing was straight forward as well. At first, it looked out of place there, but as I began to visually digest it, the piece really excited me. There’s a tension to the way the roundness of the cobble is perched on the straight edges of the granite – as if it may be a frozen moment. It’s also beautiful because you’re able to discern the total shape of the cobble, where before it was not legible. The color contrast is striking as well, and when the plants grow in, the soft greens of the vegetation will add another dimension and softness to the piece.
I am looking forward to living with the piece overtime and seeing how my relationship evolves with it, and how closely it approximates the installation in Oregon.
