Thoughts on connecting as an artist to our planet

 I have been so enjoying having an indoor outdoor studio this season. The chill is starting now, but it was sweet! The funny thing was that when I was starting to get ready for Paradise, feeling the urgency kick in, I found myself building a work bench and saying to myself wtf! what are you doing!? You need to make art! But a wise friend said- if this is where your heart is, there must be a good reason. And Yes- it was the key to getting things done this fall- I love having that space to work in! Keeps me connected to what is important to me, to my art, to the time that we are in- connected to the wonder of the outdoors! The sounds of crickets, noticing a coyote crossing the back, smelling fall come on, feeling the breeze. Yes! this is definitely worth living, working, fighting for. Lets keep this beautiful planet alive!

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I picked these two up from the foundry a bit ago and finally got a good skin on them both. The smaller Persephone and a larger version of a little piece I made a while ago. I still need to come up with a good title for him!

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I'm really excited by these clocks. I only managed 4 of them, but it is enough for the experiment to see how everyone at the show will like them- each a little different. The blue is not permanent- it is masking tape so I can sand blast the face and expose the deeper wood grain.  All of my work recently (and really if you look at older work, you would see an ongoing thread) seems to be about life cycle, the simultaneity of time. We are part of this gorgeous earth and we too have death and decay happening at the same time as birth and growth. It is not a linear projection. Nor is it a balance of good and bad. It is a continuous flow of overlapping cycles. Breathing in and Breathing out. Building and decaying. 

I can feel a longer essay working itself up. I am beginning to see that it is essential that we recon with our fear of death- that we focus on not just building things but also on being aware of a healthy decay. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could know that each and every thing that we use will continue to be used by other beings after we are done with it. Like caterpillar poop being part of the fertile and living dirt, and rotting wood, home to so many insects and organisms who break it down to wonderful dirt. There is such beauty in decay- exposing the interior structure and using the materials over in new ways. Why do we think it is ok to create waste that is poisonous? How do we get out of this pattern?

I do not say this from a place of having figured it all out- I am in the middle of this mess with everyone else. Feeling the urgency, grateful to Greta for speaking out and inspiring us to wake up. We are not evil. But we have been very selfish and short sighted as a culture, as a species. And we need to shift our priorities. In a big way. Now.