This is the sixth and final (for now) week of ephemeral art installations in nature, which makes 30 installations in total! I’m sure that I’ll be making more of these in the future, but for now, we’ve decided to get back into our home base area of Santa Cruz so I can work on some commissioned pieces in the studio and we can check in with family and friends. I hope that you have enjoyed these pieces as I’ve been hiding out in our van in nature, it’s been really fun to make them!
death valley, californiadeath valley, californiasequoia national forest, californiasequoia national forest, californiasequoia national forest, california
Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
well, I was off the grid and missed getting this post out to you all last week, but I was still busy being creative…
enjoy!
blm land, arizonablm land, arizonamojave national preserve, californiamojave national preserve, california
Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…
tonto national forest, arizonatonto national forest, arizonacoronado national forest, arizonacoronado national forest, arizonacoronado national forest, arizona
Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
you’ll notice as the landscape changes, I kind of got obsessed with a trees instead of rocks this week… enjoy!
Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…
grand staircase escalante, utahgrand staircase escalante, utahcoconino national forest, arizonacoconino national forest, arizona
Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…
valley of fire, nevadagrand staircase escalante, utahgrand staircase escalante, utahgrand staircase escalante, utahgrand staircase escalante, utah
Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…
day two Mojave National Preserve CAday three Mojave National Preserve CAday four Mojave National Preserve CAday five Mojave National Preserve CAday six Mojave National Preserve CAday seven Valley of Fire NV
Since I’ve been asked by quite a few people (including a park ranger), I just want to clarify that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!
Well, these are definitely weird and perplexing times. As everyone around the world is trying to reinvent the way that they do their jobs, care for their families and go about their day, we are doing the same by reworking all of our plans for this year.
Right now we should be driving through the desert of Baja, eating fish tacos on fresh made tortillas and swimming in warm waters, but we’re not. I had hoped to create some works at the Taller de Terreno studio as we camped out on our adjacent property in Todos Santos, but that’s not happening either. Our multi-month North America road trip has been rerouted to only include the US, not Mexico or Canada and rather than go see art and cultural events in cities while visiting with friends, we plan to stay out in nature instead. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lesson in how to make flexibility the key to our planning these days.
Please note: Before you say ‘Why are they traveling at all?’, if you don’t know this already, we live full time in our converted, self-contained van, so technically we are staying home, our home just happens to be wherever we park it. That said, we are being responsible in our travel, only getting groceries as needed, no campgrounds, hotels, restaurants and we’re staying away from crowds. Luckily we are set up to stay out in nature like this for a long time.
Ok, so with that note out of the way, what exactly IS my plan to create art in the time of Coronavirus? Before we left the studio, I loaded up the van with a few bags of clay and some tools to make some art on the go. Taking inspiration from nature and really connecting to a sense of place, I plan to create small, ephemeral, site-specific works in nature. I’ll be documenting them and then removing them (no littering in nature!). I’m intrigued to see how these installations will simultaneously document where we go in our travels and how i respond to those places from a creative perspective. Maybe all of the images will all end up in a book in the end – we’ll see! I’ll post the photos on my Instagram feed and here on the ‘the dirt’ in weekly posts. Hope you enjoy this process and hope you are all staying healthy out there!
On the recommendation of a friend we ventured out to Naoshima Island, taking every possible means of public transportation to get there but as the brochure says – if you like art, architecture and nature, then this is your place – and it totally was. The island is dotted with site specific, modern, minimalist sculptures and museums all of which play with the natural beauty of the island and the South Seto Sea.
(l to r) Yayoi Kusama, Walter De Maria & Lee Ufan
Many of the indoor places you were not allowed to take photos, so there is a lot that is not pictured here, which was honestly kind of nice to just experience the spaces and the art. They also timed the entrances into spaces so that you could enjoy them as they were intended rather than in a space squished with tourists from wall to wall. I imagine that if the Louve showed the Mona Lisa in this way, it would be a completely different experience viewing her. It was a good reminder that slowing down and focusing on what you are seeing is way more important than getting that perfect photo.
(l to r) Sou Fujimoto, SANAA an architecture studio led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa & Cai Guo-Qiang
We also visited the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park which was a little bit of a research trip for me. The have a very coveted residency program there I would love to apply for at some point in the next few years. So I reached out to my circle of clay friends and was able to meet with the program director to get a tour of the studios, kilns and the grounds. Now that I’ve been there, and seen how amazing their facilities are, I want to go even more! Fingers crossed for this in the future.
shigaraki ceramic cultural park (l to r) gigantic 5.2 cubic meter gas kiln, entrance sign to the park & one of the many ceramic installations
By now, we are actually back in California, and in-between saying hi to everyone that we’ve missed for months and going through our ridiculous pile of mail, we already planning our next adventure. Next up is a North America road trip, so stay tuned for more art, studio visits and a little bit of actual art making. Thanks for joining me on this amazing adventure!
Japan has been on my mind for 20+ years, I have no idea why it took that long for me to finally get my body here. Even after all that anticipation, it did not disappoint.
We flew into Tokyo, took in the sites and the food! We were here during the off season, which meant that we kind of got the best of both worlds. Beautiful snowy days when we ventured up into the mountains in Nagano and we got the first hints of spring with premature cherry trees starting to blossom in the city. It was not hard to find beauty here.
The Tokyo National Museum houses some of the oldest ceramics I’ve ever seen, the horse is from 500AD and the vessels are from 11,000-7,000BC, the forms and decoration are striking. The history of clay here is real and humbling. Juxtapose that with the modern crowdsourced art project my husband was adding to – Tokyo has got it all. Being able to buzz around the country on the Shinkansen we adventured all over and eventually worked our way south to Kyoto.
(l to r) My husband contributing to a crowd sourced art project, a banner from a JR Inside/Out event & early ceramics from the Tokyo National Museum
Kyoto is an eye-candy of a city; with its traditional architecture, geishas and multitude of shrines and temples all mixed up with the attributes of any modern city. One of our favorite finds was a once a month flea market filled with antique kimonos, fabrics, bonsai plants and food stalls. And the food, have I mentioned the food?
On a day trip to Hiroshima to take in the Peace Memorial and Museum, we also discovered the sculpture garden of the Contemporary Art Museum. I was surprised to find some of my favorite artists work in this gorgeous location.
Henry Moore, Magdelena Abakanowicz & Shingu Susumu at the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Arts
