Dirt is Good at THAT ART FAIR

Dirt is Good Process-based, time-based soil installation 27 February – 1 March 2015 Created on the first day of THAT ART FAIR, in Salt River, I created this drawing/design by pouring soil from my garden into lines and neatening each line with a paint brush.

I invited Fair goers to add drawings and thoughts onto paper, which I then integrated into the drawing. Over the next two days of the Fair the installation changed as people walked over and through it. Passers-by thus collaborated by giving their thoughts as well as changing the soil drawing with their feet.

Passers-by collaborated by giving their thoughts as well as changing the soil drawing

So often we only value art that would last, and even outlast us. But how much more valuable is art and expression that captures our own fleeting nature and the impermanence of everything we experience. It is in the fleeing and present moment that we find real value – not in dwelling in the past, not in worrying about the future.

We have been conditioned to believe that dust and dirt is ‘bad’, and kids are now kept from playing the mud in the way that I used to play in the mud. We forget that the most nutritious and healthy foods come from the soil, and not a fridge, lab or factory.

I think it’s time to rethink and relook how we feel about the world around us.

Land Art on Sunset Beach

I was up this morning at 5h15, preparing for a morning of playing and creating on the beach from about 6h15. Diaan Mynhardt, a very talented photographer, joined to capture this human-nature co-creation, as well as artist Janet Ranson, who created a large-scale snaking kelp-installation. It was a morning filled with beauty and magical moments - including my utter delight of creating sand lines that partially get washed away by the very slowly-incoming tide. I also found the power of the water that pushes onto the beach astonishing - the rushing water flinging the pebbles against the sides of my bare feet and ankles.

I should add that I did get slighty agitated when the water kept washing away the small rocks before it was 'the right time', which then made me realise that it's an apt metaphor for life - things don't always work out the way that we want it to, but instead of fighting against it or getting unhappy about it, rather appreciate that there's so much other things that DO go well.

Sand Circles and Mud Patterns - collaboration

(Photograph by Darren Bruce Lyon)

Circles in the sand by Darren Bruce Lyon, also known as Das. He created these circles in the sand in front of the rocks I painted with mud, while participating in Andrew van der Merwe's Beach Calligraphy course during the Site_Specific Land Art bienalle. Resulting in an incidental creative collaboration! I love the way his geometric interlinking circles contrasts with the organic pattern I created on the rocks.

Creative Energy and Flow at Site_Specific

I was very privileged to be one of the artists for the 2013 Site_Specific International Land Art Biennale, held in Plettenberg Bay from 10-17 August. I met incredible artists, professionals and also members of the public (some as young as 5 years old, while others were retired and had a lot of experience and wonderful stories to share). I'd like to share the work that I did during the week...

Inspired and fascinated by the splatter patterns of water on sand,
the idea started to form around
the connection and borders
between land and sea. 

Sea to me = Spatters Waves Foam Water Flow

&

Land brought me to soil, mud, "grond"

Only after I started playing and experimenting with the mud on the sand and rocks did I find out about the ship that got stranded just up the coast towards Knysna and Wilderness, leaking oil. My artwork incidentally or accidentally gained a new layer of meaning.

"Flow" and "Riding the Wave" became slogans for my week - realizing I had to manage my energy levels, taking advantage of the inspiration and creative flow, because time seemed to fly past sooo quickly!

...The sands of time...

Painting with Mud.

Connecting with the rocks that has not yet eroded into sand.

Flow. Drift. Splatter

Flowing with clarity and energized focus.

Creating, Working

Being in the moment.

Drifting along, swept away by emotions.

Feelings, thoughts that ebb and flow like the tides.

While oil seep into the cracks of our survival.

Spluttering, Crashing against rock, 

hitting your head against a wall to leave your mark.

Flow, Focus, Have Faith

that you are in the right place at the right time.

That everything can be healed, washed away

By water. Or by Time.

 For images of work by the other Site_Specific artists and participants, go to: 

• pinterest.com/sitespecificafr/landartbiennale-photo-competition/
• facebook.com/events/418591894888932
• sitespecific.org.za
• landartsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2013/08/sitespecific-2013-huge-success.html

New work: A Perspective On Time

A Perspective on Time

Mixed Media on wood/board

36.8 x 32.3 cm (unframed)

2013

Part of my Beach Meditation series, which are inspired by land art that I created by placing or arranging found pebbles on the beach. Each of these land art pieces were made as a prayer or meditation. 

This particular painting is focused on time - the rings of circular 'sun' design being divided into 12 sections for the months of the year, into 24 sections for the hours within a day, and 28 lines symbolizing a moon cycle. The focus of this particular 'meditation' is about using our time wisely in ways that support our goals, priorities and dreams. 

I've been giving a lot of time away freely the last few years, and I've also wasted some time on doing things that made me neglect my own needs, as well as the people I love. I am learning to find a balance in the way that I spend my time, making sure that everything I choose to spend time on, is done for and with the right reasons and intention. 

Recent Land Art works

Mossel-sirkel
Dolphin Beach, Western Cape

Kampsbaai op Sunset Beach

The sand sprinkles or thrown onto the level/flat sand on Sunset Beach comes from Camp's Bay. This sand was collected from Camp's Bay for the Tread Upon installation, created at the Walk This Earth Alone exhibition, and was left over after the installation were done. Instead of returning it to where I found it, I displaced it further along the coast.

Vredeskring
Sunset Beach, Western Cape, August 2012

This is not a land art work, but an observation: To the left is a discarded battery, modified and transformed by the ocean's salt and water, in order to resemble the rock to the right:

5 rocks 
Sunset Beach, Western Cape, August 2012

Tread Upon

TREAD UPON, as part of "Walk This Earth Alone" art exhibition, hosted by the Gallery @ Grande Provence, Franschhoek, 12 August - 26 September 2012

This work is focused on sand as material, medium and inspiration - sand representing the dust of our existence, the kernels resulting from ancient rocks' erosion, and thus a symbol of time and also place. The installation is a metaphor for the marks we leave behind as we tread upon the landscape, the spoor we leave in the sand. It is inspired by the Karoo 2052 exhibition, which I saw during the National Arts Festival in July 2012, as well as earlier work that I've done as part of HumanEarth and my SCAPES project. It is a continuation of the work I did as part of SAND(SPOOR], performed at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July 2012.

As part of the art installation, I specifically did not put poles and ropes up to keep people away from the artwork - the intention was for people to accidentally walk unto the artwork and destroy the stylized images of insects and foliage, as symbol of the way we destroy insects and plant life in the "real" landscapes, whether intentionally or unintentionally through the choices we make and the products we buy. Fracking in the Karoo is only possible if we as the public and as tax payers keep silent about our opposition against it. Renewable energy is viable as an energy solution for our country, but the government will only invest in it if we demand it. If we do nothing, we are allowing the destruction of our planet through coal mining, nuclear waste and fracking, and we are treading upon the landscape very harshly and mindlessly.

Beautiful addition(s) by one of the gallery goers or viewers