Image: "Paper Model of Constellation Shelter 1 with Petroglyph Anasazi Yellow Jacket Man," 2016
April 30-May 14, 2016
Off the grid in North Eastern Nevada
As I write this I have been off the grid for 13 days listening to the oceanic wind, watching the mesmerizing sun rise and fall, waking to the hammer drilling of wood peckers, and inhaling the spaciousness of the remote high desert. The first week I spent in awe of the environment, not quite grasping how I would work with it in my art. I was doing watercolors about water but somehow that didn't jive. I did a painting in watercolor, wet on wet, en plein air, every night of the sun setting. Perfect for the ephemeral sky, however watercolor as a medium in the desert seemed an inappropriate one to use for rendering the arid land. I made a few colored pencil drawings called "American Desert Still-Lives" while continuing to dig deeper. I finally hit something that I want to develop further: constellation sculpture shelters. The dominant chords for me in this part of the Great Basin are sky, sun, shelter, light, wind, and stars. These outdoor sculptures would act as shelter from the sun and wind. The model above was made from paper. I pricked holes into the paper that correspond with the SouthWest sky at night. I also added a few fictitious constellation characters inspired by my discoveries at the Montello Foundation.