"Hippy Statues"

Day 7 (5/18/10)

I didn’t really go out on the trail today, but had a student who commented on my sculptures. She told me how when out bike riding with her dad she had seen my “Hippy Statues”. She didn’t mean anything mean-spirited by it but yet again I was surprised at how people perceive things. Why does one immediately make a connection between cairns and Hippies or Satanist? Why don’t people see it as art for art’s sake or just recreation? As always, I am just happy that they had opened a dialogue. I am hoping to show the student some of Andy Goldsworthy’s art. Whenever I look at his work I am impressed. Not only do I appreciate the amount of detail and complexity of his work but it just makes me smile. The whimsical character and relationship to the environment just seem to meld. I have included some images of my favorites.

Last Sunday we did go for a ride along the northern route. Since it was very busy we didn’t get a chance to do any building. Again, we were impressed by the building of others. It would appear that at least on a small scale I have started the ball rolling and with some continued prompting may get this to catch on. Maybe, I may even reach my original goal of one hundred sculptures standing. Unlike Goldsworthy’s, which is a very personal thing, I am trying to encourage participation.

Goldsworthy’s work.

Check out Goldsworthy's work. It is great.

Mothers Day

Day 6 (5/9/10)

After a very frosty night, it warmed up to 59 degrees by one o’clock. It has been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to get out on the trail since March. I had hoped to have done a lot more building by now. In spite of a cool wind we decided to celebrate Mothers day on the trail. We noticed a couple of areas where people had been building including one very cool anamorphic build. I was rather small but looked kind of like a dinosaur made out of rock. We also came across a family with some kids that were adding on to “Prairie Memorial”. I only did one build at the old “Flow” site.