Dolmen Project (Year Twelve) Confessions of a “Guerilla Artist”: Looking back and going Forward

First Build of the Season

Day 4 (3/22/14)

The other day I was reading an article in “Art News” magazine on artist Rosy Keyser when I came across a line that gave me quite a chuckle. She was talking about how she had scavenged some corrugated steel for a project she had done.

“I scavenged for corrugated steel in Upstate New York, where the steel had been left for decades in tangled piles to decay. I borrowed it to resuscitate it,” the artist says. “Part of the thrill was trying not to get caught throwing it into the truck.”

How well I know that feeling of trying to not get caught while resuscitating materials. I often lament over the changes from that first year when everything was done in total anonymity. It was inevitable, I suppose, that eventually somebody would catch us making a build, given the frequency of building and controversy surrounding that first year. It is hard to believe it was seven years ago that I decided to exercise my body and mind by riding my bike out each day to build cairns and mixed media sculptures out of refuse found along the bike trail. The last couple of years I have kind of slacked off and am hoping to do more this summer. It bodes well that we got an early start. The trail was still 30 to 40% snow covered with drifted areas over a foot deep so it goes without saying that we were not on bikes. On our way out we did little building because of a lack of materials. We enjoyed the weather though which was still hovering around freezing. After the first mile we determined that we would check out the next section to see if it was better. Unfortunately because of the shaded trail it was worse. When we got as far as where “Tripod” stood we noticed that by walking the railroad tracks back there was more available materials. There was not a lot of big stuff that wasn't froze down but we managed to find some goodies. As we walked we collected what materials we could and ended up making a half dozen small builds but that was enough to whet the appetite.