Yesterday I studied from 9am til about 10pm with few interruptions. I was at maximum capacity when I finally gave in to the television. I got Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides on DVD yesterday. It was a little treat to myself from my tax return. I relaxed with a glass of sherry and glued my eyes to the set. It’s a wonderful video. I like to make things out of nature sometimes and it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about as far as this year’s trip to France. Maybe using elements from the area in my work. If you haven’t seen much of his work and you like “that nature stuff” like I do, I recommend renting this DVD.
When you start working with the earth, or immerse yourself in nature, you can’t help but think about time and the history of objects and places. The lives of trees and rocks, rivers, valleys. In Caunes-Minervois, in France, because there is so much roman and french history evident all around you, you can’t help but imagine all the people, plants, animals and bugs that have come and gone. The place, the village, although so quiet, is overflowing with memories, everywhere you look, the past is trying to tell you stories. I felt that when I lived in Ireland quite a bit as well. The most quiet of places have so many stories to tell. You don’t feel that as much in California. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve lived here all my life or that we tend to bulldoze the past around here. Lately I am finding things out about san francisco I never knew, but it seems most visible evidence has been destroyed. I want to submerse myself in Caunes-Minervois and see what I can find. I don’t know what the art will look like, I just know the clues lie in the dirt, plants and bugs. Maybe I will use them to make art, or maybe they will act as inspiration. There’s lots of time to think about it. And it’s all I think about (when I’m not struggling with Astronomy math).