August 10, 2005

• I haven't left for Oregon yet. I need to finish up some stuff around here first, stuff that should have been finished months ago.

  But I can't help thinking about an art project right now...

  I thought about Burning Man, and what sort of project I'd do if I were to go there. The thing that's needed most is shade structure, and it's in the desert, so I thought that maybe I would turn this around ironically and make huge lillypads which seemed to be floating on the surface of an invisible lake, 20 feet or so above the playa. The playa itself is a lake, albeit one that dries up every year, and from a distance, in the playful mirage, these liliypads would look as though they were on water. In order for the scale to work, there would have to be maybe fifty of these pads, each maybe 30 feet across. A big undertaking, and an engineering feat.

  And then I thought about the last time I was over at Juanita Bay Park, when I took some pictures of a Great Blue Heron hunting. It was far enough away that my little 200mm lens couldn't really get it, but it's a legitimate ID pic.

  So add to the plan a pair of Great Blue Herons who have lost their way. They were trying to get to Lake Washington, but they ended up in Nevada, where they landed at what looks like a giant pond of lilly pads, and then grew to be 5 storeys tall. One is in the classic heron hunting pose, still and attentive, curled neck ready to strike. The other has already caught something... What's that in its beak? A full-sized person, of course.

  

  • 6:06 pm
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