After the talk by Mindy and an extended discussion over lunch - I think she's got such brilliant ideas I couldn't help but be a sponge, soaking up all her beautiful thoughts and words - I knew that it's time to get back to my personal projects. Fortunately, there's a piece that I have been wanting to start for some time now. I first wrote about it on LiveJournal nearly two years ago. And though I've done a small "sample", I never started the big piece. Well, that ended this weekend. I thought I'd share my original thoughts...
Written Nov 12, 2009:
Written Nov 12, 2009:
That's the name I just came up with for my previously titled "Alaska piece". Yeah, I'm terrible with names, but for some reason, "Glacial Recession" just came to me. I then started picking apart why that would work as a title and here are my thoughts:
This piece is the beginning of a series of work about the natural environment and how we humans are impacting our world/planet. I decided to start with a landscape from Alaska because I began reading a book called Field Notes on a Catastrophe, where the journalist author began by talking about permafrost and glaciers. Also, I decided to start here because my 4 day backpacking excursion in Alaska left such a resounding impact that I've failed to use it as inspiration for anything yet because nothing can ever measure up to the breathtaking beauty and the life or death situations in which we found ourselves. I am incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to walk on a glacier, and drink the freshest, cleanest, naturally cold water the earth can provide, straight off the glacier as it flows into the teal-blue crevasses. I would presume not many people can say they've been there, done that.
My first view of a glacier was at Glacier National Park in Montana, so far, my favorite of the national parks. But truly for where we were able to go during our stay at Glacier did not bring us near to any glacier, rather we saw the remains of the glacial recession. And what spectacular monsters those glaciers must have been. It's almost sad that I am no longer shocked to learn that scientists are proclaiming an even shorter life span for these sheets of ice, and the belief that a park named for the glaciers will no longer be home to glaciers in a number of years - probably in my lifetime. So these two trips, with their amazing vistas that can't even be remotely captured by camera, have inspired the beginning of a series of work about the environment.
Another thing that interests me about this title is that it includes the word "recession", one that we have heard so often in the past year, that it has become part of daily speak. Everyone seems to be afraid of this word. My response is that it could be a good thing. Why? Technology has advanced far beyond our ability to use and implement our own advancements. I mean, my goodness, you buy a computer brand new and it's already out of date, what kind of sense does it make then to buy a computer? So, as a society we may be advancing our technological achievements, but we don't seem to be implementing them very well. Sounds to me like a perfect time for society to slow down and develop new jobs that do implement the technology that will help save us from destroying our planet. For example, we have the ability to stop pollution and slow global warming by using technology, but the cost seems too high. I ask, but what is the cost of destroying the world in which we live? So, I hope that our decision-makers, law-makers, and the wealthiest nation in the world can implement new energy-saving and environment-saving technologies so that we can also slow the recession of the one thing we cannot re-create: our natural, beautiful world.
Finally, it's intended to be a thought-provoking, inspiring work that helps the viewer to stop and look inward into oneself and question. We should question what we do that makes an impact. We should question why we choose not to step out and observe the beautiful world we were blessed with. And I think we should question our own existence. How are we part of the cycle of life and not just the damaging spoke in the wheel that ruins everything it comes into contact with?
This piece is the beginning of a series of work about the natural environment and how we humans are impacting our world/planet. I decided to start with a landscape from Alaska because I began reading a book called Field Notes on a Catastrophe, where the journalist author began by talking about permafrost and glaciers. Also, I decided to start here because my 4 day backpacking excursion in Alaska left such a resounding impact that I've failed to use it as inspiration for anything yet because nothing can ever measure up to the breathtaking beauty and the life or death situations in which we found ourselves. I am incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to walk on a glacier, and drink the freshest, cleanest, naturally cold water the earth can provide, straight off the glacier as it flows into the teal-blue crevasses. I would presume not many people can say they've been there, done that.
My first view of a glacier was at Glacier National Park in Montana, so far, my favorite of the national parks. But truly for where we were able to go during our stay at Glacier did not bring us near to any glacier, rather we saw the remains of the glacial recession. And what spectacular monsters those glaciers must have been. It's almost sad that I am no longer shocked to learn that scientists are proclaiming an even shorter life span for these sheets of ice, and the belief that a park named for the glaciers will no longer be home to glaciers in a number of years - probably in my lifetime. So these two trips, with their amazing vistas that can't even be remotely captured by camera, have inspired the beginning of a series of work about the environment.
Another thing that interests me about this title is that it includes the word "recession", one that we have heard so often in the past year, that it has become part of daily speak. Everyone seems to be afraid of this word. My response is that it could be a good thing. Why? Technology has advanced far beyond our ability to use and implement our own advancements. I mean, my goodness, you buy a computer brand new and it's already out of date, what kind of sense does it make then to buy a computer? So, as a society we may be advancing our technological achievements, but we don't seem to be implementing them very well. Sounds to me like a perfect time for society to slow down and develop new jobs that do implement the technology that will help save us from destroying our planet. For example, we have the ability to stop pollution and slow global warming by using technology, but the cost seems too high. I ask, but what is the cost of destroying the world in which we live? So, I hope that our decision-makers, law-makers, and the wealthiest nation in the world can implement new energy-saving and environment-saving technologies so that we can also slow the recession of the one thing we cannot re-create: our natural, beautiful world.
Finally, it's intended to be a thought-provoking, inspiring work that helps the viewer to stop and look inward into oneself and question. We should question what we do that makes an impact. We should question why we choose not to step out and observe the beautiful world we were blessed with. And I think we should question our own existence. How are we part of the cycle of life and not just the damaging spoke in the wheel that ruins everything it comes into contact with?
I know "Glacial Recession" will be spectacular! Keep us posted on your progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon! Nothing to see yet... Actually, you saw the drawing I did at the meeting when I showed photoshop uses. That's all that really exists at this particular point in time.
ReplyDelete