Transformation by Fire

A couple of months ago there was a fire in the foothills near my home. It scorched one of my favorite walking trails. Two weeks ago I finally managed to get out there and explore. What I saw wasn't my familiar trail, but a changed landscape. The area was so rocky. The fire had burned the tall softly flowing grasses that hid the rocks. Those unusual stumps and decaying logs were left as piles of ashes. I could now see how the trail wound up and around the mountain slopes. With the grass and some of the trees burnt to cinders I had a clear view into the distance.

I thought to lament the loss of my favorite trail and the feelings I associated with traveling it. But then I realized I was fortunate to be given a perspective that was unique. A view into the underbelly of this area. This rawness, realness, not dressed up and served on silver was this piece of earth I thought I new but had only bothered to glimpse it at the surface. Things were different one level deeper but I hadn't seen it.













I experienced the process of the transformation of an artist to be like this fire. Things are painful. They are stripped away. You're left raw and vulnerable but there is something real, new and elemental about what's left. It the essence of who you are.
This wasn't something to grieve or bemoan, but a place to begin anew, refreshed. Once I learned to re contextualize my experience, I could see the path in front of me more clearly. I could begin to grow again.

In Good We Trust, Denver Biennial 2010

In Good We Trust is an idea that deliberately points to the friction between the image of the US and its efforts in the world over the last 10 years and the actual acts of good occurring all over the country. The focus is away from the negative to the positive intentions of those actions and getting the words out. Bruce Mau, Massive Change a well known designer/artist came to Denver a couple of weeks ago to present his ideas for a biennial event planned here in 2010. Initiated by Mayor Hickenlooper, local Denver artists including Seth Goldenberg instructor at UCD, are working towards developing a vision and the tools needed for this event. Mau's vision includes very interactive exhibits, "We want people to change the way they think." Sustainability and reproduction over production are some of the topics under discussion. They hope to expose people, open their minds to the creative possibility to change the world. Sounds like talk about infrastructure to me:) What do designers and artists have to do with infrastructure? (see my previous post).
Main idea: What would happen when you bring science and art and business together to create intuitive, inventive ways of changing existing processes and dynamics. They intend to build an experience in the Denver Biennial where you can walk into that vision and come away with motivation and ideas for changing the possibilities they see needing it in their world.

Internet Storytellers, Landscapes into Silence

I don't live in a heavy traffic area yet there are days and nights where I wake up thinking this is the day the internal combustion engine will finally been silenced.

silence

I recently came across an internet storyteller, artist, anthropologist Jonathan Harris and his project Whale Hunt. The silence of this piece is profound. It extends into the visual landscape invading the senses in a powerful, elemental way.

Along the same lines, Polar Artist, Irene Sullivan's "Excerpts of the Arctic" a photographic exploration of her time spent in the Arctic in 1980, continues to echo the silence nurtured by many of today's digital storytellers.

Final Card Design

This is the final look I came up with today...
"Anisozygoptera"
So the question came up, "Why the dragonfly?"
well...
"In many cultures, the dragonfly is regarded as a symbol of light, adaptability, grace and transformation." This seems an appropriate symbol for conscious design.

Here's a dragonfly story that explains it all...

"Oyenstikker", "Trollslanda":
The Europeans thought dragonflies were sinister, but the Asians and Native Americans thought of them as symbols of courage, strength, and happiness. This connotation has spread worldwide in modern times.












In ancient mythology Japan was referred to as "Akitsushima, Land of the dragonflies."