THE ORIGINALS EXIST ON THE MOUNTAIN
09/16/08 09:11
Today the roads and trails to the peak of Mount Livermore are impassable. It has been raining for days. Creeks are overflowing. Roads are washed out. What is usually short, dry, tan and brittle is now long, wet, green and lush. It seems to change before your eyes. Mount Livermore and its’ sky island community of mountains are vigorous, colorful, rich and sweet. The surrounding high desert plain is green grassland. The mountain generously offers up new and unique possibilities at every moment. All creative options are open and available. Within this gated community the cycles of nature are protected and preserved. The community celebrates what is free and abundant in nature. It also celebrates what is significant, valuable and useful so I am reminded that within the fences and gates exists a museum dedicated to the study of natural processes and a home maintained for living creatures other than human beings. The originals exist on the mountain. I can imagine a parallel museum--a structure filled with reproductions of mountain artifacts rather than actual artifacts in an effort to leave the mountain intact and protected from all but the slightest disturbances.
BEYOND THE LENS
09/04/08 12:11
Welcome to Mount Livermore near Marfa, Texas. It is a destination spot for drug traffickers, undocumented workers, Border Patrol trackers, archeologists, environmentalists, naturalists, ranchers, biologists, botanists, astronomers, artists and eco-tourists. The events taking place on the mountain today are a microscopic fraction of an immeasurable number of events occurring over the past 5000 years. How do I know this? After locating a nearby campfire site, archeologists dug straight down through 5000 years of layers of ash proving that the area has been continuously migrated through and inhabited for over 5000 years.
Mount Livermore serves up quite a menu of attributes for a variety of people. For an artist the mountain is a continuing source of visual stimulation. Imagine satellite surveillance photography from all angles capable of photographing the largest and smallest details. How many photos will that add up to? Now view Livermore in a gigantic figure-ground relationship between the tallest mountain within a smaller mountain range and the surrounding flatness of a high desert plain. The high desert plain creates an isolating context for the mountain. It visually centers the mountain and creates a wholeness referred to in gestalt aesthetics. The difference between gazing at a sculptural form on a horizontal plane and viewing Mount Livermore on a high desert plain is that the observer of a formal sculptural form is reminded of stillness and quietness while the observer of Mount Livermore is reminded of continuous movement and change. On the mountain one is reminded of the generosity of newness and freshness. How does an artist formalize a visual vocabulary of landscape that cannot be reduced without great discontinuity?
For the last two and a half years I have been hiking, photographing and researching Livermore. Recently a lightening storm appeared in the distance as I was nearing the peak. It looked as if it were moving to the right at a very safe distance. The vistas are vast and often one can watch as storms slowly drift across the sky. I started videoing the storm clouds. Capturing a lightning storm on video--it was perfect. Ten minutes later it became obvious in the video screen that the storm was headed in my direction. As I quickly crossed over to the less exposed side of the mountain and started down Limpia Chute Trail, I saw another storm approaching. After finding a large rock boulder I huddled under its shelf, protected from falling rocks and trees and watched the surrounding lightening show for over an hour. Afterward the forest quietly sparkled as I photographed drops of water falling from lichen and tree branches.