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THE GARDEN: We have this idea that we are just recently born. We see ourselves as coming into being as the sperm and egg unite to form a unit that begins to divide at a cellular level, and we grow a child. Our parents, our families and our community celebrate a new being, a new entity. Me, you and us…we. And so we are 'x' many years old from that birthday. We count that time; I am presently 65. But there is another way to look at this living, this line of life. This sperm and egg are just the miniscule ends of a hugely complicated and unimaginably massive ball of gravid twine. This living entity is only the present form of a long connection of livingness that stretches back, how far? To the very beginning of emergent life. If we were to answer the question as of old we are, the answer would be something like 3.4 billion years old - or more (13.7 billion), considering the age of the Universe. From emergence day one, there has never been a break in this line of living for you, for me or for anything alive at this very moment, otherwise, we would not be here sharing Planet Earth. Our genetic heritage is that of countless beings before us, arisen from the primal material of the Earth/Universe and nurtured in the liquid womb, bathed by the sun's energy. This is the meditation that I see expressed by the nature of 'the garden'. The embodiment of time through our intimate connection to, microbes, bacteria, plants, insects, lichens, animals, nutrients, who all share our genome and our common emergence. We celebrate the living entity that constantly renews itself, constant metamorphosis unfolding to self-educate to evolving demands and demanding conditions. The garden, as the prayer wheel, is a metaphor for the larger whole, a microcosm of growth and change, a place where the sacred is noticed.
The vast amount of creative energy throughout traceable human history that has been devoted to honoring the sacred, to erecting shrines, to scientific research, painting caves, philosophical meditations, building pyramids, cathedrals, and entire cities and cultures, poems, songs, symphonies and compositions of all sorts; gardens, ritual objects, paintings, sculptures, astronomical complexes, telescopes, and spaceships….is very telling. There is the deepest desire to know about our origins, the origin of life, of the mind, of the cosmos. It comes with the territory of self-aware curiosity and has found expression through our participation as the creative creatures that are giving expression to natural process that we are. It should be said that on a microscopic level we are the Earth becoming aware of itself, and on the macroscopic plane, because we have emerged from this greater whole, we are the Universe discovering itself. Many contemporary artists are reflecting upon the most recent scientific discoveries and bringing these revelatory concepts into the creative language of our time. We need to embrace the expanse of the Universe as we engender an art form that participates with the processes that are meaningful to emergent consciousness. We have at our fingertips a wealth of information that can fuel creative enterprise. As artists, we have an opportunity to engage these dynamic themes and to reflect upon where humanity has come from and to envision where humanity might be headed. We need to envision a deeply centering cosmology and bring this forward as an artistic expression of creative consciousness.
SOLARWORKS PROPOSALS: I
have put together a series of sketches and maquettes (models)
along with some material that I have written regarding my motivation
for embarking on this pursuit. In addition, I have begun collecting
writings from poets, writers, theorists, cosmologists, and scientists
that reflect the general theme that I have outlined. I hope to
find support to build one of these installations and to publish
a manuscript with 10-15 essays. Web sites that have some examples of my work:
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