Skip to content
land-sickness - Sometimes I wonder if our evolutionary origins in the ocean make some of us more susceptible to a general sense of unease on the land, a kind of perpetual mild land-sickness. One that drives us to move, to wander, to prefer the islands to the inlands, to dream of being in and on the water, … Continue reading land-sickness →
dance destroys floors - Wisdom to remember: ‘dance is gentle and beautiful AND it destroys floors’ — @cannupahanksa ‘dance has brought down entire regimes’ — @criticalnish Like water, dance can nurture life and transform obstacles in its path. It connects us to the earth and the sky. It helps us dream and understand. It reminds us of our humanity. It teaches … Continue reading dance destroys floors →
remembrance - a series of 11 cards, an accumulation of elements, a collection of thoughts, remembering a mentor
ethics of place walk - Deer Jump Reservation, July 2019 The second walk in the Artist Walks (3) series created a context in which participating artists could consider the ethics of place, particularly the ethics of making a piece of art for a particular place. On this woodland walk, participating artists moved together starting at the Albert R. Retelle wetlands reservation, … Continue reading ethics of place walk →coastal elevators - Imagine an elevator A creaky one Perhaps a broken-down one, whose door still works, but not the up and down of it So the creak comes from the door as it opens out into the vestibule It is an old-timey elevator not a new fangled one with a sliding door that opens sideways an old … Continue reading coastal elevators →
unfamiliar wonder - About a month ago, the universe decided to remind me of the precariousness and uncertainty of the human condition. Since then, I have been burrowed down deep, nursing physical and emotional wounds, glad for the protective cover of trees and distance from civilization. Eventually though, the promise of unfamiliar wonder just over that far away … Continue reading unfamiliar wonder →
lobster bishop - The lobster, his inner parts are his embarrassment, his weak spots, the vitals he protects, his abject soul. Ball is supposed to be dressed up in a bishop’s costume, but he has always looked to me like a lobster – hard protective shell, sharp dangerous claws, soft slightly nervous green innards of incomprehensible poetry stepping … Continue reading lobster bishop →
interdisciplinary walk - Deer Jump Reservation, August 2019 The third walk in the Artist Walks (3) series invited participating artists to share aspects of their own practices and ways in which their creative practice influence how they perceive, experience, and understand the world around them. At regular intervals along this woodland walk, participants were asked to share prompts … Continue reading interdisciplinary walk →
remember, the world is big - Remember — the world is big. You are very small, and yet you are of this world. The world calls you. You are not insignificant to it. As SU EN says, “everything is integrated in a dynamic balance.” Which contradictions, which tensions, which desires do you respond to? These choices — intentional or incidental — … Continue reading remember, the world is big →
slow walk - Deer Jump Reservation, June 2019 The first walk in the Artist Walks (3) series was a play on the recent phenomenon of “Slow Art”, in which visitors to museums are encouraged to spend more than the average 17 seconds viewing a piece of art. By lingering with a single piece for longer periods of time, … Continue reading slow walk →
potatoes and pirates - Just thinking about how one’s perspective on the world changes when one’s farmland has been contaminated by geopolitics, economic adversity, governance failures, toxic waste and millions of unexploded ordinances or when one’s fishing waters have been contaminated by geopolitics, economic adversity, governance failures, toxic dumping and illegal foreign trawlers. The small harmless things begin to … Continue reading potatoes and pirates →
puzzle factory - This is a space where I can be confused by the world, think hard about its mysteries, and work out how a myriad of reclaimed and seemingly random pieces could all fit together in some fashion that can make some kind of a sense. Because I know others are as flummoxed by existence as I … Continue reading puzzle factory →
sometimes empires collapse - Sometimes empires collapse Civilizations fail Ways of life deteriorate in pools of neglect and forgetfulness And yet something beautiful remains that can be reclaimed If someone chooses to give it new life
margins have two sides - In case my writing is hard to decipher… earthskyhorizon is where they meet sandwatershore is where they meet meuniverseskin is where we meetwhat shape might a dance in that landscape take?
the lonesomeness of the ocean - “Then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee-deep, and watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywheres — perfectly still — just like the whole world was asleep…we would watch the lonesomeness of the river.” – Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There are so many pans clanging … Continue reading the lonesomeness of the ocean →
131 questions - Recently, I was tidying up my library and I came across this stack of cards. These cards come from a time a few years back when I was working on a sustainability framework for a Lower Manhattan-based arts organization. Some of the questions likely came directly from Arup Foresight’s Drivers of Change card set and … Continue reading 131 questions →
every ship has a rope - “It’s an old sailor’s idea that every ship has a rope with one end made fast to her bows and the other held by the loved ones at home.” — from one of Charley Milward’s stories told by Bruce Chatwin in his book, In Patagonia