Monday, October 6, 2008

found: plaster excavation

Sometimes I run across a photograph or a piece of art or a performance piece which inspires me. I probably "run across" more of them than I notice, if I'm honest with myself. I do get lost in getting to my next assignment or trying to figure out when - or where - I will squeeze in lunch or dinner into my schedule as I'm navigating traffic and looking ahead on the road to see if I can continue as I am or need to find an alternate route.

That reads like an excuse for not being present in my life. For my moments - which may span days - of not practicing mindfulness. And it is what happens. I do get into a fog of what I have to do and ignore what is new and unexpected and even inspirational. The good t
hing is that those time periods are shorter and I notice that I've sunk into that pit of scarity thinking.

So, as I am crawling out of another of those holes, I found the above picture of the plaster excavation piece, Vessel, by Serena Barton. And, you see, I had already seen that piece before. I admired it, told her "good job" and then it went out of my mind. Completely. Until I saw it on her blog (you can read more about its creation and the process at Serena Barton's blog).

This is a very alive and rich piece of art. I see in it the inspiration for stories and poems, dense with landscape, character, and the mystery of storytelling which threads through language and holds it all together into a cohesive piece into which we can sink a
nd drift and dream.

Where does this piece of art take you and your writing?
W
hat kind of place is it?
Who (or what) exists there and what do they do?

Prompt: As I stood at the threshold ...
Vessel by Serena Barton
plaster excavation
c. 2008