middle-summer

Of all the challenges I would face in college, I simply didn’t expect to be so exhausted coming towards the end of all my classes. In fact, I rather doubt my vocation lately, because I have no energy to devote to being passionate or even interested in my fields of expertise.

You know what kind of art I love more and more, the more exhausted I get? Earth art. Site art. Extremely temporary art that’s just about being in the environment and experiencing it with new eyes. There’s an artist named Jim Denevan who does drawings in sand beaches at low tide. He’ll work for up to 7 hours and can walk up to 30 miles in service to his piece, which is destroyed not long after its creation by the rising water.

It’s so the opposite of what I’ve learned in class about art, and my own preservational instincts. Create something beautiful — put your whole self and energy into it, even if it lasts less than a day, because a beautiful thing is full of inherent worth, good in itself, because it brings you into full knowledge of the world around you, for maybe only one moment.

That’s the kind of art that speaks of continual renewal and refreshment in its creation, and the kind of art I’d like to make someday. . . .

Have a happy Friday. I’m going to spend mine doing things that rest and refresh me.

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