Beach Side Art Exercise

I visited a friend of mine in northern Oregon and we decided to wander the coast for a weekend. Upon a windy and quiet day we all decided to exercise our artistic minds for an afternoon. The objective was to use only found items that were either discarded by the ocean, people, or nature. From the get go the possibilities seemed rather scarce, but as time went on and ideas emerged our pieces grew with meaning and beauty. These pieces were not entirely created to stun or impress, but to reveal some beauty to the creative process and what can be achieved in art with such a minimal amount of material.

The first piece I derived was rather simple. Yes, I understand this example is just a pile of rocks. But in searching out simular shapes, colors, and sizes I obviously discarded many others. As I wandered the beachside, I chose these particular ones over all others. I felt a bit guilty in doing so as all rocks are just rocks and all rocks deserve a chance to be in a exclusive pile. I may have been thinking a bit too deeply about the situation, but I saw parallel ties to modern civilization.

The next piece I put together was an attempt to reorganize the driftwood that was found at an invisible line formed by high tide. This unorganized stretch of material was unpleasing to the eye and I found it fit to organize a small section creating a shrine-like ode to the entrance of the great ocean. The smallest sticks are the closest to the ocean and the photo is taken from just before the ocean meets the beach.

As I wandered and wandered looking for materials I kept passing these massive stumps that had been cut by humans using a chain saw. I was unsure to where they came from, but began to roll them out to the large area of the beach between the water and the bluff; the place where desolation lies in between the two worlds of land and sea. It took a great deal of time and a great deal of effort to get the stumps all together, lift them onto each other, and rotated them to maintain a strong balance. All together the piece is about 8 feet high. The final stage of the piece came much later in the day when high tide rose and slowly swallowed the pilar possibly dismembering the piece, but also possibly leaving it strong and sturdy for some days more. 

Art is everywhere and beauty can be found in the simplest of stone.