Cycles of Growth and Destruction

Over the last couple of weeks there have been a number of storms that have resulted in a relentless, pounding surf. When you watch the power of the waves smashing the beach it is really quite awe inspiring. Tree trunks three feet in diameter and forty feet long being pushed around like matchsticks. Huge blocks of masonry being tumbled around like styrofoam boulders from a Star Trek set.

The end result has been impressive and depressive. Usually you get a couple of these storms a season, but this Fall we've already had about 4 or 5 and we are not even in November. You've heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald. After each one of these storms I head down to the beach not knowing what to expect. The surf line, which under normal circumstances is 45 feet from the Stonewave has now moved about twenty feet closer. A huge bite having been taken out of the beach in the last couple of storms, so that now when high winds kick up the storm surge goes well past the Stonewave. After the last really big blow, there was actually driftwood on top of a section of the wall four feet high. Some sections of the "Wave" have been undermined by the waves. At this point, I think I can keep it stable, but a couple more big blows could take sections of it down.

Now the good news from all of these storms has been the unbelievable amount of stone that has been bull-dozed ashore. I have spent several hours over the last couple of weekends just collecting and stacking it for later use, like a squirrel gathering acorns. The second to the last photo shows one of the piles I've got ready for use. There are two larger piles as well. I am slowly incorporating some of it into the sculpture and the goal is to get the project reconfigured into the shape that I want before winter locks things up. In the second photo you can see the eastern end of the stonewave and I'm working from there westward resetting the stone to repair vandalism and stone theft as well as to reshape the wave crests to conform to the more aesthetically pleasing sculpture that I had in my head. We'll see how it goes. Waves and weather willing, I hope to be done between the holidays. Then we'll start thinking about a new configuration for 2010.

Asteroid Impact

Down at the beach to do a little work this weekend. The sun came out for the second time this month and the light was beautiful. The beach was raked by some serious surf twice this week leaving behind an abundance of stone and wood, but not much beach. So I spent most of the day stockpiling. While I was working, I heard this loud shrieking in the sky and looked up in time to see an asteroid heading my way. Fortunately I had my camera with me and snapped this shot at the moment of impact. It slammed into the Stonewave with such force that a giant mushroom cloud enveloped the northern hemisphere causing drastic climate change and causing all the dinosaurs to go extinct and the end of the world as we know it....at least that's the way I remember it. Or it could just be a piece of driftwood sitting on the stones. Yeah, I think that's it, now that I look a little closer. Yeah that's it. But it looks a little like an asteroid doesn't it? So hopefully you can understand my confusion.

Just finished this painting. With all of the stuff washing in lately it was on my mind. So I thought I'd play around with it a bit. Hope you like it.

And for the guy who asked about the fossil (I can't remember the name, Hellbrunn or something like that). I found it just like that. Split pretty smoothly along the face and unabashedly showing its golden ratio for all to see.

Stone and Wood-Reconfiguring the Beach

Maybe I spoke too quickly about the lovely months of September and October. It has been raining, windy and cold since I wrote those words of praise. And the next couple of days don't promise much in the way of respite. Early last week we had three days of strong winds sweeping out of the northwest. Waves were stacked up on each other impatiently awaiting their chance to pound the shore.











Whenever that happens the surf line will run up on shore almost to the base of the bluffs and when it's had its way it will leave behind a collar of driftwood and often a ridge of stone as well. The aftermath of this storm was no different. Logs were piled up along our stretch of beach.

Where the Stonewave sits, the wood piled up at its base. The wall withstood the beating with no obvious signs of damage and the stone and lay at its foot as if it wished to join its more ordered kin. In all of the years I've lived here I've only seen one storm deposit this much wood on shore in one fell swoop. Canada must be treeless now. How could this much lumber be afloat in the lake? Why did it choose to come ashore on our beach, homing in like salmon returning to their home streams. Along with the natural flotsam comes the man-made detritus. Plastic bottles and lumber from docks, jetties and boat-launches. But also, some big worked beams. Some weighing a couple of hundred pounds, often with spikes or nails still in them. These pieces of beam must be 50-100 years old by the looks of them...if not older.

These storms can be very destructive and in this case a huge section of beach has been sucked away and another part has been stacked about two or three feet high with stone. For me this is a treasure. I spent Saturday and Sunday just gathering good pieces and stacking them for later use. In the picture above you can see a three foot long piece of irregular stone that washed up. There were probably 15 of these big ones that were pushed ashore and a couple hundred between the 1 and 3 foot range. It's going to be several days of stacking to find homes for this windfall. Several days to clear away the wood for later use as well. So although it hasn't been the most pleasant of Octobers yet, it has provided for a pretty impressive stock of raw materials for the next couple of weeks...if I can only find the time to do it justice.