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.
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.
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.
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1 comment:
Hard to think of the Stonewave as a fragile and fluid piece of construction. Hard to imagine that electronic images of it will outlast it. I continue to appreciate both your art and your prose.
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