As Fall starts and we are still on Covid and fire sequestration in California, life does seem to be challenging us to come up with some new ways of living. So I picked a piece to feature this month that focuses of how these circumstances might inspire us.
Tsunami of Desire
The sketch for this piece was completed during a very aspirational period of my life in 2004 when I was on a ferry to purchase a house on Salt Spring Island in Canada. It was also the year that I completed work on my Rosecrans Project sculptures discussed last month and we visited St. Petersburg Russia in late summer. However the sculpture for this sketch was not completed until 2008, the year Obama first successfully campaigned for the presidency.
Ann & I initially became familiar with Salt Spring Island in the Straight of Georgia between Vancouver Island and Canada’s west coast by attending a Co-housing meeting there. Although the co-housing did not work out, we were inspired by the island’s unique culture, combining organic farming, artists, music, and beautiful scenery. It is also sheltered from Pacific Ocean storms on its west by the larger Vancouver Island and has above normal average temperatures for its northern latitude due to the warm Alaska Current, which moves north from Seattle along the coast.
We decided to invest in a house on the Island, thinking we might move there one day. This sketch was done on a ferry taken from Vancouver Island to Salt Spring Island the day I arrived to negotiate for the property we eventually bought with some friends. Although we eventually sold the property, it held and continues to hold for us inspiration for living a in a place in balance with nature, with a large artist community, and with a more peaceful and supportive social order than we have in the U.S.
We often associate desire with sexuality, but, in this case the figure in the boat being carried by the tsunami appears to be yearning for something not yet achieved that is even more encompassing. Tsunamis are giant ocean waves that result from earthquakes. In Japan, the quakes that come from earthquake faults are thought to let loose new and creative energies that these giant waves carry.
The image in the piece suggests such connections. On the stern of the boat appears a mask of something dangerous from the past, while the bow carries the promise of a flowering future. I feel like we are riding something of a frightening tsunami right now but can take inspiration from it as a creative force for our yearning for a better future. Hope this thought inspires you during your current forced contemplative confinement.
Just a reminder: let me know if you have pieces you have seen in the past or on my website you would like me to feature in the future. If you have reactions about this month’s sculpture, please share them with me.
