We're back home in California after a week of art and beauty in North Carolina. We've been to shows and galleries, hiking in the mountains on trails through forests exploding in green, orange and red as the seasons change.
It's interesting that, amid all the color and beauty, it is Rob Pulleyn's installation at RiverSculpture near Asheville that I am recalling this morning.
It's a feeling of time, space, desolation. Alone in an arid, dusty landscape.
A day after visiting the RiverSculpture exhibit, we saw the same artist's work at the Blue Spiral in Asheville. I felt the work in the same way. A sadness, but I still walked toward it like a moth to a flame... Kind of like testing a sore muscle to see if it still hurts.
It's interesting to me that this one has left its mark... Why this artist? Why does this dusty, lonely work stay with me?
Sadly, I think it speaks of "home" to me. I've lived in the San Joaquin Valley of California for more than two decades. A dusty, flat, often ugly place. But it has its beauty too.
Soon, we'll be making the Cambria coast our (mostly) full-time home. I still have marketing clients in the valley and will be returning several times a month. But home will be the coast. Where it's always beautiful. Green. There are mountains and trees, hiking trails and, of course, always, the ocean.
But before we make the move, there will be all the "keeping vs not-keeping" as we go through our old home, the house that has been in my husband's family for three generations. It's happening quickly since we've leased the home to friends who will be moving in within the next three weeks.
Now, we're making decisions on what to take with us and what to leave behind.
My studio is already there. Well, most of it anyway. More to follow... including the rest of me.
Below: Rob Pulleyn's sculpture at RiverWalk and his piece at the Blue Spiral, both in Asheville, NC.
3 comments:
I love Rob Pulleyn's work! He was in a glaze workshop with me at Penland in 2004. He came to clay late in life (had owned Lark - a textile magazine in the beginning before Lark books) & I think he was a textile artist first. Anyway he's a very interesting guy & his work is fabulous.
Good thing you had such a great vacation before having to move! 3 generations is a lot to sort through -- good luck!
Before I read your whole post, I was just about to ask why you were visiting NC - I was hypothesizing that you were thinking about moving there until I read the part about moving to Cambria Coast.
Also, after reading your synopsis on the River Sculpture, you would make a good art beat writer - very effective. "testing a sore muscle to see if it still hurts" - what a great line.
Post below - I love Nick Joerling's work!
Hi Patricia, With this valley heat, I wish I was moving to the coast or at least a cooler climate. We've been going through a lot of our possessions in preparation of moving, we're wanting to sell our house and downsize (property wise). We're donating and giving a lot of stuff away. It's amazing the "stuff" we have collected. I still have some boxes of fabric from when I used to quilt and sew a lot and am still drawn to fabric, hopefully I'll get back to it one of these days, perhaps this winter.
Not sure if you've seen this flickr photo file on Pulleyn. Thanks for the informative post. I love learning about new (to me) artists.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/micahsherrill/sets/72157594308998911/
Good luck with your move.
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