Alice: I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn't matter, as long as...
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn't matter which way you go.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn't matter, as long as...
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn't matter which way you go.
-Lewis Carroll-“The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland”
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| 40" Deep at end of Day 3 |
Dearest Readers,
DAY 3: Mostly cloudy, low 80’s, still a bit muggy. Good weather again for digging.
Here I am standing in the hole, which is now 40” deep – down 5” from yesterday. This is my pace for an hour’s worth of digging, hoisting and heaving – my limit. The rim is at my back. I am using a step ladder now to get in and out.
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| Marble stones abound in the hole area |
I was able to remove yesterday’s monster stone that was lodged in the well-wall, poking out into the hole. What a job! There’s moist grey clay and now a damp yellow clay at this level, with the usual assortment of marble stones and bits of coal. This soil peels down like potato skins when I use the spade to shave the walls.
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| Cricket friend in the yellow and grey clay at the bottom of the hole |
A cricket sprung into the hole, but could not jump out. I lifted him up to safety on my shovel.
The theme of SculpFest at West Rutland Vermont's Carving Studio is “Keep On Keepin’ On”, guest curated by Adam Frelin, Artist and Assistant Professor of Art, SUNY University at Albany. The work of the 10 chosen artists needs to exemplify the determination and persistence that artists display despite budget cuts in the arts, shrinking grants and galleries that are closing because of the recession. I have a statement for my overall piece that matches the theme, but I realized today that my shovel by shovel descent into this well is a performative action that in itself exemplifies the spirit of the theme. I’m beginning to think and dig...not just dig and dig.
(More on my statement in a later post)
I leave you, tonight with some fanciful hole drawings that feel like Alice’s rabbit hole.
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| Top view looking into a hole with roots |
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| Rabbit hole-side view underground |
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| Multi-holes-top view |
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| Two holes-side view underground |
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