In the Woods near Mt. Currie beyond Pemberton

Simon Bedford, a photographer from Pemberton, invited me to go and explore the spaces up in the woods near where he lives.

First stop was a fallen tree trunk forming a natural log bridge over a raging torrent.

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Life as a Lightning Stump

More of Simon's photos can be found here.

Snowmen

It seems that The Place has become a veritable art zone. Since I last came here, two snowmen have appeared at the bottom of the cliffrock.

It seems, furthermore, that someone has removed the rebar that was marking the location of the planted tree. Great changes are afoot.

Too dark to film.

FaceSpace (hand)

Under an overcast sky, I arrived at the Place and noticed that the imprint I made yesterday is still quite clear. While stretching on the standing rocks, I considered what the next step might be. Since the standing rocks still have untouched snow on, I decided to bring the relief sculpting out from the cliffrock and adorn the snow-on-rock with a face.

A cold minute or two left the rock with a face in the snow, and me with a cold face.

I felt that a face needed a body, and this was provided by a handprint.

Yesterday's imprint works in a different way: the negative-space body seems present in the space. It does not seem to be something from or of the space.

Today's face with a handprint for a body creates a picture on a rock. I am more interested in imbuing the space with traces of my presence. Here's a proposal: can I imbue the space with my presence, bringing it to life with my traces in the snow? Perhaps this is what I have already been doing...

For a snowy rock to have a facial aspect appearing as from within it (rather than a caricature picture on it) would seem more appropriate to my cause of revealing/depicting the inner vitality of all things.

As ever, less is more.

If snow is watching you through invisible glasses, what is it thinking?

Snow Space Man

The addition of snow brings a whole new medium and a lot of potential to the Place. I decided, while standing on the Standing Rocks, to stand next to the CliffRock and press my body into the snow that adorns it.

1: I let myself fall back against the Cliffrock. In this position, I felt more like part of the landscape than at any other moment during this project. 

2: I stepped away from my imprint in the CliffRock, turned 180 degrees and buried my front in my imprint.

Result: a snowy face, and a well-formed detailed negative space relief depicting a bespectacled human standing in the snow. In a way that these photos cannot capture, there seemed to be a presence standing against the Cliffrock. For the first time I felt I have really made an impression on the Space/Place. 

Mark the Tree

Wearing Snowboarding boots, I trudged through the thick snowcover to the Place, which has become a winter-wonderland-grotto-type space.

Noting that the tree I had planted was now covered, I uncovered snow to locate it, and marked its place by sticking the Rebar into the snow beside it.

I then re-designated the Standing Rocks as Standing Rocks by printing my foot in the deep snow on top.

Down Dog

 I arrived in the place under heavy snowfall. The Cliff Rock was heavily dusted, and the Standing Rocks were covered enough that they looked like they had big piles of snow on top. The tree was sticking out of the snow all around it; snow adorned every needle.

 Rock Standing was a somewhat treacherous activity, due to slipperiness of snow.

 A dog barked and approached, and became timid when I jumped down from the rocks. Its owners, embarrassed, tried to control it.

When I was back on the rocks, the dog timidly and ferociously approached, and became friendly when I acknowledged and petted it.

After the dog had gone, I echoed its presence with a Downward Dog stretch between the Standing Rocks. Got very cold hands.(How do dogs walk in the snow without their paws getting very very cold?)

Going through the Motions?

Different camera position; similar sequence of stretches. Light had "gone". Am I just going through the motions? Is this necessarily a bad thing?