I imagine that for most of us the experience of flight provides a sort of suspension . Suspension of time and body.
For me, on days when I’m not preparing for a lecture upon landing, there is a suspension of responsibility. Letting go of all the work that I left on the ground. A suspension that feels like being under water when I am snorkeling at a reef.
Just me and the beauty in the world. Out in it, if only briefly. Being. Fish and shelled creatures, life floating by. Sunlight hanging in the atmosphere of clouds, the birth of day as the sun grazes across the shapes of the earth below.
All just being.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen an active alleyway. But here they are in downtown Pittsburgh. Reminding me that we all have something rough and not so tidy hiding behind the smooth, upfront apprearnces of our lives.
Here, if we are lucky, we wrestle with the unresolved. The unkept, not quite figured out aspects of our selves. I’m walking around this small block, back and forth, witnessing the clean exterior and disheveled interior at the same time. Feeling the same in myself.
How do we learn to live like the flower? Graceful from beginning to end, beautiful everyday. From opening to closing, freshness to fading, but never useless or old. I want to learn how to be this way in the world. Full of peace at all times.
This summer presented some great experiences for me, and also some struggles. One thing I worked on that was uplifting is a new gallery website for my artwork.
We launched the site yesterday! Please help me out and visit the site and share this post so that the new site will gain some power on the interweb.
to institute a new course in American literature. 3. to set in operation: to institute a lawsuit. 4. to bring into use or practice:. a society or organization having a particular object or common factor, especially a scientific, educational, or social one. “the Institute for Advanced Studies” 2. archaic a commentary, treatise, or summary of principles, especially concerning law. verb 1. set in motion or establish (something, especially a program, system, or inquiry). “the Illinois Department of Conservation instituted a hunt to remove deer” synonyms: initiate, set in motion, get underway, get off the ground, get going, start, commence, begin, launch;
Institutions of the industrial era are crumbling but our imaginations are as rich as ever. We see the changes everywhere as the new paradigm of impermanence gains presence and practice. Life is fleeting, moving, passing by, here and there and then gone. The Crumbling we are witnessing suggests that “the institution” is most defined by physical parameters . But it is clear from the definition of “institute” shown above that “to institute” is more about an idea than physical boundaries or constraints, and institution is more about the establishment of an idea or treatise than any set of built and physical conditions .
Our preconceptions lay within the parameters of commerce and industry when we imagine institution as something physical, rather than something that is real as an idea , while ephemeral in the physical world.
Such is the vision that launched Artemis Institute, which codifies an idea, an idea specifically bound to the relationship we experience and create between nature and culture.
From the idea to the reality, we gather together the institution into our imagination, blending the idea into a world view, expanding into a new sense of the world . All the while engaged in the idea, inhabiting a fleeting sense of place among meadows, a mountaintop , a cafe or sidewalk. All parts being a part of the community of life. Artemis Institute is simply an idea that is alive because people believe in it.
“We shall thus prevent our guardians being brought up among representations [music, sculpture, poetry, architecture] of what is evil, and so day by day and little by little, by grazing widely as it were in an unhealthy pasture, insensibly doing themselves a cumulative psychological damage that is very serious. We must look for artists and craftsman capable of perceiving the real nature of what is beautiful, and then our young men [and women], living as it were in a healthy climate, will benefit because all of the works of art they see and hear influence them for good, like the breezes from some healthy country, insensibly leading them from earliest childhood into close sympathy and conformity with beauty and reason…”
Socrates
Not much to say after reading this, but a lot of doing needs to occur.
After a challenging Spring, a great Remote Studio, a lot of silence in my world of blogging, I’m reemerging. This morning the summer day brings cooler temps and some rain. Giving pause to everyone’s summer productivity. Rolled bales of hay rest in their field, baby turkey chicks take a short trek along the country road that leads away from my home.
I fell in love with the wetlands of Louisiana in part because I read Aldo Leopold, and in part because the grasses that wave against the blue sky of the Gulf remind me of the grasslands of the Great Plains of North America, which brings me back to the legacy of Aldo Leopold. I don’t use the word LOVE as a simple term, but as a description for that deep feeling we have when someone, thing, or experience moves our soul. That sense that we have when we believe we have found meaning in our world where so little existed before.
But this takes me a bit off-course, and the course I intend to take you on is the ground breaking trajectory of Aldo Leopold. Actually we will explore, his words, thoughts, and the legacy of Aldo Leopold.
As every Remote Studio begins, so will this one in the summer of 2015, with the reading of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, with Essays on Conservation from Round River. Even if you don’t realize it today, in a a few weeks you will. You will understand the great debt you owe Leopold for the places we call wilderness today, for the endangered species that are protected, for the idea that poetry can be found and experienced on the land, and then written about, and shared with all of us. That the fast paced day you spent online, driving in traffic, and answering texts, can be slowed down and valued relative to the place you find yourself: with the experience of sun, wind, scent and birdsong.
And if you wonder why we would be reading a book written by an activist (although he may not have called himself such) in 1949 , you only need to read the book to learn. The obviousness of this request will appear as you understand how necessary words written sixty-six years ago are in 2015.
Aldo Leopold’s book, the whole book, will be discussed at the end of the first week of Remote Studio, a week of hiking and making, with very little time for sitting still. To give yourself the opportunity to savor his words, thoughts, and to commit to your future, I recommend that you start reading the book before Remote Studio begins. And to take notes, and to write notes to yourself and underline passages you value inthe book.Live in the book. And perhaps someday, if you pay attention you will have a place you love, too.
From this place that Leopold provides we begin our journey with Remote Studio, and the understanding of why architects so desperately need to know the world as he saw it.
A significant condition to Remote Studio is that we are constantly moving, and out-of-doors most of the time. If you are joining us for Remote Studio to ensure that our discussions and your time to create are always at your fingertips bring the following items with you…
The Moleskine Notebook and Sketchbooks are great for carrying around, and they can help you establish a format for documenting life-long creative practice. You can find these at most paper stores, and even Barnes and Noble is carrying most of them. So, no excuses about not being able to find them.
Moleskine Notebooks
Bring one of these notebooks for taking notes and journaling look for this notebook, its about 5.5″ x 9″ and is a hardback. They are hardback, and come in different colors if black is not your thing.
Also, you will have time – and opportunity – to draw or paint while we are out. Please pick up one of these great notebooks:
They are called a soft bound “sketch album,” un-lined and is a horizontal format with perforated pages if you want to take them out to send home.
Also, bring one of the three options for drawing or painting with, and don’t worry if you don’t know how to use them. You can learn while you are here.
Oil Pastels
This small set of oil pastels is great to travel with. This particular set is available online from Cheap Joe’s. But I am sure you can find some at an art store near you. Word of warning, Michaels is NOT AN ART STORE. DO NOT BUY your pastels there because the quality is poor.
Water Color Set
Water Colors in a small plastic box that are not in Tube format, but instead the hard pancake that you add water to. And don’t forget to bring a few paint brushes.
Or you could bring a small (12 or so) set of colored pencils with you.
Over the years of sleeping in the backcountry I have learned what provides for the best sleep. First, to be exhausted provides for a good night sleep, and not so much worry about the squirrel running around outside your tent in the middle of the night. Sleeping next to a creek is great, too. The running water lulls you to sleep.
A tent appropriate to the conditions is also helpful. The conditions could be anything from waking up with 6 inches of snow on top of your tent, or balmy summer weather that only requires a fly or no tent – as long at there are NO mosquitoes.
What you sleep in plays a part- is it super cold and you need to sleep in everything you brought ? Or warm enough and you can get by with just your shorts?
But the two most important is the sleeping pad and the sleeping bag. So here are some guidelines to consider before you invest in what you hope will provide fora great night sleep.
First, do not think you are going to get away cheap on the bag. Unless you can borrow a good bag one from someone, its gonna cost you. If the bag you are looking at looks like this, you definitely need to re-think your sleeping bag assumptions for the back country:
Backyard Sleeping
Just for visual reference your sleeping bag for the backcountry should “look” more like one of these:
These sleeping bags are lighter weight, more fitted to your body so that your body needs to generate less energy to heat the space of the bag, which keeps you warmer in the night. Sleeping bags are rated for the temperature you will be sleeping in, so think about the temperature lows in the mountains, or look them up on the web if you don’t know. You can expect 20’s, could be colder or a bit warmer. You can boost your warmth by wearing more clothes while sleeping. My bag for late spring/early summer backpacking is a 10 degree bag. It keeps me toasty in June. To learn more about the type of sleeping bag you should be looking for take a look at the following links. And note, that when they describe the best bags they distinguish between the car camping sleeping bag and a backcountry bag. To be warm in your tents in the Rocky Mountains you will want to have a back county bag…
Another reason I am warm when I sleep in the backcountry is because of the sleeping pad. The sleeping pad is not only a good cushion for sleeping on, but the type of “cushioning” provides insulation between yourself and the cold earth. Think about it this way, your body is warmer than the Earth at this time of year, so the cold ground just sucks the body warmth right out of you. Your body is jus like a building, without good insulation between you and the outside, your body warmth just escapes….
I do not recommend this type:
If it rolls or folds, it is a solid material. They are bulky, hard to pack and less insulative.
Instead, consider one that looks like this:
These hold air in them, which provides greater insulation value, flexes more with your body and is much smaller when packing. This brand show, Alps is good, but there are many others, and they come in lots of colors. If you can afford one that supports the full length of your body that is best because your feet won’t be cold in the middle of the night.
This image gives you a good understanding of the difference in scale between a folding or rolled piece of foam and the pad that can be inflated on-site.
Consider warmth and comfort, not just in sleeping , but for the miles you will be hauling all the gear into the backcountry camp up into the mountains. The important point it that you will be hiking “UP” in altitude – and big difference from walking with heavy gear on flat ground….
between here and there 