Often my posts are about the newest, smartest way too live small or how to downsize and stay sane.
Since summer is here everyone is trying to find the best beach rental cottage, camp ground to pitch a tent or the latest boutique hotel to land and relax at the Oregon Coast.
This month I have a art exhibit at Manzanita News & Espresso and it poses the question – are those beach driftwood forts, shelter or sculpture? Here is my artists statement.
The crowds are gone, I walk on the beach and come upon driftwood that has been assembled into primitive shelters with only washed ashore elements, gifts from the sea, wood, stones, seaweed or when viewed in solitary to me they become solitary sculptures, left over remains of another existence, often I would feel like a archaeologist.
Viewing the art in the context, seeing it in its natural environment. Some of the pieces are ephemeral, persisting only for a few hours or days- exposed to erosion and wind and the sea, striving to fight the elements of nature, their creators have vanished.
I started to document the pieces for the last 5 years, feeling like My physical interaction is as important as the viewing. I would enter any portal, to find choirs and alters, shrines the view looking out to the sea was peaceful and safe. I would feel the energy of the people who built the piece, was it a couple a family, how old were they? Why did they build this, and what conversations took place, and how did the construction bring them together?
Why do we still build shelter with no intention of using it? Such a primitive instinct.
Each work grows, stays and decays. I am the observer the one who captures the serenity. The tide will once again regain and re-give.
It reminds us that nothing can or should last forever.
Owned by Bunny and Star they have a devoted following of locals and tourists. This is where you pick up your CSA box on the front porch. There is a long waiting list to show your art at the famous coffee shop in town, mine was three years.
On the corner is a lovely shady patio and water bowl for Fido and the inside is filled with magazines- good mags and all beachy unique local artists jewelry. There are surf magazines and newspapers if you really want to know what is going on in the world. The chess set has had many matches played with my son. There is no wi-fi – but rumor is that they just bought into it.
The greeting cards are $5 each and I am donating all the funds to Lower Nehalem Land Trust. The land trust has a beautiful garden, but you must wait for that post another day. I am hanging out in a beach shelter!
So what do you think Shelter or Sculpture?
Enjoy the summer where ever your travels lead you.