Title:  Samhain: Into Her Dreaming

Center piece: 15 ft. x 18 ft. x 8 ft.;  overall 60’ wide

Secondary elements: set apart at equal distance on either side, each approx. 5’ x 5’

Recycled wood, metal, fabric, hemp rope, instrument bows.

Other: LED lights, microphone, speaker, batteries, solar array, electronic components.

Burning Man: The Green Man Art Installation • 2007

In studying sustainable design over the years, I’ve developed sensitivity to the layers of applied design integrated into our modern culture and how art appreciation functions within this realm. This timely issue drives my creativity for integrating art and design into the matrix of our rapidly changing world addressing embodied energy, material origin, processing methods, and those relationships relative to their environmental impact.

In this particular work I’ve applied the challenges of utilizing society's detritus, promoting a perpetual cycle of reincarnation. The art of recycling is applied in my work "Samhain" as I sought out all recycled wood. The mechanical joinery of the centerpiece is held together entirely by hammered wooden dowels. Dynamically the work functions as a musical instrument. The perimeter is tensioned with 24 strings radiating from the middle reverberation chamber and is harmonized using violin bows or other frictional creativity.

The vessel is a vehicle for contemplation and transformative group activity, a gathering of individuals to create an experience of communication through the universal language of music as a part of a larger story.  Each day we wake with the sunlight and sleep upon nightfall. As with the seed and the harvest, this cycle repeats itself with the waking spring and the long night of winter. Remarkably the contained old growth Douglas fir lumber was destined for a landfill. Rescued from a demolition, the virgin material receives yet a third life as I grapple with the origins of art and how to honor this life cycle.

Influences include Celtic pagan ritual, unearthed ancient ship burials, and the scaffold internments of the Great Plains Natives of North America. My mother is from an ocean village in southwest Ireland where wooden boats remain. This is where I researched our family name, which originates from the Raven Clan. My exploration of parallel cultures attempts to unite ceremony and universal awareness within this work. Eventually I hope to produce work that permeates within the land arts movement.

Intent