Diary of a Residency, day 4, Feb 19, 2009

Day 4, Thursday, February 19, 2009

I walked to the Goldwell Open Air Museum this AM. It’s about a half mile from the Red Barn, and can be reached either by taking the road, which is the long way round, or by going cross country. I chose cross country, of course.

The Museum feels like a piece of  the surrounding desert scene, of a piece with the detritus, the amazing detritus, of Rhyolite, the ghost town just beyond it. Glass and rusting cans, wire and pipe and poles. And Rocks, rocks, rocks, beautiful rocks. And these large, yet one with the rest of the terrain, art works.

I ran into a barbed wire fence — well, I actually stopped before I ran into it — and had to turn and find a way through it via a desert road. But I found the fencing tight and remarkable for its thorough closing off of an unused, unworthy triangle of desert: a seemingly gratuitous act of silly greed.

I spent some time with the Goldwell art (and wrote about it in Art and Perception: ). Meandering around Goldwell was a thought provoking trip, particularly when the art was felt as a piece with the land, was approached from across the desert past the junked cars and all the other human left-overs.

And I found some fine cactus, which I promptly lost. No matter; there were more.

I returned to the Barn, placed my day’s rock in its circle, and set up to paint to the east mountain (Ladd Mountain), which on its south flank has been pulled apart by the Barrick Gold Mining Company, which did vat leach  mining, making a pyramid of the mountain with tailings spread out across the playa to the south. Part of yesterday’s painting to the south consisted of the Barrick Mine talus slope.

So this mountain consists of two kinds of elements — its natural bones and the tailings that curve around from the south. The bones are more interesting but the tailings more regular. Like the rest of the environment –a serious understory, holding up a lot of human detritus.

East from Red Barn. 12 x 16″, oil on board, Feb 19, 2009

This painting is essentially finished, although later I went into the Barn and touched it up a bit, adding highlights. I also primed more 12 x 16 boards and put up another blank canvas, mostly to get it out of my way. The Barn was warm enough to work in without getting the shivers. I’m learning my way around it, but will be glad to see Suzanne this weekend to find out more about the water situation.

I’m thinking about size and scale and time and erosion — reading Spiral Jetta by Erin Hogan, about Land Art — Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Michael Heizer’s Double Negative. The presence of the Goldwell sculptures are important in this regard, as are the Rhyolite ghost town structures, the tin cans, the broken glass, and the desert, always the desert. I am placing obos where I paint; I’m curious about how long they will last.

Tomorrow I’m painting in Beatty.

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