Billberry Colour Stripe

Billberry Colour Stripe, originally uploaded by escher...(back).

The day began grey and slightly damp, a bit like an elderly person (sorry, bad taste, but I couldn't resist :-) ).

I'll start again.

It was a dark and stormy night... (isn't that how all stories begin?)...

My brain is stuffed full of ideas now. I've been dreaming of land art again and waking up with designs lingering in mind. My drive seems to have returned at last and I feel revved up to take on bigger, more involved projects, push some boundaries and explore some new ideas.

I'd almost forgotten what it felt like but it is a relief to feel the urge to create again. At one point I thought it might not return at all.

Visiting the David Nash exhibition was the catalyst and its affect on me was profound. It stimulated something within me to the point where I feel I have a broader perspective of what art actually is and I now want to start a project that may take quite a few years (I've started to write more of my thoughts on my blog and I wrote about it here). I am making plans in my head right now and will begin soon. It should be an interesting journey. I am not sure how photogenic any of it will be so I am not sure how or if I will share it but I am looking forward to it nonetheless.

I went out to make this but it didn't really turn out how I wanted it to. I need to learn how to do what I really envisaged and it may take a while before I nail the techniques. It's about time I experimented with something new (even though it might not look new what I was trying to do should) so not getting it right the first time is surely a good thing.

I also sculpted the platform it is on and the slabs all around it into something that looked like it flows but it fell down before I could get a wider context shot so there is only half of what I made seen here. I think I'll save that for something else on another day.

I might just have to cut to the chase!

Bullet point alert! This is what happened!

- I found a handsome toad under a rock. He wasn't so pleased to see me!

- I decided to smear the stones in the stack with peat after I constructed it. This was stupid and very difficult and it fell over well before I finished. It's much easier doing it first then making the stack

- I wanted to make it black so it had strong contrast against the sky

- There was very interesting crow poo on the top slab, it was purple (I assume they've been eating bilberries) but it was full of beetle and woodlouse shells. See here for the full technicolour version.

- I've discovered you can listen to Test Match Special (that's for cricket my non-British friends) on 722mhz on MW (I know - you've been waiting your whole lives to hear that)

- I saw no-one at all where I was until I set off back to the car. That was 8 hours in a well known beauty spot

- I checked out the Rowan Berry Swoosh and slugs have been eating a few of the berries

One of the slabs I found was very attractive and I have wanted to make something with bilberry leaves for a few years. They disply many amazing colours this time of year and cover the hillsides, which along with the heather in bloom counts for an amazingly vibrant sight.

So I smeared more mud on it and put some bilberry leaves and stalks on it! Simples!

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