After a weeks break between our return from Scotland at the end of June, we were in the Tyler studio all week to complete our projects. I love it when a plan comes together and it was refreshing to be able to just stay in the studio all day without the distraction of other classes.
I feel like the construction of my piece progressed according to the plan I made in Scotland. At some point, I would like to expand the piece with an additional ring or two if possible.
I actually had more of an issue wrangling with the laser cutter for the stand than the metal and I had an idea of having the stand rock back and forth to create movement of the rotating rings, but that really fell flat.
The piece is about the passage of time and the persistence of the prehistoric structures I experienced. The lat/lon of several of these places are etched onto the rotating rings which also depict gears as if in a watch movement. The center ring is set with a small stone I collected from the henge around Avebury. The stand is laser engraved and cut acrylic depicting four of the sites as intersecting planes.
Each time I visit a prehistoric site, from the temples of Malta, the circles of Avebury and Stonehenge and even the brochs at Glen Elg, I am struck by an overwhelming connection with the humanity of the people who went to such efforts to build these structures. Impressive structures that have lasted thousands of years. I find myself saying “Humans did this. Humans built this. People just like me.”
Maybe it’s my long association with the construction of the stone circle at Four Quarters Farm that strikes me so strongly. I’ve been visiting there and participating in the annual Stones Rising on and off since 1997. It’s a spiritual home for me in many ways and I identify those who join me there as my tribe. This coming Labor Day, 2014 is the twentieth year of raising stones. I plan to be there, stand in the circle and help raise the stones again.
Even though the circle at Four Quarters will probably not be complete for another ten or fifteen years, this is a task worth doing. We are building something as a community, something that will stand for a long time. It will stand long after our names are forgotten. I feel a strong connection with those now nameless people who built the ancient sites that have moved me. I also feel a connection with generations not yet born who will stand in the circle. I feel optimism that they will echo my feelings. “Humans built this. People just like me.”