Land Art Pescadero
November 1, 2014

We had a great time at our annual land art day at Irma Velasquez' ranch in Pescadero! 
Participants: Judy Johnson-Williams, Judy Shintani, Vicki Cormack, Anne Ingraham, Cristina Velazquez, Irma Velasquez, Lauren Johnson-Williams, Juliet Mevi, Leslie Morgan, Mary Shisler, Priscilla Otani, Salma Arastu, Sue Bolton, Tomoe Nakamura.
Photos by Judy Shintani, Sherman Velasquez and Priscilla Otani

Anne Ingraham: Land Support-Spiral

Inspired by our recent rain, I felt compelled to create an art piece that would help to hold the precious water. The spiral shape was inspired by land artist Richard Smithson (the spiral jetty), and to stand for symbol of "growth" for plant life that might be sustained by captured water.
I created the spiral shape with a bucket and twine and completed the dig with a hand trowel. The process of digging in the earth literally "grounded" me. I was able to sit in the beautiful Pescadero landscape and take in the changing views with each turn of the spiral. It was also very meditative to have the path laid out that I would follow, not like life where the path is not always so clear. Rewarded at the end of construction by a gentle rain, it felt complete.

Vicki Cormack: Untitled

I love being out in nature and on this particular day, to be in concert with other women at a most spectacular and inspiring vista point made it all more sweet. the rain came and left behind soft, inviting earth for us to shape, breathe into and envison some of our land art dreams. after hulking river rocks of all shapes and sizes away from the existing labyrinth to make room for weed extraction, i found that some of the hand-sized rocks called to me. i lined them up, nestled in one another's shadow and weight and suddenly, i realized i was creating a smile for the earth, for this glorious day, for the opportunity to experience such a rarified treat as making art in the wide open spaces. thanks again for allowing me a chance to share this magical and mindful time.

Tomoe Nakamura: Untitled

I used the place called, "volcano" because I am inspired by Japanese volcanoes and also the Ontake san mountain disaster just happened a month ago.  I made a conceptual scene of eruption and mountain slides out of sheets of pink color tissue and connected them with shine blue beads that reflect with the sun. I scraped the dirt around the paper it to make lines. I happened to have an umbrella and bucket of the same pink color so I included them as symbols of the sun and its reflection. This piece means that human beings cannot fight against natural disaster that only the sun god foretell. It is like Shintoism: trusting in nature and doing what nature asks us to do...

Judy Shintani: Following the Cycles

I was taken by the expansive empty field on the undulating hillside and the marks left by the tractor upon it. The grooves were curved in rows and intersected in damp dark dirt dappled with strands of golden hay. I followed the marks by placing thin bamboo sticks evenly spaced along the lines. Every now and then I had to step back and sometimes bend down. The sun and clouds made the marks in the dirt disappear and I had to get a different perspective to find them again. The installation was a meditation in seeing and not seeing, and moving the body in a repetitive way that reminded me of when farmers would plant in big fields by hand, bending up and down to place the seeds. Even after completing the installation, the piece appeared and disappeared, like it was a mirage, like a dream.

Judy Johnson-Williams: Earth Beads

The idea was to honor nature and our mother Earth with beads for a necklace.  I also liked the idea of working with the dirt, itself, and the history of building with adobe in California.  3 years ago, I made a similar project but making flat pendants and then firing them in a pit fire.  They all broke, except the one unfired, cylindrical one that a friend hung in her garden. It has lasted, unprotected and unweathered, so I used that as my model.

This time, it had rained and the dirt was perfectly workable and made a nice clay body. Forming the clay into beads involved a lot of slapping the clay into shape, which people commented sounded like someone making tortillas, another homey and earthy association.  I bought the beads home to Oakland to dry and then, will string them on jute and return them to the land, probably hanging them on a tree.

Mary Shisler: Untitled

For sometime I have been concerned about the declining bee population.  Einstein concluded that we had only four more years should the pollinator populations completely collapse.  I felt a land art experience would allow me toI explore the possibilities of creating a work of art that contained and supported native pollinator populations.  I chose the native bees rather than the honey bee because they do not swarm and do not require a hive.  They nest either in the ground or in holes in wood.  I also wanted to support California native plant populations.  
I initially tried to create habitat by drilling holes in sticks of wood.  I found it tedious and unsuccessful.  I then found that the dry fennel stalks were hollow and just the right diameter for a nesting hole.  I collected many of the stalks and then broke them into 8-10 inch pieces.  From there I gathered them into bundles.  I tried to tie them with grass stems, but they proved too short and too delicate.  I borrowed some red thread from another artist and tied with this bright festive color.  I rested the bundles on the wire tree guards.  I scattered seeds around the area to provide nutrition for the bees and color for the installation. I hope that time will prove the stalks sturdy and secure enough to provide for the pollinators.

Priscilla Otani: Guardians of the Field

I built some jizos with the clay made by my shoes and the straw left behind by the harvest tractor. These unborn children will wait forlornly for their mothers during the cold winter months.  When spring comes, soft green grasses will grow and embrace them and put them to sleep in the warm earth.