Land Art

2021 LAND ART TRI-ART-ATHLON

In September 2021 members had an opportunity to participate in land art, as much or as little as they like, with multiple options in dates, locations, people and experiences. The goal was to go into nature, create and connect with fellow NCWCA members and their friends.

First Land Art Event - South Bay, Shoreline Park Mountain View
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Project Leader: Sujata Tibrewala
Participants: Tanya Momi, Jessica Phrogus and Rachael Tirosh from NCWCA; Lakshmi Seshadri and Biplab Chattopadhyay from Pratibimba, Art from the heart

"From the man-made lake built on top of land made from human debris and landfill was planted a-weeping willow tree.
Her roots seeking nourishment came up above ground pushing, till the roots started forming an eye. When the eye opened she could see the beautiful planet she was attached to, with fires and winds, sunrises and sunsets, planets flying past. Glittery stars promising more and less. The leaves of Weeping willow tree rustled and swung as her hair brushed her eyes." --Jessica Phrogus

Second Land Art Event - North Bay Presidio Main Post, Main Parade Lawn in San Francisco
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Project Leader: Angela Han
Participants: Laura Abrams, Marguerite Elliot, Angela Han, Kay Kang, Nicole Barens, Taylor Chan, Bianca Lago

"The event was FANTASTIC. Participants were asking if we'd do more of these events, maybe next time at a beach, etc... even offering to help organize! It was just so wonderful to finally reconnect, catch-up, and create in-person ~ everyone had a lot of fun." Angela Han

Third Land Art Event - Oakland Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Project Leader: Eleanor Ruckman
Participants: Niloufar Farzam, Sandi Ortiz, Am DeAvilla, Eleanor Ruckman

"We collaborated on a theme of healing for California, using a driftwood log as a sort of coastline, parallel to the actual coastline. On either side of the coastline two figures emerged - we danced to the house music of a nearby Burning Man party as we worked." Eleanor Ruckman

2020 SHELTER IN PLACE LAND ART DAY

Sunday, August 23, 2020

NCWCA members made land art while sheltering in place and shared our creations and inspirations via Zoom on August 23, 2020.
Participants: Elizabeth Addison, Anna Friesen, Melissa Harmon, Jennifer Jigour, Priscilla Otani, Eleanor Ruckman, and Sawyer and Juliette Rose

Elizabeth Addison

Artist Statement

Pandemania Day 159-Breath: Mandala 082220
Archival Digital Print.
During NCWCA’s Land Art Day weekend, my household reviewed evacuation plans and routes. Toxic schmaze blurred our views and spirits. Late in the day, on Saturday, a brief off shore flow cleared the air to moderate levels. My family high-tailed it to the Albany Bulb. Cool breezes and clearer skies refreshed as we chased the sunset. Defined clouds comforted – a literal breath of fresh air. I have taken breathing for granted my entire life. This digital work was created with, and inspired by, images from that moment.

Pandemania Day 160-Contemplation (Land Art Day): Mandala 082320 Archival Digital Print.
For NCWCA's annual Land Art Day, we normally gather in person to create impermanent art on the land. Current conditions (fires, smoke, COVID) mandated individual efforts to honor Mother Nature and the land upon which we stand. My small project is a meditation on impermanence and the transitory. I witnessed the building of this nest in mid-March, immediately after shelter in place orders. Amorous Juncos made sweet birdy love outside my kitchen window and carefully constructed this nest within the dense tangle of my Jasmine. Abandoned now, I lined the nest with fading hydrangea blossoms. By chance, a sun dapple marked the center.

Pandemania Days – Daily Practice Mandala Series
Since the first mandated shelter in place day, March 17, I have publicly posted my usually private “Daily Practice – A Visual Journal” artworks. I've created unique, meditative artworks daily since January 2018. These digital and collage works are a response to real-time happenings, political/social issues, my inner life and observations. This particular series, “Pandemania Days,” responds to environmental degradation and COVID-19, life while sheltering in place, and the long overdue uprising fomented by institutional racism. My intention is to be curious and observant in a journalistic fashion while also being authentic and true to my emotional state.

Jennifer Jigour

Artist Statement

Sending Love to Mother Earth
Sending Love to Mother Earth is both a playful and serious prayer to nature. Inspired by Mother Nature’s own creation of leaves that resembled the shape of a heart when blown together by the wind, the artist decided to play “Art Tag” with nature by buildIng upon that idea with the creation of three hearts all made from natural material and in three different locations. No. 1 is a prayer for abundance, beauty and a bright colorful future. No. 2 The heart is surrounding the resting place of the artist’s Grandmother beneath the rose bush. It is a prayer for memory, remembering all those who have lived before us and for the cycle of life where there is a rebirth after death, dark times and destruction. No. 3 is placed in front of an old oak tree called The Ohlone Tree on top of mountain in New Almaden overlooking all of Silicon Valley. Here is a prayer for the love and safety of home for all Californians, represented by the shells which is a home for other creatures. Each heart sends the energy of love to the Earth and the people who inhabit it. Now that the artists has created three hearts inspired by nature’s original heart of leaves, “tag! Mother Nature, you’re it! Your turn...”

Priscilla Otani

Artist Statement

From Sebastopol to San Francisco in spite of fire
A friend invited us to pick Gravenstein apples from her orchard. We decided to go on Sunday to escape the thick layer of smoke from fires all around us. Although the freeway was grey with fog, our friend’s orchard had a patch of blue sky and clear air. We picked our apples and were given bags of dried apples to take as well. We stopped at a farmer’s market on the way home and got some figs too. Back in San Francisco we still had smoke, but less so. I gathered some nasturtiums, marigolds and bamboo leaves in honor of land art day. Their fragile beauty reminds me of how these plants filter and provide the very the air we breathe.

Sawyer & Juliette Rose

Anna K. Friesen

Artist Statement

2020 Tree Series: Early Morning Tree Trunk
7” x 10”, dry and wet media on 140 lb watercolor paper
This piece is part of a series I began in February, fullfilling a perennial promise to myself to record the scribble of bare oak branches against winter skies. This weekend, as Land Art Day unfolded amid the drama of possible evacuation and smoke-filled skies, I turned my attention to reworking this piece. Pencil lines were emphasized, as was the oval surrounding the tree.

I began the series with the intention to draw the entire tree. This meant miniaturizing an imposing natural object, the opposite of my usual imagery of detritus fragments elevated to grand scale in oversized drawings. As I worked drawings of an entire tree in an oval or arc framework, my attention focused on the majesty and importance of a tree’s trunk. Cropping the tree image brought the tree into more human being sized scale; reminding me of the part of a tree that I can touch, embrace, realizing its texture, girth; exploring the microcosm in its bark; imagining the life in its unseen boughs.

The tree trunk is drawn using Ink Pencil. The surrounding background, drawn and painted with watercolor and watercolor pencil, is abstracted and allowed to encroach into the tree form, a nod to the interconnectedness between tree and earth. The circular yellow shape superimposed on the trunk refers to its dependence on the sun, and speaks to the symbiosis of abstract shapes and ‘real objects’ I find in my work.

The free application of watercolor in the negative space around the oval, speaks to the random forces of nature that shape the lifecycle of a tree (and the life forms that depend on it) as it grows, dies, and continues giving life as it decays.

Reflecting on why I returned to this drawing during the burning of thousands of acres of trees and vegetation, I realize it is my way to pay tribute to my lifetime fascination to trees; and perhaps to even do penance for being part of the species that carves and shapes nature to serve its own purposes to gain more profit, more leisure, more pleasure.

Melissa Harmon

Artist Statement

Demon of Human Dominance Seeks to Rule Nature
When I was 10, I lived on the Indian River in Florida, close to the mouth where it flowed into the Atlantic. I swam in the river with manatees, river otters, schools of fish, life in all forms. A nearby swamp had alligators, spiders, snakes, frogs. In my 50's I went back there. The habitat was covered over with buildings, docks and boats.

As a feminist, and artist, I've contemplated dominance and its forms; I see it as a feature of evolution. But that doesn't take away the rage and grief when it goes too far.

This artwork is a funereal cartoon of the ruling demon on its throne of artificial flowers.

Eleanor Ruckman

Artist Statement

Prayer for California
Holy prayer.
Grief growth love.
Ancestors seeds.
Breaking burning healing.
Hope courage.

While fires were burning my beloved California, so many sacred trees, so many homes of so many beings
I made this prayer.

The mask is salvaged packaging; its face was immediately clear.
The mouth, an arrow, is imprinted into the cardboard. It is asking what direction we are headed.
I carved the nose into the surface with an ancient obsidian tool.
The feather is from a pelican.

A beloved friend described this as a healing totem.
Its body is made from red cotton fabric used for prayer ties.

The cellophane envelopes, attached with recycled safety pins, are artifacts from a male ancestor.
Inside each envelope, an acorn from a tan oak tree.
Tan oaks provided high protein food for California’s indigenous families and for many native animals and birds.

These images were photographed in Strawberry Creek Canyon, in Berkeley, California.
The tree is a native California Bay, and the twining ivy is a pernicious invasive species that slowly kills its host.

In the background, Strawberry Creek. Water is life!

23 august 2020

2019 GILL TRACT LAND ART DAY

On August 11, 2019, Loa Niumeitolu of the Sogorea Te Land Trust and their members provided traditional Ohlone music, song, dance, poetry and stories at the beginning and end of Land Art Day. We started the day with orientation and ceremonies by the Sogorea Te in a sharing circle. We created art on the land or assisted in projects on the land, shared our potluck and at the end of the day came back together for a closing ceremony with more music, dance and powerful words. We were delighted to partner with Loa on this special Land Art Day.
https://sogoreate-landtrust.com/

NCWCA LAND ART DAY

NCWCA established Land Art Day in 2011. It has been repeated nearly every year since. It is an activity that is open to members, family and friends and no prior experience in Land Art is necessary. This page documents Land Art starting in 2019. Earlier Land Art documentation can be found in these History pages: 2011 Events, 2013 Events, 2014 Events, 2015 Events, 2017 Events and 2018 Events.