monthly miscellany 

February 2021

witness : memory keeper; mark-maker; knowledge holder

wilderness : self-willed flora, fauna & minera in the community of Earth

BACK TO BEYOND

Several years ago, my mom and I did a road trip to Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels on the Nevada-Utah border in the Great Basin Desert. We read Sightlines as we traveled, read about how Holt was intrigued by circles, how her earthworks were not just meant to be looked at but looked through like frames, how the camera she used to photograph her pieces was, for her, another framing device. My mom and I made our pilgrimage on Summer Solstice, and when we peered through the tunnels, we felt our dizzying place in the universe there on the warm sand.

CARTO/GRAPHY

Maps can be lenses as well as guides. What are your methods of way-finding, of seeing from one place to another, on land and in life?

I was compelled by Holt's constellation drawings and wanted to use her Perseus plan as a background for my map, above. I was also inspired by e-bond's 100-Day Map Project, in which maps represent any kind of navigation field. On your next map, try choosing your background first and then see what transpires.

EARTHWORKERS

Monthly celebration of makers who are teaching / re-teaching us how to connect with the natural world and with one another.

1. MAKE a viewfinder from a piece of paper or cardboard. You can make a traditional rectangle viewfinder or create any odd shape.

On a walk or standing still:

2. VIEW a scene. If you want to, DRAW what you see, and/or DESCRIBE it in your journal.

3. You can decorate the drawing with paints, inks, or pencils. Or, FRAME it with a surprising border as artist Shara Hughes does. Below, I viewed winter berries in my neighbor's yard.

4. If you're so moved, FRAME your piece of writing using one of the age-old narrative framing techniques. Below, I tried a simple frame: the letter.

Dear Dad,

The man who came to fix my plumbing during the Chicago freeze had never heard of the pipes in the Great Basin Desert. The only basins he was familiar with were the sinks and laundry tubs he used in his work. I told him about the wide, flat expanse covering many states in the American West, the largest desert in the United States. Remember when Mom and I did that road trip?

WILDERNESS CULTURE

I spent time this month perusing the Center for Land Use Interpretation website, a rich source of ideas about what land means and how it is used in the US. Cultural critic Lucy R. Lippard, one of Nancy Holt’s friends, said of the center: “it sends me back to my own surroundings with heightened interest. And the more I know about what’s going on around me, the more I’m likely to act on behalf of the local.” Check out the devastating art Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) fashioned when she and other Indian Health Board workers in Seattle asked for PPE to treat their indigenous patients. As reported by Native News Online: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service returns the National Bison Range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. This month, I loved Camille T. Dungy’s “Dirt: A love story” and J. Drew Lanham’s imagined meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rachel Carson in 1964. Writer Shanna B. Tiayon’s interview about Black homesteading, community gardens, and co-ops in the era of Black Lives Matter is eye-opening. Do you want to lend a hand in preserving a natural environment? The Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation is looking for volunteers for their upcoming summer season.