The River

Stage 3

The River

letter blocks

 I f you have ever played a card game called Texas Hold 'em you may know this term, it is the last draw before the hand it over.  You have three previous cards before this one is dealt.  As you receive your cards you are waiting to see what kind of hand you can put together. 

Statue of Liberty Transparency with colored piano key pads,
and words of home in varying languages

 I think of the term River as an actual river also, where there is a flow and the water is running downstream. The water runs over rocks, around bends, and though eddy's may form the constant gathering flow builds from a tickle to a small stream to a river, mighty and flowing.  This stage of the artistic process is like that where all the bits and pieces I have gathered are coming together, first a trickle of an idea, then a stream that is growing clearer and clearer in my minds direction until the idea flows and comes together like the Mighty Mississippi as it becomes the glorious river it is. 

varying type sets of letters and numbers

Porcelain glove mold hand with image transfers

Rear view of suitcase with ceramic round disc with ceramic ink transfer in
multiple overlays 

The flowing also takes place in ones mind, runner's call it a runner's high, Zen masters call it meditation, for me it is like a floating place where there is no sense of time.  In this step one minute can be one hour or all afternoon, time stops and there is just no sense of time at this point. 

Test tubes with cicada's, cocoon, and leaf bug 

 Once can sense there is a coming together and it feels right, things are beginning to make sense and fit, but the end is not yet in sight, as I am still swimming in the flow of the water like riding a crest of a wave....I can feel the power of the movement below me and I am riding its motion.