Playa Painting- Burning Man 09 design from plane

Burning Man has come and gone. This annual event has replaced my Christmas and New Years. Build up build up build up, preparation and planning, spectacle and energy. And then...its all over?! 

Click the image for a larger shot...

The design is in the lower right hand corner as seen from 2500 feet in the air (thats the plane poking into the image at the top left. I make out 2 little dots near the top right of the design which I think is Ember and I sitting near our bikes.

It was another tough year for my art there, as ever, it would seem. The playa surface was either crumbly drifts or hard-pack. Over the course of several days I found a big stretch of unbroken ground. Whew! Its work! We finished in time for the aerial flyover.

I think this piece is the largest I have yet done. I chose a fairly straight forward design to make which was a nice contrast to the playa itself- a watery design for a dry lakebed.
Next year it will be bigger and better organized....! 

Burning Man '09

Its that time of year for the annual migration to Black Rock desert. Yes, Burning Man!

Last year my art projects were thwarted by horrendous surface conditions that made my rake art impossible and my sculptural art incapable of being serviced properly....

Burning Man is a constant lesson in focusing on the main goal, which is to experience and appreciate the moment. The beach has had that quality for me as it is different every time I go...

For this year I will be bringing all my rakes and basically looking for places where a great design could happen. The desire is to post where and when I will be doing it and inviting people to join me. Cool!

Let's see what the playa has in store this year...

Playa Painting at Burning Man '07

This year I attempted something new- using a system to create a design anamorphically. Essentially this means that from above the image looks stretched out, but from the right perspective, it looks perfect. Generally my images look perfect from directly above but stretched out from the camera position. It was a good test of the system, which proved to be more technical then I was expecting.

To give an idea of the stretched out nature of the image (which can't be captured except aerially), here's an image that shows how far back the far left tip extends as compared to the front center tip (compare the image above with the image below). 

 And here's a panorama of the scene...

 

'Hypercubes' at Burning Man

I was granted the privelage of displaying a sculpture in the Alex Grey 'Entheon' Dome. The Grey's are 2 of my inspirations- what an honor!