Summertime

Today I am dreaming of the simple leisure of a childhood summer day. The kind where you wake up without much of a plan and head out into the world for an uncharted adventure. My favorites included long bike rides to unknown places, butterfly nets and jars for catching small creatures, making a swimming pool out of my dads wheel barrel and climbing the tallest tree in the neighborhood all the way to the top until I could see the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis.
I don't remember being the kind of child who sat around complaining about being bored. I was always stirring up some sort of adventure.
The new work I am doing this summer at Franconia Sculpture Park has brought me one step closer to a step back in time for a new childhood summer adventure.
The adventure I stirred up this time took a lot more contemplation and research than building a fort in my closet on a rainy day, but the basic concepts are the same.
Imagination and dream building at their finest.
As an artist it is so exciting to carry on this sense of adventure and discovery in life and share the work that comes out of it with others.
The open studio grant I received this year has given me the time and space to breath a little deeper, lay back in the grass at night and look at the stars, watch fireflies dance in the night and appreciate the flow of energy in life through childlike eyes.
The resulting project that comes out of this time I feel will pass the magic along a little further as people take the time to sit and enjoy for a moment the project I am creating.