Installation Inspiration :: Willowman

There is a sweet little secret desire that I hold safely in the harbor of my artist's heart...

I've recently let myself begin to sit quietly with it again.

It's been there as long as I can remember, in one form or another, but certainly since I first felt the power of Art as an Experience - not just for the artist but for the viewer as well. There is something indescribable about walking into a deliberate container for art expression. It becomes about how we live and how we participate, even if just for that moment.

This desire of mine is a pull, a wish to express my art and devotion in the mediums of installation, environment, collaboration, engagement...

... living prayers and creative gestures of deeper connection.

Some part of me had been laid to rest about this vision - believing it too huge, complicated, unmanageable. But as I've been working through my reflections in IGNITE, she is waking up, bit by bit.

And to tell you the truth, I think she's been doing a little driving from autopilot all along.

Then, this morning we happened to come across this beautiful video above by Land Art Artist, Will Beckers, also known as the Willowman.

Not only did he create these beautiful willow structures, but he lived in them while he did so.

He let the process and nature herself serve as a portal for education for children and others.

And the children wrote their prayers for nature into hand-formed nests that became part of the living installation.

I just love that. Don't you?

While I have no concrete idea just how an installation may play out on my journey, I do know one thing in this moment - the feeling of peace and stillness, of soft invitation and innate connection that I get when I see the Willowman's inspiring work is exactly the sort of feeling I hope to allude to and evoke whenever I do move into this bigger medium of expression.