2024
27" x 21" soil, acrylic binder, canvas
September 4, 2023
Temperature: 88°, but it feels hotter. The sun is beating down on my shoulders and back. No clouds in sight.
Humidity: 44%
Wind: 12 mph, coming in occasional gusts that threaten to take my hat off my head.
Grasshoppers are everywhere, jumping and flittering across the gravel path. Katydids are sounding from the brush all around. I can hear the freeway and still see the cars to my left.
Blue jay cawing in the distance.
A gentleman and his shepherd dog wading knee deep in the water. A kayaker. A happy retriever. The river is burbling.
Wind is rushing through the canopy above. I can still hear the cars, but I cannot see them. Deer tracks by the bank. Nine more kayakers, ten total. They are hollering and singing.
There is a woman chasing her dog downstream.
Two separate greetings.
I stood for about fifteen minutes and watched the water move. Collected sample at 12:49 PM.
Oven-dried the sample at 200° for about 3 hours.
UNREFINED SAMPLE WEIGHT: 334 grams.
January 22, 2024
24 minutes.
The sample is dark and gray with a cool undertone. Fairly silty with numerous tiny stones and twigs.
Two larger gray stones found, one about ¾” long at its widest point and the other ½”. The larger broke apart to reveal an interior identical to its exterior: dark gray. The small stone, however, revealed a tan interior bordered by a white ring.
Pieces of shattered crystal.
January 27, 2024
36 minutes.
The sand in the sample is filled with fragments of stone.
A shiny, black stone found. Smooth to the touch. It broke easily but explosively; charcoal-colored shards flew from the mortar when struck. I had to cover the mouth of the mortar with one hand while using the pestle with the other; the pieces of stone hit my palm as I struck. They felt sharp.
More pieces of crystal and small tan pebbles with white rings inside.
March 18, 2024
38 minutes.
Several small stones of various colors. A prior injury on my thumb made the process more difficult today.
March 25, 2024
44 minutes.
The remainder of the sample is primarily sand and wood shards, making it much more difficult to grind down.
April 10, 2024
14 minutes.
Complete.
TOTAL GRINDING TIME: 2.6 hours.
REFINED SAMPLE WEIGHT: 329 grams.
May 4, 2024
Added 16 grams of acrylic binder to sample (1/20 by weight). The soil has a sharp scent to it. Added water until it became a paste and spread evenly on canvas.
May 5, 2024
Dry and complete.
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