Hyampom Community Hall

Our community hall is a special place. In our village, yes some people call us one of the last true villages, the hall serves as the place where everything happens. Weddings, memorial services, art and music festivals, school performances, church, town meetings, dances, yoga and fitness classes, countless potlucks meals and more. Being able to build the Walking In Love installation at the hall of my little community has been sweet. We took over the hall for six days. Others who use the hall graciously shared the space with this project. People from the community came and went, at times joining in with helping out, checking with the progress of the build.

This hall, even if not this exact structure, has been an integral part of the life of this community. In the days before electricity and phone connections the hall was THE place everyone gathered to talk about community events, share a meal and then play music and dance until dawn before returning to the work demanded by homesteading. In this day of e-mail, easy auto travel, television and pandora the hall still offers our small wilderness village all of the things it always has. When the Bee Eaters came to offer their particular form of magic music to us this past January the hall buzzed with life and drew many to share the special event. We ate a potluck meal first, per tradition. As our build progressed different people brought food, tea, music and encouragement.

Packing the Trailer

A gorgeous summer day blooms. Who could know what the weather would do this day? Rain and cold one day then heat the next. Lessons in "it is what it is". A phrase which pops up with increasing frequency in my world. From many different people. In many different situations. Well, what it is today, is a day to pack the trailer for the drive across the country to Sacred Threads. Punch lists, inventory, fix it kits, carefully packed white panels, tools, ladders. I am so very grateful to be able to send everything in one package. I do understand it is one of those 'all the eggs in one basket' situation but Travis Boland is someone who is able to do what he says he will do. One of those people that show up, take care of business, work in a solution oriented way and knowledgeable about how to deal with a wide variety of situations. I am grateful for the way life brought him into the Walking in Love world.

Friends tell me I am brave. Huh. Not feeling that this morning. There is this feeling of excitement standing at one edge of this giant country and preparing to go across to the other edge. And debut an art installation. OK, I can be a bit of a drama queen now and then. But it is a truth that nerves do accompany brave acts. I know about myself that I feel fear and do things anyway. I just want to see how it all turns out. Life is so varied and interesting. To do the same thing over and over again is not my cup of tea. While this is the third time the Walking In Love Installation will be shown, it will not be the same show again. Panels have left. New panels will be hung. Different people will help to set it up.  The feeling of this next show will be affected by the town it is in. It will also carry with it the hearts of people from Trinity County, the good will of so many wonderful people. My dentist told me he is happy to see Trinity County become known for something besides agricultural products, which is a euphemism for the cannabis cultivation which this region is world renowned for.

I get to meet new people and see how lovely life is away from my wilderness home in Trinity County California.

Tony Kendrew, Walking in Love Artist

Friends would stop by and comment, "Oh, so this is what making an art installation looks like." Maybe once a piece is finished in a gallery and the whole is witnessed the details disappear in light of the finished glory. So easy for those seeing the final product to be unaware of all it takes to make some ideas come to life. It is quite humbling for me to find out that so many people will just show up and volunteer their time to an idea. I have learned that I live in a community with extraordinary people. Tony Kendrew was the first one at the hall waiting with the key the morning we were to build. He has been in the midst of many of his own projects. He just recorded a CD to go with a book of poetry he wrote ( have not convinced him to make a poetry panel yet). He was working on a brand new petanque court in the front of our community hall. The grand opening games were the same day as our installation showing. But there was Tony, day after day showing up to offer his help with so much of what happened. Talented, quiet, funny and so generous to many within this small town. Thank you Tony for your steadfast way of showing up until the work was finished. It would not have happened so gracefully without you.

John Ritz Walking In Love Artist

The past few months have flown by. It is hard to remember that in January the Walking In Love installation had yet to be fabricated or shown. Only the idea for a spiral structure existed in my mind. Thank goodness John's name popped in to my head when I was wondering how the spiral could be made. I am so very grateful he decided to tackle not only the first simple spiral we attached to the ceiling of the Highland Gallery, but also decided to design and then build the second round, the copper room to house the white on white panels. It was a very great pleasure to watch John work with his son Evan, a young man my son Eric went to school with when they were children. John and Evan took the lead of engineering the installation structure and created something wonderful.

John Ritz

I've worked with metal for 35 years. As a welder, metal fabricator, blacksmith and sculptor.  I'm also a bass player, and as such it is my role to provide for the other musicians the solid rhythmic foundation and melodic support without which the song may not exist. One definition of Love is: To actively support the spiritual growth of another.  My role in "Walking in Love" is to provide the physical support for the other artist’s efforts so that others may experience the Love that went into their creations.  


THANK YOU JOHN AND EVAN!

From May Pole to Building: Walking In Love

The journey from a fundraising party to a vision made real has consumed me this last month. I never knew time could expand to the point where each day was so full it could feel like a week! May 1st we played with our friends. May 18- 23 we worked together. So many people to make this art installation happen, to make the panels, to raise the funds, to build the structure, to ship it across the country. People I am now deeply in love with. People who show up in so many ways. Provision that comes from some places I did not know existed. As I work on this project I begin to learn that walking in love is a way to be in relationship to life. All of life. From the mundane to the complex. This project has challenged me at every level of my being. When I saw what we created TOGETHER, what it is possible to create together with all of our gifts, talents, flaws and quirks, I walked the spiral in amazement and gratitude that such beauty is possible. I hope, if you are able to, you will join us making in the Walking In Love Installation grow and travel. I send enormous thanks to all who are part of this. We can be so proud of ourselves.

Prototype Walking In Love room build a success

Have you ever been full to the point of overflowing and exhausted to the point of collapse at the same time? The last five days have been such an amazing journey. The Hyampom Prototype Walking In Love Installation room build was completed on sunday morning at around 11:30 AM. The first person to walk through was a nearly blind man who reports that he could feel tremendous peace and a light headedness.

I am in awe at the generosity of so many who worked so hard for the last five days to make this happen. I know people want to see this process on the blog and I will begin to get the photos onto this blog to show you. As some of you know it takes time to go through photos, select the best ones, manage the image size and resolution and then post them. Today, however, I must return to the Hyampom Community Hall and begin to take down the show that lasted only one day. Tomorrow the hall will be in use for the weekly "Food for Folks" meal and we need to be out of there by the end of today.

The room is gorgeous. It has exceeded any expectations I have had about how this project would turn out. While there is still much to figure out before we ship this out in two weeks, I am confident the finished project will be a jewel that everyone can be proud of. I am grateful for all the support that continues to pour in from so many to make the Walking In Love Installation a beautiful process. Thank you.

Building In Love

It is very exciting to begin to build our very own room for the Walking In Love Installation in Hyampom, California. This can be seen for two days only May 21 and May 22, 2011 at our sweet Community Hall. In the middle of the wilderness, from the middle of nowhere, emerges this beautiful three dimensional art installation. I was asked recently what an art installation is. One definition: Installation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.


How does Walking In Love Installation transform the perception of a space? A good question. I suspect the answer is that it is different for every person that visits the installation. How can an art piece be universal? It's the eye of the beholder thing. 


I have also been asked recently about my own beliefs around love. I was actually surprised by the question. Maybe it was the way the question was put to me. Something about a yes or no answer in which neither answer was really satisfactory. I think there was a question behind the question but there was not opportunity to have a conversation. I mean, can a conversation about love be handled by one yes or no question? I didn't think so.


When I was asked the question I felt like the person asking it was using my answer about love in order to categorize the entire Walking In Love Installation. After thinking about the question (which I am deliberately leaving out of this blog), I have decided that my thoughts about love are only mine. They do not reflect that of the other artists who are participating in this installation. I do not require anyone to hold the concept/feeling of love in the same way I do. How could I? Mine is only one tiny speck of all that is possible.


I have been slowly giving room to all of the artists who have participated in the Walking In Love Installation so far. They write their statements and I print them with permission. Their statements reflect their views. When I print my statement that will represent my views. The Installation, well, my hope is that the Walking In Love Installation will change the perception of the space it is in and that space will be transformed by all of the concepts/feelings of love that went in to the panels by the collective group of artists who have participated so far.


The Installation continues to grow, to expand, to be open to more panels and to your financial support. Traveling an art installation does take a bit in the way of shipping costs. I am so pleased to announce that the costs of building the room have been paid for by the generous contributions of my itty bitty adopted home town of Hyampom and by very generous people within this close knit supportive community of Trinity County California. There are also those other wonderful people from all over who have lent their help...so we are a go! This Installation is being birthed in the next three days and then we will travel it to Herndon, Virginia outside Washington DC for it's first debut outside of Trinity County at Sacred Threads.


MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING THIS HAPPEN!!!