99F-4 "Command Performance"

In a fairly pleasant fatigue fog I wander along to the beach. The weekend's plans suddenly condensed, as molecular water vapor around a dust mote, when Don called Thursday night. "Let's go for a hike!" The basin was full of clouds. We were above them all day until the weather came to us, turning radiance into glowing fog.

Build number:	99F-4 (lifetime start #160)
Title:	"Command Performance"
Date:	May 22
Location:	Venice Breakwater, south side
Start:	0900; building time 7.75 hours
Height:	3.8 feet
Base:	1.75 feet (cylindric)
Photography:	most of a roll RA w/XA2; 2 hours video w/XL1

So, things will be a little slow today. It was worth it, rollicking along the trail, watching birds and looking for wildflowers. Snow plant was the star of the day, the bright red bell shaped flowers on red stems most improbable against dull orange pine needle duff. Each bucket of sand is heavier than the last. This isn't helped by finding a good deposit of sand around the Madsen Points, lengthening the carry by about 75 feet. I should have built on the flat. Water also requires much walking; there are no inshore holes to hold water deep enough for dipping. The day is perfect. Cool, a little breeze, solid cloud over damp air. Eventually the form is full enough. One of the day's purposes is to get videotape of carving a sculpture. I have footage of several completed sculptures, but Larry wants carving. OK, I'll give him carving. Lacking an ability to be two places at once, the Larry proxy goes onto a tripod and I start it and let it run. Now I have to figure out what to make. I have an idea, it's a nice simple one that suits my mental capabilities, but the sand has its own ideas and my simple one blows away on the freshening breeze. What if I do this... and this... and, oh, what about this? Videography forces some change. To minimize the number of times that sandy hands handle the camera I work in one place much longer than usual and the sculpture takes on a bundled look, with vertical features not meeting so well as I'd like. Still, the major objective is to have a good time. Rich and I chat about computers and Unix and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Others come by and chat about the camera. If you want to become popular, just buy a Canon XL1 and set it up near you. People will come in like flies to honey. My inner fog increases as the day progresses and sunlight finally wins the battle with airborne vapor. Planning and engineering are difficult and the sculpture's lower half gets short shrift. "If you can't remove it, decorate it." Never has this principle been so exercised. Oddly enough, it works. It's a pretty good sculpture by any standard. Rich agrees. I sign it and keel over. Photography goes on until Sculptor's Palsy sets in, both still and video. There's lots of daylight left, and the promise of beautiful soft evening light for photography, but I won't be here. "Rich, may I go home now?" "If you've been good." "Thank you." We pack up and push off. Two LAPD officers turn their truck off its usual path and chat. I give them answers that I hope are reasonable. "I know you're tired. I'm having to push harder than usual!" "Just think what would have happened if I'd been alone. I'd have been here until midnight." Sunday morning. The brain is pretty much alive but the body still isn't very interested in work. So, I set up the video equipment and start writing a copy of the tapes for Larry. The plan is to let it go while I do something else, but the tape is oddly captivating. I've never seen myself work before, in this much detail. The unmoving camera accentuates changes as the pile of sand turns into a sculpture. The tape gives me a much better look at the sculpture than I had yesterday. In order to see something the eyes have to connect with a brain. When the brain isn't working, there's no vision. This sculpture does have something new. Hints of it have shown up in others, but this is the fullest expression, and, as usual, it has sneaked up on me while I was thinking of other things. I started with arches, transformed them into legs. Legs turned into shaped legs, shaped legs into panels floating and otherwise. The panels started to twist, but they were still panels with edges. This sculpture introduces "pods." Panels have turned in on themselves completely, making what you could call little sculptures that become a bigger sculpture in assembly. This could turn into lots of fun. The original idea was for two legs set back from some sort of subsidiary sculpture between them. The legs would rise, lean forward and meet. All that's left of this is the meeting point at the top; everything else is different. The real sculpture has parts hanging out, turning in, with some interesting spaces between. Nascent pods are around on the north side. They resemble structures to which I've defaulted in the past, but these have been shaped and turned against each other and, from certain angles, look very good. At the start they looked like ears, and Rich and I got quite a few puns out of that. With careful shaping and a refusal to accept the default they changed. This is very interesting. Usually fatigue leads to real design problems; this is one reason why I decided not to sculpt after hikes. Something has changed; the anti-default ordinance works so deeply that it doesn't seem to matter how much of my brain happens to be present. The tapes end. I load Larry's Zometool tape and watch it again. Video tells three-dimensional stories with time. Change becomes obvious. Each stroke of a tool produces a mark on the sand, each addition of a Zometool strut leads to the finished piece. My tape's major failing is a lack of detail. I do a lot of shaping with my hands, rubbing the sand away, and on screen the changes in the sculpture aren't apparent. I think this will require a closer look and probably a camera operator. Drizzle gives way to hazy sunshine. Don reports lightning and thunder and birds from South Pasadena. I watch creativity and ponder.

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