Fire and Ice (cont.)

Just a few short minutes after sunrise, the quality of the light begins to change. The glowing oranges and rosey tones shift gradually to paler golds with brighter highlights.

This piece was very large, well over 8-9 ft tall. I could barely reach the "roof" to put it in place. Many people came to see the structure as it was visible from the Ferry which docked a little further north along the shore. I was amazed at how many people thought it had just somehow formed there. When I explained that I made it, it seemed to delight them even more. Everyone wants to know "how" I do this... I hold up my pruning saw and an icicle and point to a bucket of water..."With these and a lot of patience !" I grin.
They look at me like I'm crazy.
They may be right ! How else can I explain how I feel the need to work with ice...to meet it, make friends with it...understand how to work with it? How else can I explain that hours can go by before I realise that I am beginning to get cold...or that I need to quit because the light is gone. When good work is flowing, there is no other place that I want to be than right there, in that moment, feeling the work flow... a dialog between my hands and the material, be it ice or moss or leaves...that FLOW is the attraction...that loosing oneself in the act of the creative process...THAT is what artists crave and need. And always, I am so grateful that I get to follow this dream and see what can be made next out of the simplest of ingredients!