1999 march 24

transient art

now you see it, now you don't.

i have this thing for transient art. i think it is one of the reasons i have kept with this diary for more than two weeks--well that, and the fact that i am still absolutely horrid about answering my email; at least people know i am still alive when they see a new entry up here. i have no delusions that i am creating great art, but it is an art of a sort, and it does help me keep my writing skills somewhat sharp. but, with the crash of a computer and a blip of a server, it will all be gone. i don't keep a backup other than on my hard drive and i don't print out each day's entry.

a number of years ago, i went through a blackboard and chalk phase. each sunday i would draw a new picture and each saturday morning i would erase it. i cheated once and took the photo i put up over there; i really did like this piece even if i can't remember what i called it, something about spirits on mountains or olympians or astral projection or something. i started the project after rereading that ray bradbury short story about picasso drawing in the sand. while the narrator of the story was full of frustration, i was full of delight.

it's there, it's gone.

except it isn't really gone, is it? it's still a part of you. it's something you can pull out and remember, most likely remembering it a little differently than it actually was, and each time a little more differently until it is something that resembles not so much the art you saw, but more the art you felt. it is like some subtle mental performance art, with your memory and imagination as the artist.

isn't it absolutely amazing how long a cat's tongue is when they are doing that hairball yacking maneuver?

here, yet not here, claire