A Project Emerges

A healing medicine wheel with a memorial wall for victims of gun violence.

These two projects have been brewing for quite a while on the back burner of my mind and merged the night of the nearly full moon of Sept 14 that woke me. It was one of those nights you wake up and know you are not going back to sleep. So I got up and began walking around the pool in the moonlight. A stream of intermittent thought and emptiness flowed through my head like Morse code; dots and dashes of ideas and nothingness as I soaked in the moon’s ethereal rays.

This image is a rough draft of the medicine wheel I envisioned when Liesl first brought the notion up about a year ago. Set at the foot of the trail up to the golden temple with rock chosen for the traditional colors associated with the directions. Flags because I love things that move in the wind, tassles are even better! Maybe they will have bells on them?

I envision the wall built on the outer perimeter of the wheel with names visible from both inside and outside. The idea is to build the wall from discarded Figi water bottles filled with water. We drink Figi like crazy yet I can’t stand to throw the bottles away! Ceramic medallions attached to the bottom of each will be engraved with the name of a victim of man’s inhumanity to man. The uptick in gun violence is an inspiration but then there are so many other victims that call to me; firefighters, friends, and celebrities we miss. This is open-ended as it should be. Perhaps there is another memorial wall needing to be made for those who I feel grateful for having known their lives in some meaningful way.

The ideas have sufficiently coalesced to begin acknowledgment of the inspiration for the varying elements by different people. This collaboration of influences is an element in itself and a tribute to my water dragon nature – the integrator of ideas and people. So here’s a rough list of shout-outs and acknowledgements to bring the essence of these people into the being of this project.

• Jan Scott – Mayan spiritual bathing principles. The water bottles are filled and let to stand in the full moonlight. See Ixchel.
• Noriko Stephens – Introduced me to the Nichiren Japanese Buddhist chant, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo – connecting to the mystic law of the universe through voice vibration. It seems appropriate to use while filling the bottles.
• Carolyn Laliberte – Giving guidance on creating ceramic medallions that can withstand the elements to install on the bottom of the bottles. Each will have a name of a victim and an icon or location indicated. They may be color-coded by location. This is on the back burner cooking!
• Liezl Siojo – Brought the idea of a Medicine wheel for healing.
• Noah Purifoy – Visiting his installation in Joshua Tree pointed to using repurposed materials.
• Dorothy Holmberg, Jeanne Johnson, Me – Eating and drinking to provide the boxes and bottles for building the wall.
• Lynn Dolnick – For vilifying Figi water bottles and making it impossible for me to throw away
• Donald Trump – The wall – need I say more?
• John Adams – Transmigration of Souls brought to mind an audio tape reading of names and places.
• Ric Rowland – Number Nine – the boxes hold either 36 or 72 bottles – both add to 9
• Michael Heizer – spending a lifetime on a project. Just one of many examples of people who start something with no immediate end in sight.

Putting this in writing is a good impetus to start doing it! One box is made, a process has begun, and the location has been narrowed down to a couple of sites. There are lots of details to work out and I’m content with this being a work in progress. That tells me I have changed! I’m looking forward to the journey this project takes me on. It will undoubtedly change direction as all good creative works do; but here is a starting framework.

Leveled land behind the studio