Earth Art / Rock Art (Liquid Geology 2003,2004)

The term 'Liquid Geology' was coined to describe the process of examining anthropomorphic rock formations, especially from the surrealist perspective. Due to the surprising images that were often found within the rock images, upon poetic analysis, these inorganic objects are justly called surrealist found objects. The images in this gallery page were photographed in the coastal areas of Northern California. In particular, the pictures show images of coastal rocks that have been eroded via wind and ocean wave abrasion. Therefore, what I have called 'liquid geology' can also be considered a manifestation of 'rock art' and perhaps 'involuntary earth art'. All of the photos on this page are from 2003.

While many rock and mineral formations often have highly structured patterns, there are others which are chaotic, almost organic in appearance, as is the case with the images shown here. Through the action of waves, these formations are created through chemical as well as mechanical erosion. The end result is that certain exposed portions of the rocks are selectively eroded faster than other areas, probably due to their heterogenous composition. The more easily weathered parts leave behind very smooth and almost spherical cavities, pits and indentations within the remaining areas, giving the sublime appearance of honeycombs, cellular formations, organ clusters, and caverns that cry out to be explored and occupied by the poetic imagination.

The coastal sites themselves embody places of poetic enchantment, with the din of crashing waves, the fertile tide pools with algae and starfish, sometimes brightly illuminated by sunlight and blue skies. Caught between the inland cliffs and the sea, these large weathered rocks and tide pools thrive without the sandy beaches that many would expect to find homogenously prevalent at the coast. Therefore, to access these magical rocks, a bit of climbing is required at times.

In some of these sites, the honeycombed structures were visible during both high and low tides.

For the purposes of 'Earth Art,' at least for capturing these images on film, it was necessary to navigate among the weathered boulders, and a little climbing was necessary. The decision to photograph this or that rock was based on intuition alone. When a picture seemed to have latent poetic content, then it was immediately photographed, without any conscious, analytical considerations. Later, after the photos were developed, the pictures were analyzed for any 'hidden images.' In many cases, I was able to find interesting animal and sexual imagery that I could not have composed in a relatively more planned and conscious manner, such as in a drawing or painting, for instance. The final step in 'processing' these images was to remove the background or visual context from these found objects and to alter their color, so as to better enable their newly discovered function/meaning to be perceived by the viewer. For these reasons, the images can be thought of as involuntary earth art, involuntary rock art, or perhaps more simply, found art.

While the terms earth art and rock art certainly apply, the magic of these images resides in their naturalness, in that they were not made by human hands, but by the elements. Analogously, they can also be regarded as surrealist found objects, in that they were found serendipitously, by chance. The rocks themselves were at known locations, but the images that were found within (through a delirious poetic interpretation) were the result of imagination. Generally, any found object or image is one that is encountered accidentally, and which is more a function of desire and imagination than it is of material need, say, of finding a coin on the street. The activity of encountering surrealist found objects over time represents the mind's process of fulfilling its own poetic needs and desires, and is capable of providing far more than any religious oracle or priest could. Likewise, the surrealist found object is also a source of nourishment and a beautiful antidote to the reinforcement of capitalist ideology that is latent within so many 'entertainment' products of popular, consumerist culture.

Of course, the word "Art" has gotten thrown around quite a bit over the years, and by now it is bruised. The word "Art" when it is used here, in the case of surrealist earth art, is intended more as a way for the mind to regain contact with itself and its surroundings, rather than a means for escape, which so often is the case with commercialized 'modern art.' Despite the stimulating colors within these pictures, their true poetic core is their surreal naturalness, spontaneity, and their connection to real life.