Antelope Canyon I An Immersive Stone Experience Idea
Red sandstone is my favorite type of stone that I’ve ever touched, seen and explored. It’s very powerful.
One of my major life goals is to create an Immersive Stone Experience Space where people can come and BE in for hours and have their living experience be affected in a dramatic way by beauty + wonder + awe.
One of the immersive experiences is to replicate a small version of Antelope Canyon with a team of stone builders and sculptor using sandstone from Utah or Arizona.
I describe this as “my soul’s duty to express the godhead in a physical form with stone”.
It’s not about hubris or ego or vanity. It’s about what I am doing with my life on this beautiful planet.
Photo 1 - A screenshot from the Instagram account of comedian @andrewschulz and his wife standing in awe in the canyon. In his caption he writes, “All art pales in comparison to that of God, sand, water & time…”
Photo 2 - A photo from yourhikeguide.com
MY VERY FIRST STONE PROJECT... LITTLE DID I KNOW.
MY VERY FIRST STONE PROJECT
2003 / Durango, Colorado - This photo is of me holding my first born son Aidan at a rental house.
I collected a bunch of rock from the side of the La Plata mountains and built a “drystone” patio and a sod play area for us to hang outside more.
At this point in my life I didn’t know what I was doing for work, just whatever came along. I was pretty aimless because I had wanted a career in the military but it didn’t work out and I left my second military tour in 1998 very distraught.
That year (2003) we moved to Boulder so I could complete my Bachelors degree at UC-Boulder. I wanted to go on to a Masters degree in Middle Eastern studies and Arabic and work in the diplomatic or intelligence field.
I had ZERO plans to get into the landscaping field and then stonework. Wasn’t even a blip on the radar.
Little did I know at the age of 33 about how life would unfold for me 6 years later when I discovered the drystone method at the age of 39.
ORDER, CERTAINTY, BEAUTY & STANDARDS: They Matter. More Than Ever!
All around me I see chaos, uncertainty, ugliness and the disappearance of standards. I’m constantly re-committing myself to be a man who builds ORDER, creates CERTAINTY, designs BEAUTY and maintains STANDARDS, no matter what. Period. No excuses.
So I love this quote I heard from DJ Shipley, a former member of Seal Team 6, on a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan. They were discussing the level of capacity that Tier 1 military units maintain and he said this: “A standard becomes a standard until someone exceeds it. When the collective exceeds it, it becomes a dynasty.”
It’s my new motto as I figure out what’s next for me as a stonebuilder rebuilding my business in Texas and attempting to launch The Modern Stone Guild.
"THE WAR OF ART"
I’m re-reading Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art” again for the about the 10th time. Y
Yesterday and today I’ve been thinking a lot about what he writes regarding “why” an Artist does his work and about what should be the utter essence of why I create.
It was a breakthrough. I cried a bit because I had to let go of some shit around this matter. Two points Pressfield wrote shook me up and I’m grateful to him for them: First, “What do I feel growing inside me? Let me bring that forth, if I can, for its own sake and not for what it can do for me or how it can advance my standing”. Second, “We must do our work for its own sake, not fortune or attention or applause. Then there’s the third way proffered by the Lord of Discipline (my notes: He’s referring to an instruction spoken by Lord Krishna to Prince Arjuna), which is beyond both hierarchy and territory. That is to do the work and give it to Him. Do it as an offering to God.
Give the act to me. / Purged of hope and ego, / Fix your attention on the soul? Act and do for me.
WHAT IS CREATIVITY? REALLY, WHAT IS IT?
“A great artist is but a conduit for an expression that resonates with something that is greater than him or herself.” (From Jason Silva’s ‘Shots of Awe’)
This brief blog is dedicated to all of you Creatives I know and don't know out there. You'll get this video!
I've been watching Jason Silva's "Shots of Awe" videos periodically since around 2013. When I begin to lose that inner "reason" about why I do what I do and how I want to feel about what I do, I watch a handful of his videos specifically on Awe, Beauty, Connection and Creativity. I'll watch 1 about 3-5 times until I feel "true" inside once again and not on some path of compromise. Compromise to me means 1) Working with people who don't align with me or the potential of a project or 2) Looking at a project only for the money I could make or 3) Reducing the potential beauty or grandeur of a project for unnecessary reasons.
Thanks Jason for putting yourself out there for so many years.
His website = www.thisisjasonsilva.com
His YouTube = "Jason Silva: Shots of Awe"
A FALLACY WITHIN THE DRYSTONE WORLD
I've identified a new FALLACY in the DRY STONE world.
It's the FALLACY that a dry stone mason who uses too much technology un-becomes a dry stone mason.
Merriam Webster dictionary defines "fallacy" as "a false or mistaken idea". In this post, I want to obliterate this fallacy in order to spark some thinking about 3 objectives:
1) To open up what's possible with dry stone building in the 21st century using all forms of available technology such as a my Modern Stonecraft method.
2) To re-direct this misplaced, ego-driven attention on how dry stone masons build a project towards increasing our craft's overall visibility amidst the deluge of concrete products pouring down on potential customers.
3) By accomplishing the first two objectives we might be able to resurrect natural stone back to its rightful place as the world's premiere building material.
There's a spectrum of technology available and some amongst us seem to think that if a dry stone mason ventures too far from using only a hammer and chisel then he or she is no longer a dry stone mason.
At our 2016-2018 Truckee project, every piece of stone (ranging from 250 lbs to 3,500 lbs) was set with a handheld or machine-mounted vacuum lifter or friction grabber. We used all kinds of grinders, saws, chisels and hammers. The project was built using a simple innovation I created that I call Modern Stonecraft, which combines the ancient drystone building method, machine-based stereotomy and lifting technology to meet the demands of modern design
Most thought the project was unique, beautiful and extremely well-crafted, but a handful of comments were posted from traditional dry stone wallers in Canada, the East Coast and the United Kingdom deriding my crew as "assemblers" (not masons) and lambasting our using of grinders and saws. So be it.
Meanwhile, I work to keep my focus on what's possible, increasing our craft's visibility to architects, builders and homeowners and educating others about why natural stone is the world's best building material especially for outdoor features.
The Pro Human Principles for 2021
In the late Spring of 2020, my wife and I created these 12 pro human principles. Just click directly on the image to read through all twelve. Enjoy!
I'm Doubling Down. Starting Now.
Here’s what I am personally doubling down on in my own life during all of this chaos and insanity starting now. (Some of these ideas I actually started practicing many months ago. I’m nowhere near perfect, but I really try hard.)
Be genuinely kind even when I don’t want to be which can be often these days.
Be civil especially when driving a multi-ton vehicle.
Hug anyone willing to accept a hug. Some humans don’t want to now.
Shake hands like a man. No elbow bumps.
Choose not to wear a mask-talisman and instead smile and make eye contact.
More analog (or offline) stuff, activities and less of the digital stuff. I’m thinking about buying a record player and vinyl records.
More retro and less high tech. We’ve been playing Blackjack after dinner with real money.
More physical connection and zero physical distancing. I just refuse this one.
Resist the nonsense. Resist the insanity. Resist the onslaught against what makes us really good humans.