have been collecting baggies, finding the change in seasons an interesting time to observe the changes in dirt--as now in many areas i come across, the dirt is mixed also with leaf molds, rotting composts of old weeds that are in the process of dying--bits of twigs torn off by winds--since it was a very dry summer here in Milwaukee, observing how the top soils in some places have been exposed as the grass died, or withered and browned--exposing a sandier soil, dry and parched instead of the usual darker, wetter soil--
also since people moving in and out in late august and into septemeber, the mixing into dirt of the fall outs of various sorts of garbage, wood objects, peeling paint, plastic bits--wirings of old machines, buttons, broekn zippers, insects already burrowing among some things--and this year an invasion of wasps--so making the dumpster areas danger zones!--
i know that boht Jean Dubuffet and Robert Rauschenberg worked with dirt as a material on canvases, mixed with various other ingredients--
i have tried it out with spray paints, o'glue and lumber crayon rubbings--dirt scattered over a surafce and mixed with acyrlics--or simply spray paint--is very interesting--
i was thinking also of dirt being used in terms of its "earthy" scents as well as colors--
it wd be intersting to make pieces with dirt that had that real dirt road dirt smell--or dirt found clotted among the cleats of tires of trucks or old cars--and then the dirt that has that moldy smell--or the dirt that's been mixed in with gravel dust at construction sites--
and make these scents be part of the experience of the works made with the dirt-
i like the feel and sound and scents and life of this project--
"dirt works" rather than the aggrandizing sound and scale of "Earth Works"!--
(i don't know maybe someone will recall that old song by the Stooges--"Dirt"!--)
"angels with dirty faces"--old movie--
from "the salt of the earth" to--?--the pepper of the dirt!
onwo/ards--
david baptiste
From: "Melissa McCarthy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FLUXLIST: Call for Dirt Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 01:41:11 +0000
I'm looking to do some new work involving the use of earth as a pigment -- just learned the technique, and I'm very enthusiastic. If you will send me some earth -- doesn't have to be much, a ziploc bag-full would be wonderful -- I will send something back in return. Make sure to enclose a return address!
Melissa McCarthy PO Box 6742 Lakeport, NH 03247-6742 USA
Melissa McCarthy Hours: whimsical or by appointment ****>>>Adult, maybe; grown-up, never!<<<**** [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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