When I was much
younger I came across an article about a group of people who made ephemeral art
– art that took a day to make – perhaps patterns on the sand at a beach – and then
was washed away, like it had never
been. (a great current example is the
work of Jim Denevan)
At the time, I was baffled. Who would want to spend a day doing something
spectacular and beautiful only to have it wash away? This article was so old, it was before the internet;
you couldn’t even get viral pictures of it!
But I’m older now
and I can see it as the perfect metaphor that it is – life is ephemeral art, we
are here so briefly, and our task is to make something beautiful, even though it
may not last, even though we may not finish it.
The doing matters as much as the completion. Now there is something about ephemeral art
that moves me to tears. And of course now we have the internet, so we
can share these images, let others see the beauty, and hold on to the ephemeral
a little longer…
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