Bottle Grove
2018
The opening ritual at the Far Flung Forest sets the tone for several days of artistic sharing, creativity, play, and rest.
As part of 2018's opening ritual, each artist was invited to decorate a small glass bottle and fill it with the items of their choosing - seaweed, sand, ocean water, rocks, shells, and notes. Afterward, we all walked together to the grove to see what we would find there.
I collaborated on this installation with Elizabeth Eady. I had never collaborated with anyone before, and I enjoyed seeing how our ideas would bounce off of each other, and how much further my creativity went just talking about our project.
When artists arrived in the grove, there were letters addressed to each of them hanging in a tree. They took their letter and hung their glass bottle in its place.
Photo by Tyler Heibeck
The letters welcomed them to the space and were customized using information garnered from a survey sent out before the event began. I used stationery I bought at an estate sale.
Photo by Tyler Heibeck
Getting the letters to hang in the tree without getting tangled was an interesting challenge, since the ocean winds whipped the paper around, but some artfully placed branches did the trick.
People decorated their bottles in a variety of whimsical ways, including googly eyes.
Photo by Carolee
The bottles remained in the grove throughout the weekend, a symbol of our ephemeral community.
Photo by Carolee
Some of the bottles had notes from the Forest within them for those who came back to explore the grove.
Photo by Carolee
At the end of the weekend, I returned to the grove with a small group of people to gently take down the installation and return the bottles to their makers. Mine still hangs from my altar on my desk.
Photo by Carolee