AN INDIGENOUS ART MOVEMENT
The Great Central Valley Earth Project is a visual and experiential metaphor for the preservation of the remaining natural and agricultural lands in the Central Valley of California. I was inspired by the finding of indigenous, plastic clay about eight feet under the surface of prime farmland in the San Joaquin Delta. We hand formed this clay into hollow “rocks” and burnished the surface. Farmers who raise nuts and fruits in the Valley, burn old trees and their stumps in great piles at the edge of the orchard. One farmer, who raises cherries and walnuts, loved my idea of using the wood to pit fire the Rocks. Thus began the concept of using these precious, handmade Rocks, to symbolize the fecund earth found in the San Joaquin Delta and the mid Central Valley, adjacent to the Delta. There has been rapid urbanization of this fertile farmland surrounding Stockton, California where I live. In response, I have created CAIRNS with the Rocks and shown them in galleries and exhibitions. Cairns have also been placed throughout the region in wild places to protect native habitats from being disturbed. During a presentation of the Great Central Valley Earth Project, a local historian asked me if making these rocks and cairns was inspired by the Miwok stones, found in ancient mounds around Stockton. Upon investigating, it was apparent that I must be channeling my ancient sisters! The Miwok people cooked with heated stones placed in baskets. The land around Stockton is alluvial and there are no stones or rocks. Only in this small stretch of Delta north of the San Joaquin River do Native Californian middens contain these hand formed balls of clay. Even more exciting to me is that the oldest remnants were found in the deepest layer of midden which corresponds to the depth where my working clay was found. Shaping the clay at hand into cooking rocks is estimated to have occurred 800 years ago. |
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