Character of a rock

"And yet the simple act of standing a stone upright can be spiritually and aesthetically powerful.  One thinks, for example, of the dolmens of Stonehenge or Carmac. Lafcadio Hearn, an international writer who became a naturalized citizen of Japan wrote "Until you can feel that stones have character, that the stones have tones, values, the whole artistic meaning of a Japanese garden cannot be revealed to you."
http://www.glowmagazine.me/the-perfect-traditional-zen-garden-in-london/

Jorge and I took a trip to Bay Aggregates, a supplier of hardscape materials, in Port Washington, Long Island a couple of weeks ago to choose the gravel and rocks that we will use in PASSAGE.  As you know, the installation is inspired by the Zen garden and we want to use rocks and gravel in the installation to create a sense and concept of the garden. I thought this would be easy, after all, a rock garden is only a big rectangle filled with rocks, but even though we have thought about it a lot, it’s been hard to settle on something that that feels right.

It was wonderful being at the very dusty Bay Aggregates and looking at all the different rocks. There were white marble chips glistening in the sun, sensuously smooth river stone from Mexico, oversized gravel in a multitude of shades of pink and brown and jagged Bluestone from Pennsylvania, to name just of few of the many rocks and stones on display.  

I was surprised to realize how pleasurable it was to notice the subtle differences in the colors, feel the textures and experience the intensity of the weight of the stones.  Jorge, who grew up in Costa Rica, is closely connected to nature and has talked to me on my occasions about the beauty of stones, how they carry the heat of the earth and hold time and memory.  I can’t say that I really understood what he was talking about before, but it became clearer to me as I stood amidst the huge piles of stones and got covered in rock dust.   

Since coming back from Bay Aggregates, Jorge and I have decided on the final design for our dry landscape.  I think my new sensitivity to the rocks has helped me to have a different relationship to the installation and ultimately to be able to make decisions with greater ease.  Rather than seeing the rocks and gravel as objects to be properly placed in a space in order to evoke the feeling of a Zen garden, I have stepped a little outside of my thinking mind and have begun to pay attention to the rocks themselves- to their smell, sound, irregularities, defiance and humor. I have started to wonder how long they  have been around, what creatures have touched them and how they were formed. The stones have started to feel like curious entities to me and rather than using them to get my idea across, I have started to let their character lead the way and be the inspiration for what Jorge and I share in Passage.