This photo, taken quite early in the morning, is from the wild northeast corner of Brasil. It is possible to travel hundreds of kilometers bicycling directly on the sand at low tide, from Forteleza to Natal. Sand dunes, estuaries, cliffs, wading rivers, or waiting for dug-out canoes... 15 days travelling at low tide, december 2002.
This painting is from "Travelpoems." Lenzo believes that the clearest "way of liberation" is to start walking... and walking alone. The simplicity of solo travel makes it easy for us to discover our excess baggage -- to examine it, to play with it, and to leave it at the wayside.
In the center you can see one of our tiny zen artists: a Thai Bubble Crab. They are about 2-3mm in diameter. They make the balls as they feed off of the algea attached to individual grains of sand. When the ball (or sand bubble) gets too big to sit on, they roll it to one side and start over again... creating the most fantastic sandpaintings as they lunch away the day.
They're a bit shy so I had to make several efforts to get a portrait.
Some of my best photos were taken right at sunset, when the sun would be low on the ocean and the tiny little sandballs would cast long shadows.
Frequently I was working in and around a day's worth of human, canine and bicycle tracks. Which raises a delicate issue: should I "restore" a sandpainting by removing said tracks (via photoshop)? -- or should I simply smile as nature shows us yet another way of "renewing the canvas"?
Viewed on another scale, footprints and bicycle treads become an artform themselves.
I really loved this image. The songbird was "painted" late in the afternoon after "the canvas" had already been traversed by a bicycle. I took the photo anyway, and with some care I was later able to photoshop-away much of the tire treads. You can still discern the path taken by the bicycle: mostly verticle, slightly to the left of center.
The traditional Thai Naga is a wingless dragon trained from a hatchling to guard the sacred stairways of Buddhist temples. The one seen here apparently decided to take the stairway-less-travelled -- the one heading down to the beach.
For the artwork in Forgiverance, I am humbly indebted to the ever-prolific Bubble-Sandcrabs of Ko Phayam, Thailand. May our lives be as fearless and truly timeless as these masterworks of improvisation. Accolades to Pam Nimegeers for her spirited collaboration with these tiny Zen artists, producing an excellent cover design.
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