More MARBLE/marble XX Photos

I didn't write or photograph nearly as much this year as compared to past years--I think mainly due to being at only 80% due to fighting a mild cold & cough bug all week.

The M/m Experience was no less wonderful, however. In fact each year I think somehow I find a deeper, more life-encompassing benefit and appreciation for this amazing opportunity. Without a doubt, I will continue to be one of the first to reapply each year.

Here are a few more photos...

This photo overlooking the Crystal River was assembled in Photoshop using 10 shots from my Nikon DSLR. Its a 180° view which necessarily distorts the image.

One of the highlights of M/m every year is the "Face Off". Here are a few shots from this year's first session.

The Wrap-Up Party is alway memoriable. Especially due to one very special person...


Gracious hosts of Raspberry Ridge (as well as very fine happy hours), Gary and Patsy:

And a few photos captured by excellent photographer Kanae Fukuhara:

A Fort Collins Jazz Experience

Tonight is the kickoff for Fort Collin's first jazz festival: A Fort Collins Jazz Experience. Just in time, we installed 'Saxy' in the front window of Centennial Galleries early this afternoon.

Saxy!

We lost our internet connection at MARBLE/marble which explains the lack of updates these past few days.

Just back from an amazing experience at the 20th annual symposium. Thank you Madeline and M/m staff!

"Saxy"

Day 5 - Monsoon

Ended the day with some wonderful homemade pizza at Patsy and Gary's (owners of the Raspberry Ridge Inn). Dinner ended with a torrential downpour -- early arrival of the monsoon, Gary speculates.

Most of the day spent finessing the lines and learning how to use my delightful little Bantam air chisel.


The MARBLE/marble experience is a amazing as ever, though I wrote much more lengthy posts in past years.

Day 4 - Fractured Wind

The Claronet is dead.

Early today Kathi Caricof noticed a tiny fracture near the bell of what was to be the duet companion for my sax. Fin. The sax is doing well, however. I think I'll name it 'Saxy'.

The daily workshops at MARBLE/marble are worth the price of entry. I've not been attending them this year but stopped into the "face off" for a few photos. See past years for much more detail...

I'm not tenting this year. Instead, staying at the "Raspberry Ridge Inn" next to M/m. Some mountain feline ...

Crystal River Sundial Project

An exciting new installation is taking place on the grounds of the MARBLE/marble symposium: an Analemic Sundial. Most 'garden variety' sundials are off by as much as 15 minutes in either direction and require an accompanying correction graph plotting "the equation of time." An anelemic dial incorporates this sinusoidal correction thus obviating the need for a separate graph. A well-designed analemic dial can be read accurately to within about two minutes year around. An anelemma is often printed on the side of globes.

My first exposure to analemic dials was from an article in Scientific American back in the 80's. I immediatly began programming my own dial generator using "Rocky Mountain Basic" on an HP9845--a very cool desktop computer (technical desktop version of the HP 300) which predated MAC's and PC's.

Our Crystal River sundial is to be engraved on a slab of marble also serving as a coffee table overlooking the Crystal River (see photo below). Without a perfectly flat and perfectly level (or known orientation), computer-generating the dial is out of the question. Instead, we've embarked on an emperical approach using a radio-controlled clock, a hammer and a chisel. Over the next month, during the three sessions of MARBLE/marble (July 2 - August 5), passers-by will be placing tic marks on the quarter hour. Next year at this time, we'll hopefully have enough data to carfully and elegently carve the hour lines into the table as well as add other decorations such as compass points and an appropriate inscription.




Update 23-SEP-09: Back in 1985, I was very deep into the trigonometry of sundial generation. Here are some notes I made for the purpose of explaining the analemic projections on the dials...

Day 3 - Jazz Duet

Woke up this morning with a nasty bug -- almost decided to sleep in. Definitely caught something that is sapping my energy. Bad timing!

A few days back, I popped into Centennial Galleries on Linden Street and chatted briefly with Lynne, one of the owners. My first MARBLE/marble piece is still there near the front window. I mentioned to her in jest that I would like to displace this piece with a new one from this year's M/m. She mentioned that next week Fort Collins will host its first Jazz Festival. This ultimately became the inspiration for my Saxophone --now joined by a Clarinet.

Had a good day despite my low energy. Taking a break every half hour (to calibrate the new Crystal River Sundial...details to follow) surely helped.

Fort Collins might as well be a million miles away. This...is true creative Bliss.

Day 2 - Flow

The Internet situation here is abysmal. The one connection we were counting on isn't going to happen -- the satellite receiver is outdated and must be replaced. I'm 'stealing' a very weak off-and-on connection coming from the woods west of here.

Made good progress today. What a break from yesterday's deadlock. I experienced a bit of a rush that I cannot explain other than "flow".

Going to try to upload one photo...

Success! Let's try another...

My subject is an abstract sax. More on that later...

Today, we officially launched the "Crystal River Sundial Project". More detail later.

Very tired. Going to bed early.

Day 1 -- Extreme Exhaustion!

Trying to cut back a bit on my time away from home, I decided to depart on the 260-mile Marble drive this morning at 3am, rather than departing yesterday. Last night's resulting foreshortened sleep probably contributed to the severe case of artist's block I fought through the morning. By around noon, though, I arrived at a design I'm feeling pretty good about. More on that tomorrow...

The spot I have this year is the best yet: A great view of the river, excellent shade and fairly remote. Removed quite a bit of marble for a half-day on a half-night's sleep. Tonight I have a room. I will miss tent camping a tiny bit...Nah.

No internet onsite until tomorrow. I drove down to Carbondale for dinner and a connection.