It is April, and the weather has moved in. As a writer it is difficult to capture the image of nature in all her splendor, let alone her emotion, but at five this morning when giant flakes of snow were tickling my cheeks with cold kisses it was hard not to try. Mornings are beastly and anything before seven a nightmare still, but with the weather following Marie and I to the northern edge of the salt lake the threat of dangerous weather gave the predawn a little thrill.
My adventure at the Spiral Jetty turned out to be cold, hovering somewhere around thirty degrees. Something about the frigid morning and the steady drizzle, created a world of sharp grey shadows and lights. These colors sometimes evoke a dreary feeling, but here this was not the case.
Inspiration bloomed all over the hillside erupting from the lake edge. Marie, still recovering from a broken foot, hiked with me to get a better view of the art piece. We hefted her film equipment through the volcanic rock decorated by pastel green lichen. The wet grasses, already sprouting to about mid-calf, soaked my shoes within minutes. Finally, we reached the spot and turned to face the sight. The lake had become a reflection of hues somehow contained within this grey spectrum. Purple, blue, green, and even yellow all mixed together fading and moving slow like the storm threatening above the glassy lake with a quiet watchfulness over the Jetty. The jetty itself, a mass of those same volcanic rocks and white sand, stretched like a lazy appendage of the land into the water, almost as if it had frozen in the process of straightening out. Beyond all this, the threat of an April snow storm lingered in the air, dangling in front of us like a countdown. The seagulls began to cry, and the scent of briny water rose off the lakeshore with the breeze. Nature was kind enough to give Marie some perfect photos to capture by the pose of this morning. Then less kindly, she ushered us off the shoreline with winter’s chill and more of her wet feathery snow kisses.
Other photos of the Spiral Jetty I have seen do not do this day at the Jetty any compliment. Some are taken from aerial views and others in the middle of summer when the water table has raised enough to submerge the Jetty altogether. Although the image, the art, is bursting with emotion, from the positions of the jagged volcano rocks to the spiral rings, this Jetty had danger. The grey morning foreshadowed the storm to come, an obvious warning to Marie and me as we scuttled about the shore. In writing, this dangerous hint tainting the work creates an undeniable tension. The threat of dangerous weather can take a scene where you might not have expected it to go.
If you would like to see the pictures taken by Marie Teemant of the Sprial Jetty, please visit her blog and take a look. Rie Around the World: Stay-cation
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