In Public

I've been traveling the last few weeks and had an opportunity to see and experience different areas of Washington State. My brother, a geologist, and I decided to go on a 'rocks and minerals' series of outings. We centered our searches near the Ingalls opheolite sequence near Blewett Pass, WA. Apart from searching for and finding serpentinite, calcite, chlorite, and garnets, we also found soapstone. Soapstone is made of talc and has a value of '1' on Moh's Hardness Scale. I, of course, took advantage of this in order to leave my mark with a rock hammer. In the picture below, notice that others had exploited this physical property as well, however, others had use what appears to have been wood saws and power tools. This cutting of the soapstone created a series of flat faces and unnaturally sharp corners for a talc-based rock. In order to present contrast to this geometry, I began my design with the circle at the top of the design and it eventually grew into what is pictured. The indentations cover an area about two feet square.

Rock indentations created June 2011. Located near scenic viewpoint north of Lake Wenatchee.

The following come from July 2011 and were from locations on Washington's Olympic peninsula.

Carving in large piece of driftwood on Rialto Beach near La Push, WA. Approximately 18"x18". Knife used was a Remington 4-inch blade knife.

Rock arrangement in Hoh River (rock bar in middle of river) near Bogachiel Campground/State Park, WA. Design approximately 20'x15'. The shape is consistent with above pictures, although the perspective is reversed. The perspective is from the upstream view. The arrangement was done conscious of the river and that as it rises, the relief of the arranged rocks will show for a period of time as the water rises around it. Note: I did embellish this image with two arcs of stone near the base of the 'head' of the design.