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Diana Lynn Thompson Home Gallery Recent projects 2000-2004 1994-99 Exhibition List CV Site Map News/ Updates Contact |
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| ephemeral installation art ecological artist Canada art insertions environmental installations organic sculpture marbles beach art glass marbles on beach saltspring blue marbles beachcombing blue marbles sand |
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| Day 3:
2 -5 pm I stayed at the beach for three hours, just enjoying the calm and quiet. I watched a song sparrow scratching in the seaweed and listened to Cedar waxwings, Glaucous-winged gulls and the children playing on the land above. A man came down to the other side of the cove and played with his dog for a while, but he didn't come over. The marbles have travelled down the beach, and many have settled among stones and shells about their same size and weight. |
| The beaches are public below the high tide line in Canada, so everyone has access to them.
This beach is quite secluded, but I left three notes (with my name, address and a short description of the project) posted in the trees so that anyone who came upon the work would be able to contact me if they wanted to. I can't wait until tomorrow to see what has happened to them! Day 2: I returned to the beach at 8:30 this morning. The tide was dropping quickly. No one had touched the marbles and no one was on the beach. There had been a 10.8 ft high tide last night., which pulled the marbles down from where I'd placed them, but they hadn't disappeared. They lay in thick pools and drifts among the shell and stone. |
| Day 4:
3-6pm An 11.2 ft tide last night, one of the highest of the year. The marbles were underwater for a long time, and many are now buried in the sand and under the stones. I stayed and watched the tide come up. Resting my back against the bedrock, I could feel the support it gave me. All distracting thoughts disappear when I am on a beach -- there is just the intoxicating beauty of the place and the moment. |
| Day 5:
July 16 2- 4:30pm Lari came with me today, and we began collecting up the marbles. Every day they had moved further down the beach, which I'd expected. But what we found was that most had been buried - up to three inches deep. We used the sides of our hands as trowels, smoothing through the white shell sand, which was laden with marbles. We were thankful there were no clams on this beach - we didn't seem to be disturbing any creatures -- nothing visible at any rate. We collected three buckets full of marbles - about 3,000 - so there are still around a thousand left there that we couldn't find. A man came down to the beach while we were working, and told us that this tiny beach is called Treasure Beach, as tiny pieces of broken blue and white pottery and tumbled shards of amethyst glass can be found there. So now there will be a few marbles that will surface too, probably for many years, although I'll still try to collect them over the next few weeks. |
| 4000 blue, pale blue, clear, aqua and teal green coloured marbles cast onto a south-facing beach on Saltspring Island. July 12 to 20, 2007 Day one: 11 am, an hour after a low (1.0 ft ) tide. Placed the marbles! |
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| July 20 I came back to the beach to check for changes. Many more marbles had surfaced, some in the the sand but most were lower down among the stones or in the water. It was a cool rainy day. I found another half-bucket full, which means there are perhaps four hundred still embedded in the beach. |
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| July 24 A woman emailed me saying she found some of the marbles and will be gifting them to others... I'm so glad to know this project will be going further because of her. |
| September 16, 2007 I went by the beach at a mid-high tide and couldn't find a trace of the marbles. Over the last month I've met people who have said they've found some and kept them. March 12, 2008 It's only 20 km from where I live, but I haven't been back to the beach until now. There are still a few marbles hidden on the beach, but they are now low down, buried beneath stones and in the gravel. It was a low (2ft.) tide today, and I found a handful of scuffed blue marbles - - but only when I looked twice, and looked hard. March 27th 2009 A stone with paint on it, a fist-sized chunk of cement, a worn brick, chips of terracotta and delicate blue glazed porcelain. Broken green bottle glass, tiny rounded clear glass, a small piece of a cup, smooth bits of beach lumber -- and three pale blue marbles. All are human additions to this beach. I picked up the broken glass (as someone could get cut) and the three marbles. The marbles were my doing, and I’ve been properly roasted for it.by a local outdoors club. So I picked them up, although I’m sure someone else would have loved to find them. I still see them as beautiful, and still think they do no harm, embedded in this beach that has been used for thousands of years. A deep midden sits behind the beach, on top of which are houses with yards and kids, dogs and tree forts. I love this little beach so much and am always happy to be here in this big bowl of natural and man-made remains. |
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