Week 10: Pretending We're At the Ocean

I never realized how much of a water creature I really am until now- I've been here for a month and all I can think about sometimes is how good it's going to feel to jump into the Pacific when I'm back home. We went to Sand Hollow today ("the beach") at a lake near Saint George. I went with a group of awesome ASMs. 

The sun was so intense and so high that literally the surroundings looked like a cut out. The canyons around us looked like a flat painting and we were in some make believe little oasis in the middle of this big baking picture.  Someone mentioned while we were playing in the water "Just over there, I think I've seen that painting before in a hotel room."

They probably have. 

I think I realize now what Lonnie sees when he is pained with excessive front light. Like you are watching a cartoon and are simultaneously baking in an oven. Just, no.

There seemed to be a kind of thin layer of what you could almost describe as smog all around the horizon flattening out the picture even more- but I have a feeling it's just that you can see so FAR that all of the layers of thin haze and density pile up. I'm not sure how the scientific part of that actually works but everything in the distance seemed a little hazy and like I said, flat. As you can see below, the mountains in the distance aren't clear in the distance. They almost look purple. I'm trying to notice if that effect is consistent, or changes based on the weather conditions. It almost seems like smoke. 

Once the sun got lower, I could immediately starts to see the details in the canyons, the cracks and crevices etc. I'm learning a LOT about angle here. These rocks are like a constant light model with a lot of unique shapes, and we get to watch them change throughout the day. What's amazing is that the angle can actually influence the color, or rather the way we perceive the color. Is that even theatrically possible? 

Brandon Standon, the beloved HONY photography recently posted this quote under a photo of two doctors: 

"We’re eye doctors."
"What’s something about the eye that most people don’t realize?"
"The eye doesn’t see. The brain sees. The eye just transmits. So what we see isn’t only determined by what comes through the eyes. What we see is affected by our memories, our feelings, and by what we’ve seen before."

I find this amazing and so applicable to everything we're considering with light, theatre and story. We are evoking with our work, but if you take this idea into consideration, than with whatever we do there will always be an element of the unknown. Each unique experience within each individual on the team and in the audience will literally see, and perceive the work differently. Incredible. 
This class/quarter/exploration has been incredibly important to me in the way that I observe the world around me. It reminds me daily that we draw the inspiration for our art (and the way we perceive the art we see) based on what we experience and notice around us. By nature of being conscious artists it must make us more observant, conscious awake people. I have enjoyed carrying Robert Edmond Jones with me throughout the year. I appreciate how opinionated he is- it makes me realize how OKAY it is to have an opinion- because if we didn't, what would we be doing here? I think my first favorite thing, though, aside from his revelatory observations in Light and Shadow, is how he openly comments on every element. Jones understands and teaches that every element is important and connected. The collaborative element of theatre is to me, one if it's most prevalent and exciting components- the collaboration yes, between people, but also between different mediums of art, ideally headed in the same direction. 


Happy finals week everyone!!!
(I've seen white sand beaches and black sand beaches, but never red. Have some more photos.)