This blog belongs to the Art In The Everyday course at Eastern Connecticut State University which explores everyday life experience through various frames of reference, including: sound, ephemeral sculpture, movement and community building.

Monday, March 15, 2010

In the trees...















. . . we decided to build our monument to Robert Frost and the people who choose to go down the roads less traveled. Rather than bringing a monument to Main St, we thought it'd be interesting to build something on the arboretum's naturally beautiful trail because we believe that people who spend all their time time on main roads and in buildings could benefit from exploring their surroundings more. A monument in a less-accessible location not only honors the people who take the time to visit the location, but it could ideally inspire people to venture up into the woods for the first time.
Last class we began building the arch in the picture after Liz's location suggestion and we really enjoyed it, finding cool things like the skunk cabbage shown in one of the pictures. Meanwhile we thought to dedicate it to Frost , realizing how sad it was that a lot of people just "don't have the time" or motivation to visit spots like this.

4 comments:

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  2. Sometimes I walk down this trail so that no one can find me. So I can be alone in the woods, with no one around, and relax. I feel like the wooden archway we created is a symbol for an escape route, or an entrance into the uninhabited. I also think it fits very well being made of branches that fell from the trees above it.

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  3. Yayy Alex! When I first use to walk on this trail, way at the begining of the year, the archway was KIND of there..it wasn't an arch, but more like a wall of sticks, with a little area to walk through, and honestly that was the only reason I saw the trail....the bridge it leads to is so peaceful and beautiful, and surrounded by trees...so I left it, went back to my room to grab some books and paper, and came back to the bridge....This was at the beginging of the school year, and I was loney and missing my friends and family, but on that bridge I wasn't thinking about being sad and being away from them; I was thinking about being away from everything (college included)and I was just there, with me, by myself..and it felt so good...I also LOVE forests and trees and it reminded me of home and all the hikes I use to take with my pals. I continued to go back to the bridge to hang out; occasionally bringing friends to just sit and meditate..then one day I walked right by it...I kept looking and looking when I saw a pile of the sticks on the ground, and I looked beyond it and saw the bridge...I was sad that someone took time out of their day to destroy such a nice gesture that someone had made...my days god busy, and winter came so I didn't go back as much..one or two times when it snowed...so I had the idea that we could somehow rebuild somthing to show that the path was there...when I brought everyone they thought it was wonderful and the pile of sticks was still there so we began building...we stayed there till 3:30 (thats why we didn't come back to class) just forming ideas and sitting in the woods....Alex had the idea to make the archway, and I said we should nail it together..but he said it might be nice to keep it organic (=]) so that maybe hemp or twine rope could hold it up....when we found the path and saw the beauty it led to, Jimmy had the idea for the Robert Frost poem "the road less traveled" and that it could some sort of connection to that...Mary (the artist =]) thought that we could encorporate some sort of painting, or plack that could state something about what ourmonument stands for....We have a few ideas in our heads, but we definatley wanna try to get that poem to be out there...maybe write it one some rocks, or a stump....
    But our whole groupe is super pumped for this project =]..

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  4. Somthing that Alex said that I loved was "This arch is invisible. It can only be seen to those who really want to"...I thought that made this place magic. =]


    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveller, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference

    ...Robert Frost

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