Copyright 2002
Wilderness Drum, Inc.
All rights reserved

Closer to the Earth
Steve Beyer

Introduction Before you leave home Fears and prohibitions Beliefs Your senses Asking permission Sensory powers Camera walk Being something else Changing perspective "Artist Unknown" Thinking about nature On not naming things Gratitude Gifts from the wilderness Writing about nature Getting close Watching quietly One creature Decomposers Wilderness symphony Competency

“Artist Unknown”

The wilderness is full of beauty, both large and small. Often the large beauty overwhelms us, so sometimes we walk right past the little beauty. One way of training ourselves to see the little beauty all around us is to reframe our perceptions.

Look for little beauty in the wilderness around you. Look for abstract art, such as lichen on rock. Look for pure pattern – twisted branches of plants and trees, piles of small stones tossed together by chance and water. Sometimes rocks weather into sculptured shapes; sometimes small stones are incised with mysterious lines. Think about the processes that created these small works of art.

Look at a single plant – a creosote bush, say, or a barrel cactus. Now picture that plant displayed on a pedestal in a museum – perhaps on another planet, where such things have never been seen before. Pretend you are an art critic, and write a review of the work of this surprising new artist.

Look at two different plants, or two different rocks. Were they made by the same artist or by different artists? How can you tell? Were they made by the same processes, or by different processes? How can you tell?

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