Current Installation by Greer Upton at the Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery, November, December, 1997.
Current Installation by Greer Upton at the Santa Rosa Junior
College Art Gallery, November, December, 1997.
Halcyon Time is about honoring the season of Autumn, the time of silence. meditation, ancestors and being open to the outcome. This piece is dedicated to my ancestors who have gone before me to smooth the path and especially my Father.
My indoor garden/installation attempts to create a halcyon (calm, peaceful, undisturbed) space; to meditate, to listen, to make simple observations; and hopefully to obtain gratitude and guidance.
The source of this piece started by my watching the dance of light and shadows made by leaves and branches and trees and birds and blinds all gently moving about by the wind that picks up when the Sun is low and setting. All of which had a calming influence on me and I began to look forward to this time of tranquility at the end of the day.
My appreciation to the SRJC Art Department and Gallery, Cary Fargo, Patrick Hamilton, Jefferson Rice/Elemental, Lee Walker, Judy White and especially to my "behind the scenes man," my husband. My gratitude for the work of Angeles Arrien.
Halcyon Time Installation
It is my intention that only a few people enter at a time and respect the
silence of the space.
"My grandmother had been to a garden party and when she returned she wrote a
letter to my Mother mentioning some names for a girl, if she ever had
another child. My grandfather went out to mail the letter and when he
returned she was dead. The strange thing was that when my Mother received
the letter, she was already pregnant with me. My Mother also says that she
saw my grandmother standing at the foot of her bed 6 months later when I
was born. So I never met my grandmother, but was named after her she was an
elegant woman with black hair and green eyes--everyone spoke well of her,
she was a nurse.
While walking on the shore I felt the overwhelming presence of my
grandmother surround me. The water was very green, like her eyes, and I
was happy. Above me the clouds were fat and puffy with smiling faces like
angels. I felt protected & safe walking with my grandmother. I had never
met her when alive.
"Your grandfather was a painter, his paintings are in the British museum."
He was in government...uncle harry took the orphaned children for
waffles...he said only vagabonds and Americans wear their hair like that...
My Father's family was loyal to the French king & fled Camp Upton to
Canada. My grandfather was a railroad engineer & he loved going fishing
but he would never eat the fish he caught. He was a quiet man in his 80's
and he could remember all the hands in a card game that took place in
Mexico City 60 years earlier. My father's mother would send a xmas package
of short bread cookies every year in the mail & I'd ask to eat the broken
ones right away. She also sent a small china cup each year for my
trousseau.