A few weeks ago I posted about the largest work of art in the world – a project in the Nevada desert by Jim Denevan. I just came across Denevan’s own website, which has a beautiful set of photos of some of his finest sand art – caught on camera before the sea washed them away.
I love this most primitive form of graffiti on such a huge scale – carving into sand, earth, ice or rock. One of the best scenes in Ridley Scott’s disappointing film Robin Hood was an aerial shot of the English forces coming together at one of the white horses carved into a southern hillside. For a moment the mythology of Robin Hood became part of something deeper and more mysterious – the urge to create, the desire to leave our mark.
You can see a short documentary about Denevan’s work here:

there are few occasions when I am left speechless, but looking at Jim Denevan’s photographs and Youtube video left me just that. Awesome!
Beautiful, beautiful. Since the earliest of times man has felt the need to leave his mark in some way. The spiral is just the most wonderful and natural of expressions, if you look at the centre of flowers, they begin with the birth of a magical spiral. A sacred shape in nature. I just think that his particular form of art is so poignant, firstly the pinnacle at which the earth, the ocean and the limitless sky touch our sences is so powerful, and then what is so transiently tangible is gently all washed away, leaving a new canvass for another day.
However I diagree Love is not fleeting. True authentic Love can not be washed away it Love last for eternity,
Hello Father Wang,
I thought you might be interested to know that Jim Denevan also does transitory art of another nature — five-course, white tablecloth dinners set literally between the soil and the sky in farm fields, orchards, the seaside and other places where the ingredients on the menu come from. The dinners are a way to connect us to the places where our food grows and to honor the people who work to put food on our plates.
Since 1999, Outstanding in the Field has travelled across America and Canada staging dinners at Jim’s long signature table in our “restaurant without walls.”
Later this summer, OitF will do its first-ever European tour – Aug. 28 thru Sept. 20.
The following five events are confirmed and we expect to add a couple more. Dates and descriptions of each event will be posted on the website soon.
- U.K. chef Steven Terry of The Hardwick at Trealy Farm in the Wales countryside.
- Darina Allen of the Ballymaloe Cookery School at her farm in Cork, Ireland.
- Chef Alain Passard of L’Arpège at his kitchen garden in Sarthe, France.
- Dario Cecchini “‘the world’s most famous butcher” and Susan McKenna-Grant: on the farm at La Petraia in Tuscany
- Winemaker Telmo Rodriguez and friends: a country dinner in the vineyard at the Remelluri Estate in Rioja, Spain
Info at http://www.outstandinginthefield.com.
All best ~ Lisa
WOW, I wana go, I wana go!