Friday, July 12, 2013

Building a bridge. Part 3 - The solitude of idea.


An arch is an amazing thing. I've built a number of dry stone bridges and vaulted structures and I still find the whole arch building thing quite magical. Every arch starts as an idea. Every arch is unique. Up until the moment it is completed (and the form is taken away) an arch exists as a concept in the solitude of the mind. 

This arch stands in the remoteness of an Alaskan mountainside. It was built by Akira Inman recently while participating in a two week climbing course. The arch is now more than an idea. It is more tangible - it is a real thing. As it is probably very close to what Akira had in mind, it becomes a kind of creative bridge allowing us to get nearer to what he imagined. This creative 'closeness' is the accessible counterpart to the original solitude of the idea.