The drawings for this lunar cycle are based on disappearance and appearance. I began with the dusk entry, and I used a graphite stick to draw the bottle as it moved into darkness. After I completed the dusk drawing I filled in the next day's dawn rectangle with multiple layers of graphite to represent the fading light I had just experienced. At dawn I used an eraser to remove the darkness until the bottle emerged.

2. The filled in rectangle:

the darkness drawn after Dusk

3. The next Dawn bottle drawn with an eraser

on the filled in rectangle

The rectangle edges need to soften, like hands pushing sand away from the bottle (dawn), or to the bottle (dusk).

On the solstice, June 20 we have increased 204 minutes (3.4 hrs) of light in the morning since the winter solstice and 211 minutes (3.4 hrs)of light in the evening since the winter solstice. The total increase is 6.9 hours of light in the last 6 months.

 

Summer Solstice: 6:36 PM PDT

The dawn was clear, but a haze moved in soon after and the rising sun was covered in clouds. Disappointing because it is the solstice.

Summer Solstice

4:54 AM PDT

44 degrees

clear sky, moon up in

the south. Still. Robin

insistently chirping in the

tree behind me. Plaintiff

howls from coyotes. Bird

song rings the space.

Summer Solstice

9:35 PM PDT

62 degrees

clear sky. Light

wind. Bird song up and down sound

To find links to Stonehenge, thought to be a prehistoric, astronomical monument used to celebrate the Solstice, in Salisbury, England.

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06/25

4:55 AM PDT

54 degrees

clear sky, crows leaving

roost in the west, moon

descending in the east,

layers of bird song

 

9:36 PM PDT

68 degrees

wind 2 MPH

clear clear sky. Bird

song. Wind through

the firs brings warm ground air

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6/26

The birds begin to sing just a little after 4AM. I arrived at the studio at 4:30 AM and the light was half morning and half night. Near 5AM the roosting crows in the west woke up with loud conversation. The half moon is gently resting in the eastern sky. Still except for bird flight. A mixture of warm and cool air. Clear sky and the promise of a hot day.

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06/29

Summer light is thinner, less burdened than it is in the winter. It lacks the moisture and is more pure. It is accompanied by heat.

4:56 AM PDT

50 degrees

overcast, damp, robins

calling on top of the other

bird song, the air smells

spicy.

wind

2 MPH,

clear sky overhead,

mackerel sky to the west,

damp air, intermittent

bird song

zz

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6/30

I have not been long at this study of light, but I am under its spell. The wind has just come up to blow in the dusk. Birds call up and down. I am without loneliness. I am big and small, and content to be both.

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7/8

Birds begin singing at 4:30 AM. We have lost 11 minutes of light, most of it in the morning. My attempt to understand light is like a fish trying to understand the water it swims in.

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7/10

A thick brackish dawn: sluggish, heavy, still, and thick like winter, but soft and clearly stated like summer.

I usually get out of bed with the first note of bird song. I have been awake for some minutes by then, but I wait for their encouragement.

5:04 AM PDT

52 degrees

still, light gray deep cloud cap,

damp, sluggish air in a

holding pattern

 

9:33 PM PDT

58 degrees

wind 1 MPH

clear sky, cool air,

moon up in the south,

faint bird song

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07/12

5:05 AM PDT

42 degrees

still, clear sky, cold, damp

air. Layers of bird song

scattered in a low circle.

The sky brings the promise of heat.

 

9:32 PM PDT

60 degrees

wind 2 MPH

clear sky, moon up in the

southeast, patches of bird song

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7/14

The birds began at 4:45 AM. We have lost 18 minutes of light since the solstice. My shelter is surrounded by trees. The sky is a cape that arches over the trees surrounding my shelter. The trees are opaque, and the sky is capable of transparency. I'm in an outdoor Roman Pantheon!

To see the interior of the Pantheon, a temple built by the ancient Romans, in Rome, Italy.