Here’s an update  on Jim’s BIG impermanent Circles. Ice and Snow make for the latest palette, in this massive work supported by clothing retailer Anthropologie.

A very short film of his work on the frozen Lake Baikal in SIberia.

ORIGINAL POST:

One of my favorite Circle Makers, Jim Denevan, has a circle drawing that can be seen from space.  He’s well known for his ethereal sand drawings on the wide open beaches of California, timed to be swept away at high tide.

This work, a sand drawing in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada is the world’s largest single artwork with a circumference of more than nine miles. He was working on in it May, but the story is getting picked up again, by the British press.

I had the pleasure to see some photos of this work, just after he came back from the Black Rock Desert, in June. Note the scale of the design: his bus looks like a tiny ant. The best way to view this work is on Jim’s website, go to the news section. He has some Google Map images that drive you around and give a sense for the vast territory and the precision of geometry he was able to maintain.  He used tractors, custom fit with grates to drag and mark the salt bed flats.

My friend Anna and I had the pleasure to attend one of Jim’s epic Outstanding in the Field Farm to Table dinners at a stunning sea cove on the coast near Santa Cruz last June. It was definitely a highlight of my 2009 adventures! Seems he does everything on a large scale and with abundant artistry, heart and soul.