Six Top Artists from Petaluma Who Display Their Work at Burning Man: Michael Garlington, Nancy Bertotti, Marco Cochrane, Julia Whitelaw, David Best and Kevin Clark

October 16, 2023October 15, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 28 Comments

Michael Garlington and Nancy Bertotti from Petaluma California brought another one of their creative, photo-covered structures to Burning Man 2023, the Chapel of Babel.

Today, I am going to feature the creative and humorous Temple of Babel brought to Burning Man 2023 by the artists Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti, but first I want to speculate on how Burning Man has been so successful at developing, attracting and supporting top artists, and second, why six of the best come from Petaluma, a small city north of San Francisco.

Peggy and I were walking around the Chapel of Babel when we came across this scene and started laughing. Do you remember the Wicked Witch of the East who was crushed by Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz?

The international status of Burning Man art is not surprising. It is often mind blowing, thought provoking, monumental and beautiful. In 2018, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Art Museum recognized its status by featuring an exhibit of some of the events most creative artists. Titled, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, it took up the whole building! From there, the exhibit traveled on to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California.

Here is what the Renwick had to say about the exhibit:

Each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city of more than 70,000 rises out of the dust for a single week. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected and many are ritually burned to the ground. The thriving temporary metropolis known as Burning Man is a hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its principles of radical self-expression, decommodification, communal participation, and reverence for the handmade. Both a cultural movement and an annual event, Burning Man remains one of the most influential phenomenons in contemporary American art and culture.

The creativity/ingenuity at Burning Man is unending. Previous Garlington/Bertotti works at Burning Man have taught me to look in peepholes to discover miniature worlds. This one in the Chapel of Babel was just big enough to accommodate the lens on my small Canon Power-Shot. An eye was staring back at me. A lady bug and an aphid were having a stand-off on the eyelid!

The words that stood out for me in the Smithsonian description were , “a hotbed of artistic ingenuity.” The Burning Man organization credits four of its ten principles as being the driving force and I agree they are important, particularly its emphasis on creativity, community support, and appreciation. I would add that the venue provides artists with:

The largest art gallery or ‘canvas’ in the world. A place that is a natural for monumental art to be put on display in a remote and highly scenic area.
A ready made audience of 70,000 people, most of whom appreciate, support, and admire the art.
Instant national and international recognition from both the participants and media. Burning Man enhances this by selecting a large number of artists each year for nominal financial support and recognition through its publications and at the event.

I’m going to add another factor that has been important to some of the best art: The evolution of local centers for the development of art and artists that 1) combine a variety of artists working in different mediums, 2) volunteers who offer to help the artists with their projects, especially the monumental art, and 3) a broader community that supports and takes pride in the artists and their work. The best way that I can describe these communities is to use the Smithsonian’s words, they have become hotbeds of artistic ingenuity.

One such center is The Reno Generator. It’s a huge warehouse space in Reno, Nevada packed with artists and art. While Burning Man was the original inspiration that led to the development of the Generator, it is open to all artists who want to become members— billing itself today as a Maker Space. Peggy and I visited the Generator in 2015 and found it fascinating. I blogged about the visit. The post is worth checking out. Here are two of my favorite works at Burning Man art that came out of the Generator around that time.

Petaluma, a city of 50,000 people less than an hour north out of San Francisco on Highway 101, is another major source of Burning Man Artists and art. Four of the main artists/teams featured in the Smithsonian exhibit come from here: The team of Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti who work as photographers/sculptures, David Best who is an architect/sculpture best known for his Burning Man Temples, and the team of Marco Cochrane, Julia Whitelaw who are known for their towering female sculptures.

Unlike Reno, the artists from Petaluma I am featuring all have their own studios. The dynamics of community support, artist interaction, and volunteers are all similar, however. As noted above, I am featuring Garlington and Bertotti today. Here is art from the others that I have blogged about in the past.

Truth Is Beauty by Marco Cochrane and Julia Whitelaw on the Playa at Burning Man. A smaller version was included in the Smithsonian exhibit.

I’d be at fault here if I didn’t also recognize this magnificent beast, The Rhino Redemption, a mutant vehicle by Kevin Clark and TM Potter who also hail from Petaluma. Mutant vehicles make up some of Burning Man’s most creative art projects. The Rhino is also appropriate for our pending trip to Africa that starts this week.

I first visited Petaluma in 1959, well before it was noted for its art. Instead, its claim to fame was being the World’s Egg Basket. Thousands of egg-laying chickens lived in long, low barns and called it home. I went there for a conference of Episcopal Church youth leaders. It was my first trip without family and the first time I ever stayed in a motel. A quick sniff confirmed we had arrived. I’ve been through Petaluma numerous times since, starting in the late 60s and early 70s. The chickens are long gone. Wealthy escapees from the Bay Area have replaced chicken farmers.

This 1920s era photo showed Petaluma’s pride in its egg laying mamas.

Michael Garlington made his first trip to Burning man in 2007 as a volunteer in helping to build one of David Best’s temples. When not busy learning how to use the tools, he was busy photographing fellow Department of Public Works volunteers. By profession and passion, he is a photographer.

A photo of David Best’s 2007 Burning Man Temple taken by my friend Ken Lake.

By 2013, Garlington had decided try his hand at Burning Man art by joining Laura Kempton in her creation of the sculpture EGO. The following year he struck out on his own and created the aptly named Photo Chapel that featured many of his whimsical, bizarre and humorous photos, which, as he notes, travel a path between reality and imagination. In 2015 he had joined with Nancy Bertotti and they entered the category of Burning Man legends with their Totem of Confessions. It featured a photo of LSD guru Timothy Leary. But there was more. Leary’s already burned ashes were about to be burned again. It was a true Burning Man type of event.

Here’s what I blogged in 2015 about the night they burned the Totem:

“Susan Sarandon (who had inherited a portion of Leary’s ashes) put on a low-cut, white, wedding dress. Her camp members walked beside her, stirring up the Playa dust. Timothy Leary came along behind, his ashes riding in a casket. A New Orleans style jazz band led the joyful procession of live and dead people making their way out to the Man and then on to the towering Totem of Confession. A 26 foot tall Octopus (El Pulpo Mechanico) rolled along behind. Leary would have loved it. Maybe he did.” Rumor has it that they toasted Leary before the procession with champagne mixed with a tad of LSD and Leary’s ashes.

A close up of the Ego Sculpture. Check out the characters.

The Totem of Confession in 2015. The photo of Leary, a confessional, and a tower of skulls were inside.

Leary’s ashes burn again for a second time as the Temple of Confession burns. They also shoot up into the sky for a second time. In 1997, a portion of Leary’s ashes were shot into space on a rocket along with those of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and 22 other people. It might be said, that Leary was higher than he ever had been from LSD.

And now, for some final photos that Peggy and I took of Garlington and Bertotti’s 2023 Chapel of Babel.

One could easily spend an hour checking out all of the photographs and images that were located on the Temple of Babel. And contemplate what they meant. It seemed to me that the two nudes and the cat were inviting you to crawl into the cave. Would you? Grin.

Or was the cat the devil? And who is Paul? I’m guessing one of the volunteers who helped with the massive job of putting the structure together.

All sorts of things here but the foot and the hand stand out.

A small tree frog with a crown was emerging from the hand. Kiss it and you’d get a prince. Maybe.

A cow. While the chickens may be long gone, there are still cattle ranches in the Petaluma area.

Even El Pulpo Mechanico made it to the party.

Inside, Garlington featured a photo of his father that he called the Wizard of Pa. (Mom is up on the left.)There was ever so much more to the Temple of Babel, but I think this is a good photo to wrap up this post. Garlington and Bertotti have stated that this is their last temple. Having escaped Burning Man because of the rains, Peggy and I weren’t around to see it burn but I read that Garlington urged Burners to help themselves to the art before it burned in a grand give-away gesture, worthy of him and Burning Man. We wish we could have been there.

But briefly, back to the Temple of Confession— and mine. Peggy and I are running away from Word Press for a few more weeks as we head to Africa, which isn’t news to my fellow bloggers since we have been running away a lot. 😳But we will be back in mid-November with lions and giraffes and hippos, oh my. Not to mention more Burning Man, and Nile, and national parks, and… The good news is we will never run out of things to blog about; the bad news is that we will never catch up.

And finally, on behalf of Bigfoot (or is it a great ape) and in honor of our trips to Burning Man and Africa, Peggy and I wish you a Happy Halloween. If this isn’t scary enough…

A Pink Tiger, a Ukrainian Hedgehog, a Large, Blue Bear, and a Gigantic Spider, Plus: The Intriguing Wildlife of Burning Man 2023

October 6, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 21 Comments

It’s been four years since I have been to Burning Man and longer for Peggy. We certainly saw differences this year that I will discuss later, but one thing I wanted to mention today is that Burning Man seemed more international to us than ever before. It was apparent in the different languages we heard as we explored the Playa and Black Rock City, but even more so in the art. You may have noticed in my past three posts on Burning Man art how many of the pieces were created by artists from other countries. Today, I feature works from Armenia, Ukraine, China and the United Kingdom as well as the US.

A huge, inflatable tiger was one of the prominent works of art on the Playa at Burning Man 2023 . Its size and pink color guaranteed it stood out. Bicyclists provide perspective on its size.

A tails-eye take on the towering tiger! The artist, Misha Libertee from Armenia, named her sculpture Vagr, which is Armenian for tiger. She stated that the “Bright pink color of the installation serves as a reminder of the struggles that these animals face due to habitat loss, poaching, and climate change.” We wondered if the sign on the right would provide more information.

I’m pretty sure that another Burning Man artist decided to add Calvin to the equation. While it may not have been what Libertee had in mind, it certainly resonated with me. *Calvin and Hobbes* was one of my all-time favorite cartoons. Created by Bill Watterson in 1985, it was discontinued ten years later. The cartoon has been missed by millions ever since, including me! Maybe there is a message here about endangered tigers…

Another interesting animal that caught our attention immediately was a large hedgehog. It came with a story…

Created by Ukrainian artists Yaroslav Korets and Kurenivka from Kyiv, the sculpture memorializes artists who died defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion. At the base of the sculpture are tank traps that Ukrainians created to slow the progress of Russian tanks through their cities. The tank traps are known as hedgehogs. Hundreds were made by the Ukrainian Railway utilizing new rails.

Two Polar Bears stood out as stars on the Playa, literally. They were named Ursa Major and Ursa Minor after the constellations. The little fellow had been to Burning Man before. Little is relative. She stands 13 feet tall. Her big sister, Ursa Major, is over three stories.

The artist, Jen Lewin from Brooklyn, said that Ursa Minor’s infinity mirrors were a reminder to “Look up.”

The 30 foot tall Ursa Major had an opening that also featured mirrors. Lewin noted that “Ursa Major’s hollow body is filled with glowing infinity mirrors, each reflecting mosaic drawings of extinct animals from the past 12 months.” From the outside, I couldn’t see the animals. Possibly, they would be clearer at night when lit up.

Peggy, on the other hand, who isn’t endangered, was reflected numerous times. The guy wearing the hat above her on the right is me. I think. At 80, I’m a little more endangered than Peggy.

But not here. Peggy got caught by a giant spider that undoubtedly thought of her as a tasty morsel. Always the optimist, she is laying back and enjoying the view. Spider Trap was created by Josh Zubkoff & Looking Up Arts from San Francisco, CA. Josh noted that “Spider Trap was not menacing.” Hmmm.

These etherial, almost whimsical creatures floated above the Playa. They represent fairy shrimp. In real life they are found under the surface of the Playa. Rain brings them to life for a brief period of time when they mate and reproduce. Burning Man 2023 with its heavy rains was a banner year for them.

Created by P. Michael Quinn from Gossburg, TN, this is at least the second time the shrimp have made an appearance on the Playa. I featured them in post several years ago. I like the effect of the sun.

While we are featuring aquatic life, this fish hails from the Caribbean. Her creator, NiNo from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, named his work ATABEY’s Treasure. Atabey, according to NiNo is “The goddess of fresh water to the indigenous Taíno people in the Caribbean.”

ATABEY’s Treasure lit up at night with the Man in the background.

Titled “Migrations,” this graceful white bird seems to be rising from its nest on the Playa on its way to wherever.

Created by Olivia Guethling & Mar Ricketts – Superwhelm from Portland, OR, the migrating bird was even more beautiful at night than it was during the day.

“These boots were made for walking,” Nancy Sinatra’s song popped into my mind when I saw this 8 meter/26 foot tall inflatable bunny named “Mona” sporting tall yellow boots.

According to the artist, Miao He from Shehong, China, Mona “serves as a symbol of love, warmth, and childhood memories.” I confess that my reaction as a child would have been to scream and run as fast as my little legs would have carried me in the opposite direction if an 8 meter bunny came striding toward me. This child, however, ran up to the bunny and threw its arm around the forward boot, seemingly proving Miao’s point.

“Exquisite Animalus,” an art piece by Stefan Spins & KJ Bohéme, included six animals that could be moved by ropes and handles to become the animals they were meant to be. Obvious a little work was required. I took on the challenge, pulling first on the ropes and then on the handles. The animals hardly budged. Maybe they liked being who they had become. Or maybe the playa dust had gotten in their gears…

I particularly liked this critter, a common warthog. I once met a family of them when I was driving a VW bug through the Serengeti National Park in East Africa.

Queen Cobra, by Andrea Greenlees, Andy Tibbetts, and Josh Haywood from London, United Kingdom & Reno, NV. Like many works of art at Burning Man, The Queen was designed so people could climb on it. She reminds me of Wadjet, an important goddess of lower Egypt. (And yes, I will get back to my posts on the Nile. Eventually.) This wraps up my blog today. Next up, I will be featuring three huge planets that made their way onto the Playa.

The Magnificent Beasts of Burning Man 2023 and How Bone Caused the Rain Storm… Art 2

September 27, 2023September 27, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 21 Comments

This handsome fellow is Chacc, the Mayan Rain God. Nice tongue. Peggy and I met him before when we were on our honeymoon in Mexico back in the early 90s. We spent the night in a motel next to the ancient Mayan ruins of *Chichén Itzá* and went out to visit him and other gods after all the tourists had left. They were carved in stone. According to legend, Chacc lived in a cenote next to the ruins. (Cenotes are natural wells created by the collapse of overlying limestone.) In times of drought, human sacrifices would be tossed into the well to appease whatever was irritating him and bring rain.

Here’s Chacc standing tall at Burning Man 2023. Miguel Guzman from Mexico City and lyvone Khoo from Singapore created the sculpture. Since there weren’t any cenotes around in the Black Rock Desert to throw human sacrifices into, we figured that the bowl on the stand in front was a substitute.

The ever curious (and mischievous) Bone decided to see if Chacc would accept him as a sacrifice.

Apparently, the answer was yes. Chacc grabbed Bone up quickly in his long, bony fingers. You know the rest of the story. It rained in the desert for three days and stuck 70,000 Burners in the mud— becoming world-wide news. The moral of this story is watch what you ask for. Bone has been very quiet about his role. Somewhere, maybe down in his cenote, Chacc is laughing. (Note: For those of you who aren’t familiar with Bone, I’m posting an updated interview done with him in the past in conjunction with today’s post.)

While we are on focusing on the gods of Ancient Mexico, I should also include this version of the Aztec god, Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent, by the Crescent Art Collective/Lisa Regan & Ley Brashka from Coahuila, Mexico & Tulsa, OK. Among his several roles, he was patron god of the Aztec Priesthood.

Here’s another great beast. An RV with legs perhaps? I’m thinking it would make a great off-road vehicle.

Getting in and out might be a little challenging.

The artist, Walker Babington from New Orleans, had more than a house on legs with his creation, however. From the front, his sculpture became a buffalo with the house serving as his torso. Both the house and the buffalo were made of materials repurposed from structures and trees that had been destroyed by hurricanes in New Orleans.

Babington titled his work “Burden of the Beast” and says his work “symbolizes the task of relocating one’s intrinsic understanding of ‘home.'” The forces of nature magnified by global warming will require more and more of us to pick up the pieces of our homes and lives and move on to higher and safer ground. Migration may become a way of life.

Meet Axototl Frequency, a 2023 Burning Man artwork created by Gio Mantis & Elana Novali from Mexico City.

Axolotl is modeled after an endangered salamander that can be only be found in one place, Lake Xochimilco near Mexico City. We think it’s cute. According to Mantis and Novali, “These art pieces aim to express the importance of protecting this endangered animal…” One thing that helps assure their continued existence is they are quite popular as pets. I want one.

One of my all time favorite group of artists at Burning Man is the Flaming Lotus Girls out of San Francisco who are known for their imaginative creatures that light up the night skies of Burning Man in strange and wonderful ways. This was one of several sculptures we found together on the Playa. We wondered if they were plants, animals or machines. The Flaming Lotus Girls claimed that they were a bit of all three, evolving. Unfortunately, due to the rain, we never got to see them flaming at night.

Leaves or wings? A flower head or an animal head?

Not a creature I would like to meet at night shooting out flames. (Actually, I would have.)

A photo I took of a dragon created by the Flaming Lotus Girls at Burning Man 2015.

Zea Narvaez from Portland, Oregon urged viewers to face and love their beasts in a series of sculptures arranged in a circle with each one different and with a mirror. Peggy caught this photo of me next to my favorite. “Damn,” I told Peggy when we were reviewing our photos after Burning Man, “the beast marked me.” I swear, it was the first and only time I noticed the claw marks on my chest! Reflected Playa dust on the mirror? Maybe.

Mainly we took selfies, as Peggy is here. If that isn’t a form of “Loving Thy Beast,” what is? Speaking of possible beasts, do you see that sculpture in the distance on the right in the far distance? We hopped on our bikes to check it out.

“Well, I have an idea what it might be,” I told Peggy.

“You are looking at it wrong,” Peggy told me. Oh. “Tip of the Iceberg” is what Melissa “Syn” Barron from Oakland & Big Sur, CA calls her sculpture. The comment was “Monumentalizing this misunderstood & mysterious piece of anatomy, we hope our sculpture will educate, empower, & honor its rightful place in biology.” Right.

You are looking at an ‘invisible Trojan Unicorn’ according to artists, Invisible Pink Unicorns from Los Angeles. It’s certainly pink and a unicorn. Here’s what the artists had to say, “Given the challenge of getting the tickets, we invited the easiest and cheapest way to get to Burning Man – inside the Trojan unicorn. Please come and check if it is open and if we successfully get out to the Playa and are not trapped inside (and help us get out if we are still in)!” My money would have been on Burning Man Org blocking free entry into the event. They are a lot tougher than the Trojans were! Grin. They even checked the bathroom in our trailer to make sure we weren’t trying to slip someone in! Little did they know about the trap door on our black water tank. Heh, heh. Just kidding.

I’ll conclude with this fun winged beast I couldn’t find any information on. Next up, I’ll feature a Hedge Hog from Ukraine made from tank traps and other fun animals including a giant bear and a bunny.

From Mythical Winged Creatures to Void Bunnies…The Art of Burning Man 2023 Part 1

September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 13 Comments

Reaching toward the sky, this beautiful winged creature rises above the Playa of Burning Man 2023. The Man, with his red pants, can be seen in the background.

“Burning Man is unique in the world. Hard to describe how incredible it is for those who have never been. Best art on Earth.” –Elon Musk

Elon Musk came to Burning Man this year along with a number of other luminaries. I don’t agree with him on a number of things, but I do admire his creativity and willingness to think big. We were more than happy to use Starlink on our remote property in Oregon. And I think that his description of Burning Man is relatively accurate. I’ve been arguing for years that it features some of the world’s best art being produced now. My first venture out to the event in Nevada’s Black Desert was in 2004. I’ve been back 12 times since and Peggy has been with me 9 of those times. Art is the primary reason we return.

Our time to explore the Playa and Black Rock City was limited this year. We came in on Monday afternoon, a day after Burning Man opened, and saw everything shut down on Friday because of the rain. We were left with just over 3 days to hike and bike our way through the art. Peggy and I photographed over 50 pieces that I will share with you over our next 5-6 posts. Sadly, that left a lot of art we didn’t see. My apology to the artists.

“Touch the Sky” was created by Martin Taylor and Chromaforms out of Oakland, CA. He describes it as “a sculpture of a mythical winged creature with the head of a human preparing to take flight.” He also notes, it “serves as a visual metaphor for taking leaps of faith to achieve our dreams and fly.”

This photo provides a comparison between “Touch the Sky” in the day with the sculpture at night.

A close up of “Touch the Sky.” Taylor noted that the sculpture “is outlined by geometric tattoo-like perforations that accentuate the shape of the body and emit light at night.”

I’m featuring metallic art from Burning Man 2023 in this post. Meet Anya of “Anya and the Void Bunnies.” The artist is Steffin Griswold from Minneapolis, MN. Griswold’s description is “Visiting dignitaries from beyond space and time receive a gift from the heart of fire.” Anya is a fire goddess. While we didn’t get a photo of her at night, flames emerge from her hands.

Here are the void bunnies from outer space, waiting patiently for their gift of fire. Sorry guys, you will have to wait until dark.

A close up of a void bunny with his bunny ears and bunny tail.

A frontal shot of Anya. The dark spots on her hands and heart are what emit the flames. You can see the tubes leading from her heart that connect to a propane tank.

And finally, Anya and the void bunnies together. She’s got a pretty good tail and ears of her own! The Temple of Babel, which I will feature later, can be seen in the background.

This handsome turtle sculpture by Mark Dill from Fleming Island, FL is titled “Journey of the Aquatic.”

Here’s the underside. Mark says the sculpture is “5 times life size of a loggerhead turtle. It is meant to express the joy and wonder of seeing turtles in the ocean. As well as the fragility of the turtles’ lives and the dangers to their existence. I was snorkeling once on the island of Hawaii and came on a sea turtle that I started to follow. My ‘joy and wonder’ were so strong that I ran head on into a fishing boat!”

You may have noticed the flying horse, or Pegasus, behind the first turtle picture. Titled “Wings of Glory,” this is his second trip to Burning Man. He is a magnificent creature that runs and flies slowly on his pedestal above the Playa. The artist, Adrian Landon, hails from Reno, Nevada, so Pegasus had a short flight to get back to the Black Rock Desert. Peggy and I watched him strut his stuff, a truly magical creature, a myth come to life.

My first thought was of strange but attractive looking nuts piled on top of each other when I first saw this sculpture by the L’Attitude Collective from Petaluma, CA. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was a Complexahedron. A ‘what’ you say. Here’s how the artists described it: *A shrine to commemorate the moment when unicellular eukaryotes began to aggregate and become one.* Now you know, right. Grin. Petaluma, BTW, is home to a number of Burning Man’s top artists creating impressive works year after year.

Bicycling around it, I discovered it had a face. And the sculpture in front holding what I assume is a smaller Complexahedron. I took a closeup.

A muscular woman is holding the Complexahedron up in the air, like Atlas, or possibly giving birth to it out of her head/brain, creating early life.

Wizard, and I’ll assume that is his Burning Man name (I’m Outlaw), hails from Oakland, California. He describes it as looking like “a 12 foot silver donut.” This was our day for dust storms on the Playa.

Stainless steel, curved tubes wrap around each other and form the body of the donut.

While I couldn’t find the name of the artist who created this piece, I’ve always liked mobile art ever since I was introduced to the work of Alexander Calder. I’ll wrap up this post here. Next art post: The Fantastic Beasts of Burning Man 2023.

The Man, the Temple— and an Orientation: Burning Man 2023

September 9, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 33 Comments

Photo of Man at Burning Man 2023 by Curt Mekemson. — The Man has served as the symbol for Burning Man since its very beginning in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James built a stick man to celebrate the summer solstice at Baker Beach in San Francisco. His fate was preordained. He would burn. And, like the Phoenix, he rose again the next year and has been doing so ever since. Here, the 2023 version of the Man is emerging from a dust storm, which is much more common than the rain that captured the world’s attention this past week.

Burning Man always opens at 12 AM on Sunday morning in late August to begin its weeklong celebration of art, music, and lots of other things and ends on Labor Day Weekend. Peggy and I have never joined the midnight madness but we usually do make it in at a more reasonable hour on Sunday. This year we were busy in Sacramento catching up with family and friends so we went in on Monday. The result was that we ended up out in the boondocks of Black Rock City at 5:30 and J street, or Jackalope as J was named this year. Only one street was beyond us, Kraken.

Each year, the powers that be at Burning Man pick a theme for the year that serves as the base for the street names and much of the art. This year it was Animalia, representing the “animal world and our place in it.” The photo below shows the street names.

I took this photo from the map of Burning Man we were given when we entered. The small blue numbers off to the right are the distance from the Man. We were at 5800 feet, over a mile away! The white numbers in black represent art installations. I knew what Jackalope, Kraken and Bigfoot were. My memory of Dingbat was what Archie called his wife in the TV series *All in the Family.* I had to look the rest up. How about you? The Esplanade is Black Rock City’s Main Street and retains its name every year. It separates Black Rock City from the open Playa.

This is the official map of Burning Man 2023, which was home to over 70,000 people. On the top left side, you will see a blue triangle that I added. That was where we lived on Jackalope. The Man is at the center of the map. The small circle south of it is the Temple. Note all of the art installations! The city is organized on a grid pattern with the streets heading toward the Man numbered clockwise and the intersecting streets organized by alphabet and name. Not shown here, is the extent of the Playa that extends much farther to the south.

Our focus today is on the Man and the Temple, which are two locations that almost all Burners visit. But first I want to post one more photo of our ‘escape’ from Black Rock City on Sunday which we found after our last post. Unknown to us, a photo/video was taken of us exiting Burning Man that ended up being shown on NBC 26 news out of Green Bay, Wisconsin (and I suspect other media outlets.) This was the last stream we crossed just before reaching the paved road. It gives a new meaning to ‘streaming media.’ I’m glad I couldn’t see us doing this in real time— and even more glad that Peggy couldn’t. LOL.

Peggy found this photo of us escaping from Burning Man 2023 posted on the ImagineMKE17 Trailer Facebook page.

One of the first things we do when we arrive at Burning Man is head out to see the Man and Temple. Usually it’s by bike. But the crank on my rented bike was being cranky, so we walked. The following photos represent our journey. They were all taken by either Peggy or me.

The Man was surrounded by a beehive-like structure that was in line with the Animalia theme. This photo also places the Man in his dramatic backdrop of the Black Rock Desert.

A close up of the beehive with the Man in the background. Note the object dangling from the beehive.

It served as Burning Man’s concept of a wind chime. Grin.

The ground level of the beehive included xylophones that people could play!

Leaving the Man we hiked out another half mile to the Temple. We’d revisit the Man at night. Our hike out to the temple was delayed:

By this dust storm. No kidding, this is what a Burning Man dust storm looks like. The wisest thing to do is just hunker down and wait for it to blow over. Not doing so will get you lost. Peggy and I once spent over two hours along with at least a thousand other Burners trying to find our way home when we had been to an event way out by the fence on the outer edge of the Playa. When we could finally see the the Man, we discovered that we had walked in a huge circle. Thankfully, Burning Man keeps a fence around the area. Otherwise, we might still be wandering. Or worse.

The Temple finally began to emerge from the dust storm.

The Temple is a special, sacred site for Burning Man participants. Thousands leave messages to loved ones, friends, and even pets who have passed on. Several are shown on the front here. When the Temple burns at the end of the event, the messages are released to the sky, giving a degree of closure to those who left the messages.

Year after year the Burning Man organization and volunteers design and build beautiful temples, each one unique.

As I mentioned above, Peggy and I revisited the Man at night. In addition to being a symbol of the event, the Man serves as a beacon for Burners. As shown on the map above, three major routes that are lined with lamp posts lead out to the Man from Black Rock City . During dust storms Peggy and I tend to stay on the routes since the posts provide valuable landmarks.

The Man can be seen from anywhere on the Playa or Black Rock City. It is lit up at night and even more special than it is during the day.

The beehive begins to come into focus as we neared the Man. The bright square is the Xylophone.

A close up of the beehive that I thought was pretty cool.

These lit steps provided a pathway into the structure under the Man. They turned red when someone stepped on them.

A final view of the 2023 Man for this post. Our next blog will begin featuring the great art from this year. You won’t want to miss it.

Just a Boy and His Dog… My 11 Years at Burning Man

May 10, 2019 / Curt Mekemson / 22 Comments

A robot boy and his dog check out the building of Medusa. She will show up in my next post. Beware of her eyes! (Well, maybe my next post— after I report on how the Russians used WordPress as a key tool in their efforts to disrupt the American elections of 2016.)

I often think about how are lives are impacted by robots. Peggy and I even have one of the small vacuum cleaners that runs around and cleans our floors and carpets. We call her, Robota. As I grow older, I look more fondly on the robots of the future. In 10 or 15 years from now when the world decides my driving leaves a bit to be desired, I am hoping there is a self-driving car sitting in my yard or readily available to zip me around to where I want to go. Next stop, Grand Canyon. Then there is the downside. Maybe when robots are given quantum computer brains, they will decide we aren’t necessary. I seriously doubt that they will approve of our ‘pulling their plugs,’ under any circumstances.

What’s the danger of a flower sniffing robot, however? This fellow was given one of Burning Man’s prime locations, just in front of the Center Camp Cafe bordering on the Playa. The woman provides some perspective on his size.

Fido appears a little questionable. Maybe she is howling at the moon.

It appears our robot is more sinister here. What happened to the rider of the bike he is holding? Is it time to run?

This robot looks like it was an extra in a 1950’s sci-fi movie.

Spotting this creature, I’d want a bunch of Burners between me and it.

I think the red eye glowed a dangerous red at night.

Aliens are another matter. Maybe they are already here. I’ve blogged several times about the UFO I saw over Sacramento circa 1968. If there are aliens, it seems obvious to me that they would show up at Burning Man. Think about it: a remote desert where it is easy to disguise yourself and people don’t care if you are an alien. Each year there are a number of candidates.

This guy shows up as a master of ceremonies every year at the annual costume contest. What better way to infiltrate Burning Man?

This one showed up in our camp and demanded a beer, an expensive beer. (Photo by Tom Lovering.)

I’ve always been suspicious of purple people. Remember, “He was a one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater?” Or are you too young?

Or maybe their disguises are more subtle. Slap on a few tattoos and you can get into any party at Burning Man.

Flying saucers aren’t unheard of in the Black Rock Desert. One year we even had one crash.

How much more attractive can a flying saucer get? Aliens contracted with a group of kids in the Bay area to create this one.

Rumors were that a human the aliens had captured was a notorious back-seat driver and had caused them to crash.

The way she buddied up to aliens later seemed to confirm this suspicion.

Alien buzzards tend to be a little scary.

And they may be the reason that there are so few alien bodies found. They are also known to snack on Big Foot, or is that Big Feet?

Enough on Invaders from Outer Space. My next post will feature invaders from Russia.

The Magnificent and Powerful Art Of Marco Cochrane… My 11 Years at Burning Man

May 4, 2019 / Curt Mekemson / 23 Comments

In 2010, Marco Cochrane introduced the first of his magnificent nude sculptures to Burning Man, the 40 foot tall Bliss Dance.

When I first ventured out onto the Playa on my 2010 visit to Burning Man, I was immediately drawn to a large sculpture of a nude woman that struck me as being beautiful and full of life. The sculpture, I learned was titled Bliss Dance and had been created by the Bay Area artist Marco Cochrane based on his model, the dancer Deja Solis. Bliss Dance would go from Burning Man to Treasure Island next to San Francisco and is now on permanent exhibition in Las Vegas. Here’s what Cochrane had to say during the unveiling of the sculpture in Las Vegas:

What I see missing in the world is an appreciation and respect for feminine energy and power that results when women are free and safe. It seems obvious to me that feminine energy is being suppressed and that this must change. If we are to find real, lasting solutions to the problems facing humanity, men and women must be able to work together as equals. Bliss Dance is intended to focus attention on this issue.— Marco Cochrane, Feb. 2016 press release

This sentiment also applies to the two other sculptures that Cochrane created for Burning Man as part of a trilogy: Truth Is Beauty in 2013 and R-Evolution in 2015. I consider myself privileged to have been at Burning Man on each of these years. Truth Is Beauty is now on permanent exhibit overlooking the BART station in San Leandro, California.

An 18-foot rendition of Truth Is Beauty and several other art works from Burning Man were recently on display at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC. An introduction to the exhibit stated:

Burning Man, one of the most influential events in contemporary art, is both a cultural movement and a thriving temporary city of more than 70,000 people that rises out of the dust for a single week each year in late summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected, some of which are then ritually burned to the ground. The desert gathering is a uniquely American hotbed of artistic ingenuity, driving innovation through its philosophies of radical self-expression, community participation, rejection of commodification and reverence for the handmade.

Nora Atkinson, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at The Renwick went on to say this about the exhibit’s title: No Spectators

“‘No Spectators’ is a long-standing saying on Playa. You are encouraged to fully participate. It’s all about being there, being fully present, and not just observing. Two of the ten principles of Burning Man are radical participation and radical inclusivity, meaning that there are no outsiders. Everyone is part of the experience.”

If both of these statements seem a bit familiar, they reflect what I have been saying about Burning Man art and Burning Man in my posts over the last several years. In ways, I believe that Burning Man has been fostering a mini-renaissance in art and is now being recognized world-wide for its contributions.

R-Evolution, the last of Cochrane’s trilogy was actually scheduled to be exhibited on the National Mall in Washington DC between the Washington Monument and the White House. The group responsible for moving and installing the sculpture had written to me and asked for permission to use photos from my blog in a documentary it was preparing for the exhibit. The exhibit was cancelled. It may have been that the idea of a giant nude on the mall was too controversial. Anyway, here is one of my favorite photos of the sculpture:

Peggy (my wife) says what she loves about sculpture is that it is three dimensional art that you can touch and feel as well as see. One of her favorite things about Burning Man is that the art has an up-close and personal aspect, a hands on policy. Most museums have a hands-off policy. The three dimensional aspect of sculpture also has great appeal to me. I believe that that you should be able to appreciate sculpture from any angle. I’ll use the concluding photos on this post to further look at the three sculptures.

BLISS DANCE AT BURNING MAN 2010

TRUTH IS BEAUTY AT BURNING MAN 2013.

My friend Tom Lovering caught this beautiful shot.

At night, LED lights inside the sculptures light them up in a number of ways, changing every few minutes.

R-EVOLUTION AT BURNING MAN 2015

One of my favorite views of R-Evolution because of the Black Rock Desert background. (Photo by Don Green.)

That’s it for today. NEXT POST: UFO’s, aliens, and a giant robot at Burning Man.

Will BLM Requirements Destroy Burning Man? Do They Mean to?

April 30, 2019 / Curt Mekemson / 27 Comments

While partying, music and a unique culture draw thousands to Burning Man each year, it is the art such as this brass sculpture and the giant woman in the background that pull me back to the event year after year.

Today, and for my next several posts on my 11 years at Burning Man (2004-5-6-7-9-10-12-13-14-15 and 17) , I am going to be featuring my favorite Burning Man art, starting with sculptures.

First, however, I want to address the conflict between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Burning Man Organization (BMO), which has been in the news recently. While recognizing the right and responsibility of BLM to protect the lands it manages, much of what it is proposing seems excessive given how BMO already addresses the issues that are being raised.

TRASH: BLM wants BMO to place large dumpsters throughout Black Rock City. Burning Man has always had a policy that Burners carry out whatever trash they generate during the week. And a very strict policy on keeping Black Rock City and the Playa clean. I commented on how trash-free the grounds were on the first post I ever wrote about Burning Man. I had never been to another event involving large numbers of people that could come close to matching it. That has not changed. Furthermore, a large group of volunteers do an inch by inch search of the grounds for trash following the event. Detailed records are kept and camps that leave an excessive amount of trash are put on notice. One camp was disinvited from further participation in Burning Man last year. When I visited Death Valley National Park during the time that President Trump shut down America’s National Park System in January, I found that visitors had left behind much more trash than I have ever seen at Burning Man.

Concern has been raised about Burners leaving their trash behind in surrounding communities. Burning Man presently lists the places that are willing to accept trash. Normally, communities, nonprofits, or private businesses charge five dollars per bag to properly dispose of the trash plus make a profit. Personally, I would see nothing wrong with creating a more formal structure and have BMO subsidize the efforts to the benefit of the local communities and Native American tribes in the area. It would be a much more positive solution than BLM is proposing. A win-win for all.

CEMENT FENCE: I don’t get the BLM proposal to force BMO to build a large cement fence around the event. As I have mentioned several times in my posts over the years, I spend a lot of time out on the edges of Burning Man. I like it out there. I am the only person I have ever seen ‘illegally’ cross the small fence that exists. And Black Rock Rangers were on me in a minute. Unless BLM has evidence that really bad things are happening out there in the remote area beyond what I am unaware of, the idea seems totally unreasonable and much more devastating to the environment than the present minimalist effort.

LIGHTING AT NIGHT: BLM is claiming that Burning Man creates light pollution and disrupts migrating bird patterns. BMO argues that birds are not migrating through the area at the time of the event. It would be interesting to see BLM’s backup data. It seems to me that an independent wildlife biologist could quickly resolve the issue. My own glance through the literature on the subject suggests that the main migration takes place in the spring when the area is flooded. I’ve seen a few birds in my years at Burning Man but nothing that would suggest major migrating patterns, and I would notice. The half dozen bird ID books I keep in my house and the ever present binoculars speak to my interest.

Night at Burning Man is a magical time complete with fire-breathing dragons and beautifully lit sculptures. The major burns, such as the Man, can light up the sky. Except for that, Burning Man is dark. Lanterns provide what light there is and they don’t extend into Black Rock City. I can guarantee that any city of 70,000 in America generates far more light than Burning Man. And Burning Man is only for one week. The issue I am not sure about is laser lights. Unless they are used to enhance art projects, my assumption is that they could be eliminated.

LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUES: Taxpayers at the local, state, and national level should not be expected to subsidize the Burning Man event. Law enforcement agencies, medical care providers, and any other public entities that provide vital services at Burning Man need to reimbursed for any necessary and reasonable expenses created for them by the event. And BLM should be adequately compensated for the use of public lands. Looking at available figures, this seems to be happening. (It would be interesting to look at what BLM receives from the mining and ranching interests that make extensive use of public lands in comparison to what it receives from Burning Man.)

I have three concerns here. One, what is reasonable and necessary? Crimes such as assault and theft obviously deserve law enforcement attention. But what about broken tail lights or the private use of marijuana? Marijuana is legal in Nevada but not on federal land. But do we really want our law enforcement agencies focused on busting pot users? Alcohol is the drug of choice at Burning Man. Two, while it is important that taxpayers not be responsible for covering costs at Burning Man, neither should Burning Man be responsible for supplementing the budgets of government agencies beyond Burning Man costs.

Third, and reprehensible from my perspective, BLM now wants to set up a separate area where vehicles coming into the event can be searched by police without warrants or reasonable cause for drugs, i.e. marijuana, and weapons. I am sorry, but police state comes to mind. Here’s the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. I, for one, will not return to Burning Man if this comes to pass, and it isn’t that I have anything to hide. Burning Man has a policy against both drugs and guns and does its own search when we enter the grounds. That’s bad enough. I find armed people entering my van without cause unacceptable and un-American.

I have tried to be fair here in my assessment. I recognize that BLM has a responsibility in terms safety and the environment. But I also believe that unless BLM can prove that its efforts are reasonable and necessary, they are more in the form of harassment, and may even evolve from a desire to eliminate the event. I hate to be overly paranoid, but if so, the question becomes, why?

I’ll conclude on a more positive note with the beginning of my series on Burning Man art. But, I will also note here, this art, and the opportunity for artists, is what will be lost if Burning Man is eventually forced to close its doors.

I’m not sure what these brass sculptures were suppose to represent, but I found them beautiful in the Black Rock Desert setting.

Fantasy came to mind when I first saw this.

Like much of Burning Man art, people were invited to be a part of the sculpture by climbing on it.

And at night. You are looking at the type of light pollution you can expect at Burning Man.

I’ve always found this simple sculpture made of bricks powerful.

All types of media are used in the art at Burning Man. This is a carved wood sculpture of an Easter Island figure.

The Statue of Liberty, the symbol of American freedom and promise. ““Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

A clay bust of Maya Angelo symbolizing her book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”

This wild, metal dragon, guarding its egg has always been one of my favorite Burning Man sculptures. It was created by a group of women artists out of the Bay Area.

Lit up at night. The drama is increased by just how dark the Burning Man night is.

I’ll conclude today’s post with this. When the egg opened and the baby dragon was born, it shot these flames into the night.

NEXT POST: Much more art.

The Beauty of the Black Rock Desert… My 11 Years at Burning Man

April 22, 2019 / Curt Mekemson / 18 Comments

Deserts can have great beauty. The Burning Man festival is fortunate to be located in the remote Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada where it is surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery.

Situated on a flat playa that stretches out for over 100 miles, Burning Man is dwarfed by surrounding mountains and a vast, flat, desert floor. Once, the playa was filled with a huge, glacier fed lake that was over 500 feet deep. Wooly mammoths and Native Americans lived on its shore and called it home. Like other Great Basin Lakes, there were no outlets. Water that flowed into the lake stayed there and sediments carried in from the surrounding mountains sank to the bottom. As the climate changed, becoming hotter and drier, the lake dried up and the sediments became the base for today’s Playa.

By the 1840s and 50s pioneers and gold seekers from the young United States of America made their first forays into the desert heading for the goldfields of Northern California and Southern Oregon. The Applegate brothers created a trail through the Black Rock Desert that bears their name. I live in the Applegate Valley of Oregon beside the Applegate River, all named for the family. I also have family connections. Applegates and Mekemsons intermarried in the early 1800s.

Today, I am going to post several photos that place Burning Man in its Black Rock Desert surroundings.

I like this photo because it emphasizes how flat the Playa is. You can barely see the fence that marks the outer boundary of Burning Man. Art can be found even in this remote section but it takes a bit of effort to get there. The flat playa has enabled some land speed records to be set here. It has also provided a good base for launching rockets.

Of course, I like to spend time out there given my love of wide open spaces, desire to escape the crowds, and interest in the art. Here I am on the outside looking in. It was shortly after this that the Black Rock Rangers, the Border Patrol of BMO, came roaring over in an official truck. I hopped the fence and zoomed off on my bike. (Photograph by Peggy Mekemson.)

The Border Patrol is wise to be vigilant on the outer edges of Burning Man, however. Aliens are known to hang out there.

Some even resemble cats. This doesn’t surprise me. I’ve always thought that cats have a taint of alien blood. It may be more than a taint. Have you ever found your cat staring at you in a strange way and wondered what alien thoughts were passing through its mind?

Another perspective. Note the rain clouds. The Black Rock Desert receives less than 10 inches a year, which is the definition of a desert. At times, it seems like the majority falls during Burning Man! All traffic is stopped. A thick, caky mud clings to vehicle tires, bike tires and shoes. A small garbage bag worn on the shoes helps feet avoid the worst of it.

We’ve seen some spectacular rainbows accompany the storms.

My friend, Ken Lake, caught a photo of this double rainbow hanging over Black Rock City.

The first rays of the morning sun touch the mountains surrounding Burning Man. Early morning and evening are the best time to photograph the scenery.

This sunrise photo is an example of how the large event is dwarfed by its surroundings.

The sun sinks into the west, signifying that life at Burning Man is about to be seriously ramped upward.

While many Burners think party as night approaches, others pause to enjoy the beauty.

With a beauty and drama of its own. (Photo by Don Green.)

I’ll conclude with this photo of the moon hidden by the clouds— a contrast in light and dark.

NEXT POST: I was reading Walter Isaacson’s book on Leonardo Da Vinci this morning and Isaacson was discussing how incredibly observant Da Vinci was. This led me to look up at our house from a slightly different perspective. I was struck by some of the weird things we collect and decided it would make a fun post. The next post: A Home Full of Whimsy… What’s in your House?

A Walk Through Black Rock City… My 11 Years at Burning Man

April 18, 2019 / Curt Mekemson / 19 Comments

The point about wandering through Black Rock City is that you never know what you are going to find, such as a goat with purple hair wearing a sagging tutu and a bear necklace.

I spend the majority of my ‘out and about’ time at Burning Man on the Playa. That’s where the major art pieces are displayed, and seeing them is my primary reason for going to the event. Some, I return to several times to admire and photograph in different light. And there is night, where they take on a totally different personality.

Peggy and I always reserve a day for walking around Black Rock City, however. The same creativity found in the creation of art, mutant vehicles, and major camps is found in BRC as well. In fact, you never know what you will find, such as the goat above. In addition to the fun and curious, there are things to do, food to eat, more art, and camps to admire. People watching is also fun, as it is out on the Playa and at the Center Camp cafe.

I’ll let today’s photos reflect our walks over the years. Most of them were taken by Peggy and me, but some were taken by the two other photographers in our camp, Tom Lovering and Don Green.