To Err is Human

My sister who runs the Dora Maar Artist RESIDENCY program, told me that the best thing a place like that can do for an artist is make it a safe place to fail. She actually wished me a, "Go and fail" salutation! And so I have been ruminating on it. I have also been preoccupied with what makes us human in an age when we are morphing into technologically enhanced chimeras.
"Human" comes from the same ancient root word that makes "humus" and "humble". Sitting in the verdant northeast during a 3 day rainstorm is humbling. The ground reeks of thawing, moving humus, and the rivers are swollen races of froth, and the air is filled with a roaring "shshshshshhh". I nap often. I read, I paint, I wander.

"Error" comes from a root word meaning "to wander about, looking for something". Yesterday I found a small dead chick at the doorstep to the studio. I washed it off, (the ants were already at work), and studied it for some time. Then I took it out back and buried it under the leaves on the river embankment. I believe we are all connected in this closed ecosystem called Earth, so the dead bird echoed it's existence onto the realm of my residency wanderings.