A long, long time ago, boiling lava filled with explosive gases bombarded cool sand and water on the edges of the Strait of Georgia in what is today Canada. If CNN or Al Jazeera had been there with camcorders, what a fiery, thunderous docudrama they would have made!
Today, the eye meets only the silent remnants: bizarre frozen beasts, gargoyles half of sand and half of lava, grotesque faces, giant severed limbs, sandstone cities riddled with holes.
The tides have rounded off the edges. Sand has filled in gaps. During the brief summer season, children play amidst these mute monsters, dogs run, people picnic. In about an hour, the photographer starts to feel normal in this rocky Guernica.
As I gradually slipped out of the documentary mode and into the art mode, I saw much to admire. Some of the stones strewn about, properly mounted, would make a sculptor's reputation. The surfaces bear a breathtaking variety of images in low relief, or as textures. With a little imagination, one can see a variety of trends in modern art at work here ..
My mind was troubled by these images, but also comforted. The lava left its permanent marks, but the sand and the water ultimately prevailed. Like a bombed ruin or a downed jet preserved for posterity, these monstrous stones are harmless now.
All around the base of these freakish monuments of yesteryear, myriads of familiar little stones were busily rolling and rubbing the rough edges off. I happened across one stretch of these social stones at a perfect moment: the sun had risen but had not yet cleared the ridge, and the tide had uncovered them but they still glistened.
I hope that you, too, draw strength and comfort from these images.
