Because It Is A Desert

Because It Is A Desert

It's a desert because, because it is a desert…
Come to the river, we'll walk away from all this now…

He has been driven beyond all towns and all systems until now
and though it is long past too far he keeps going
Because it's a desert,
Because it's a desert.

These are some excerpts from a song called "Flying Cowboys" by Rickie Lee Jones, which is almost a tone poem, a meditation based on vivid imagery, mood, and chant-like lines that are open to interpretation. Though the song is steeped in southwestern references and a dusty, distinct country twang, it is the brooding line "because it is a desert" that stuck with me for years and takes on other meanings for me.

It seems almost childlike to reply to the unspoken question with "it's a desert because…because it is a desert."

I set this image in a coppery field, as if the grass is rusting, but it is hardly a desert, per se. It sat in that state for 2 weeks, not knowing what it wanted to be. I started working on another one using the textures of a plant, but it wasn't clicking either, and so I decided to bring my living human/plant hybrid into the "desert" piece, finding what I was trying to say in the process. The desert is not literal in the scene, and it doesn't need to be. It is a desert because nothing can grow there, it is a desert because it is inhospitable to my character, and it is a desert because everything dies there unless you move on. A plant, like anyone, needs life-giving water, needs something to sustain it, needs roots to run deep and take to the soil.

On the other hand, the character in this piece may be there because it is a desert - therefore he is compelled to give it some life, to change the environment into something fertile and meaningful.

The deserts in our life can be our families, our friendships, our very lives, if they become stagnant and hostile. So, even if we tend to remain too long in the harsh conditions, self-preservation demands that we move on, and walk away from all of it. The same goes for art - we need good soil to grow anything, and that soil can be anything or anyone, as long as it supports what you are trying to grow.

Since I abandoned one image and transplanted the idea into this one, it's possible I will continue with the original, turning it into a continuation of this one, a bit of small series with the same character.

Model: Gilberto Mendez

A Before and After version of this images can be seen on my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/MichaelBilottaPhotography