The concept of a greenbelt – retaining an undeveloped or “wild” border of land around a portion of urban space has existed since ancient times. In 2014, Tulsa artists James and Yiren Gallagher have retraced the first Civilian Conservation Corps’ (CCC) shelterbelt in Mangum, and visited sections of the 100th Meridian in Oklahoma. This land is important for growing many crops including melons. The artists also traveled to Xinjiang Silk Road in Western China and saw again, a land famous for growing fruits, especially cantaloupes. By comparing land and water resources of two western frontiers, half a world apart, they saw resources stretched to their environmental limits in order to help feed the world. How do we collectively establish a limit to how far man will go for his own survival at the expense of losing everything else on Earth? Inspired by the movement and sounds of invisible animals on the edge of a wooded darkness, and supported by the strong warnings described in Donella H. Meadows The Limits to Growth, James and Yiren Gallagher plan to convince the town of Tulsa to help return a great circle of land back to the Earth. The circular path around the world will be named the Greenbelt Meridian (GBM). The artists’ installation at Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma represents a conceptual segment of this “no shoes, no fences, no roads, no buildings, no man’s land” corridor. Consider the Greenbelt Meridian as an earthwork monument dedicated to the continuation of life on our planet, yet beyond our imagination.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. -- Matthew 7:13
A Last Look/ by W.S. Merwin Even the words are going somewhere urban where they hope to find friends waiting for them some of the friends will think of trees as pleasant in a minor way much alike after all to us some of the friends will never be aware of a single tree they will live in a world without a leaf where the rain is misfortune
Walking in Beauty A Navajo Indian prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body. I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me. I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me. I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful. In beauty all day long may I walk. Through the returning seasons, may I walk. On the trail marked with pollen may I walk. With dew about my feet, may I walk. With beauty before me may I walk. With beauty behind me may I walk. With beauty below me may I walk. With beauty above me may I walk. With beauty all around me may I walk. In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk. In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk. It is finished in beauty It is finished in beauty
A lady who worked at the Keystone State Park Welcome Center mentioned to us there indeed were Roadrunners in northeastern OK. One curious roadrunner had in fact adopted the center and the park staff and would bring small kills, lizards and such to the front door of the Welcome Center. One day it did not show up. That is nature.
* About the Author:
James Gallagher went to State University of New York, Purchase Art School and studied printmaking, sculpture, and photography. James has produced a staggering volume of art, preferring to create daily small water color creations inspired by sights, real and imagined, visible for a second, while walking across a railroad bridge, on a forest lined bike path, or downtown.