A Passage

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 narrow gate

A bridge to other field


A divided house makes space for the greenbelt meridian to pass through.

All the way through  BOK parking lot and beyond

Divided House

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field, I'll meet you there

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi -13th century

Circles of Life

My aunt, from my mom’s side (her oldest sister), who went to Japan, studied nursing and worked as a midwife on the island of Taiwan during the WWII. At age 25 she  died from tuberculosis.  A few years later, penicillin arrived on the island and consequently many lives were saved. After I learned that Penicillin owes much to the cantaloupe, I have decided to start a series of circles of land with this fruit and pondering about my aunt’s brilliant life cut short.  – Yiren Gallagher

Half of the cantaloupe as a bowl for offering and for begging as well.

Homunculus

Melons on Terraces

Greenbelt Meridian ceramic cantaloupes at AHHA garden terraces

The ghost of the Incas's farming achievements still shadows the Andes. The remnants of ancient terraces in Machu Picchu appear as lines of green on the mountains. Inspired by recent archaeological research, the people of Andes are rebuilding terraces and irrigation systems and reclaiming traditional crops and methods of planting. They do this because Incan agricultural techniques are more productive and more efficient in terms of water use.

Farming Like the Incas

Up With Trees Planting a Food Forest Along Tisdale Parkway

Red Soil

Soils are one of our most important natural resources and also are important for the beauty their many colors add to our landscape.  Soil colors serve as pigments in bricks, pottery, and artwork.  The color and texture of soil painting is fascinating and a creative opportunity we take examples from paleo cave painting to religious sand painting references.

James Gallagher pulled the soil down along the line design

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Port Silt Loam was named the official state soil April 1, 1987. It is found in 33 of the 77 counties. Soil are often named after an early pioneer, town, county,community or stream in the vicinity where they are found. The name "Port" comes from the small community of Port located in Washita County, Oklahoma. The name "silt loam" is the texture of the topsoil. this texture consists mostly of silt size particles(.05 to .002 mm), and when the moist soil is rubbed between the thumb and forefinger, it is loamy to the feel, thus the term silt loam. When Port soil are undisturbed, they produce native vegetation including tall grasses with an over story of pecan, walnut, bur oak, and cottonwood trees.

soil samples prepared by the Oklahoma State University Soil Lab

Dirt is not Soil! Dirt is the basic mineral component of soil. It is a group of
runaways. Therefore, the stuff on the wheel or under your shoe is dirt.   

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https://www.soils.org/

Greenbelt Meridian Agriculture

trompe l'oeil cantaloupes on fruits stand in a supermarket 

Art imitates life

Roadrunner engraving courtesy of  the Fab Lab

ceramic oranges and cantaloupes

Watch the making of a ceramic cantaloupe step by step:

Greenbelt Meridian Cantaloupe  (22 seconds)

GBM Cantaloupes (10 seconds)

Ripple

The mural  "Ripple" based on a James Gallagher's watercolor was inspired by the movement and sounds of invisible animals on the edge of a wooded darkness and the subtle and ubiquitous effects of man on the world around him.. It represents a small section close to a Greenbelt Meridian's “no shoes, no fences, no roads, no buildings, no man’s land” corridor in nature. For future travellers, it might be a walkway, a trail, or a river for you to float your boat. However beautiful it seems, this painting does not represent the Greenbelt Meridian. There will be many who ask why we need a Greenbelt Meridian with all the inconvenience it will bring to our life. Look at all the beautiful nature that surrounds us! What will exist here in 5 thousand years?

A Land Where I come From, watercolor by James Gallagher

A blackbird ambles through a yard like a child navigating its way through a tall field of corn. With wide trails, between strait growing leaves of grass, the soil preserves many possibilities for food today.     

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There is a road, no simple highway,

Between the dawn and the dark of night,

And if you go no one may follow,

That path is for your steps alone.

Ripple in still water,

When there is no pebble tossed,

Nor wind to blow.

(Excerpt from the Ripple lyric by Grateful Dead)

The Sword of Damocles

"That sword! That sword!" cried Damocles. He was so badly frightened that he dared not move. "Yes," said Dionysius, "I know there is a sword above your head" 

"Damocles" by Richard Westall - own photograph of painting, Ackland Museum, 

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.

Hanging above, a handcrafted bow by Darren Dirksen; center and on the floor, installation by James Gallagher. In the name of progress, we have come to live like a royalty; own everything and take more and more from the nature. Are we, Human Beings, going to continue on into the future without noticing the sword of Damocles hangs directly over our handiwork?

Greenbelt Meridian Markers

A Barge With A Mission

The barge may be viewed as on a conceptual journey from the hand of a person, placed it into currents of the unknown.

This is NOT the first time an artist has wanted to build a  boat in Tulsa County. You can check the famous one:
Bartholic's Boat

Every Animal known to Man

Not all that glitters is gold. 

Not all that disappears is gone.