Pipestones
Experiencing Nature with Vicki Milewski
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Pipestone National Monument in western Minnesota is a special place. The catlinite red rocks can be seen jutting forth from fields as you approach the monument. The Monument area is sacred to many Native Americans because the red rock is quarried and made into pipes they pray with. My Pipestones collection shows a vivid experience I had once early summer morning when the red rocks were glistening and vibrant red with the water and sun bringing movement to everything around, including me.
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As an experiential artist I work between our shared physical realities and spiritual ones. This small view into my Pipestones Collection shows the beginning of seeing the natural boundaries between physical and spiritual merge and then disappear into a boundless experience.
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Initiating deeper relationships with the natural world is one of the overarching goals in Vicki’s artistic practice.
Watercolor, Pencil, Ink on Arches Cold Press Paper The boundaries between physical realities and spiritual ones merge until they disappear when walking the trail along Pipestone Creek in Minnesota’s Pipestone National Monument Pipestone Creek falls over the red rocks and continues through a field of wildflowers
Watercolor, Pencil, Ink on Arches Cold Press Paper These yellow coneflowers in the restored prairie in stood witness to the undoing of boundaries between physical realities and spiritual ones while walking the trail at Pipestone National Monument These three yellow coneflowers stood over the rest of the wildflowers, witnessing the beauty of the falls and the rocks and the windy skies
Still from Animated short film/NFT This is a still from an NFT with the same title showing these yellow coneflowers shifting back into the original pencil sketches
Still from Animated short film/NFT This is a still from another NFT which shows these three flowers shadowed by a new moon night but with those windy skies still swirling overhead
Watercolor, Pencil, Ink on Arches Cold Press Paper The energy in this tree showed the energy in the pipestone cliffs—the true merging of physical and spiritual both supporting one another and no longer bounded apart while walking the trail at Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota
Watercolor, Pencil, Ink on Arches Cold Press Paper Winnewissa Falls is the boundary breaker, electrifying the scene with its energy and purpose as the boundaries between physical and spiritual realities are broken to they can merge and become invisible at Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota
