The openings in the wall practically called the cranes, and each seemed to find suitable placement, securing a union between stone and paper. Seeing as how paper is made primarily from wood (and other less interesting chemicals), the crane embodies multiple meaning to me. The Peace Crane, with respect to an environmentalist/ artistic perspective, represents a recycling of nature, through industrial labor, to reinvent a sheet of paper fashioned for ‘paper folding’. Except Crane construction involves more than what meets the eye.
The stability of the stone wall offered a nice serenity of for the cranes, of which there are five; the dw polka dotted crane, the snow crane, the first love crane, the natural leader-berry crane, and perhaps most importantly the truth crane. Folding cranes serves as a therapeutic art form in and of itself, the precision of folds demands my attention and focus, while the simple method allows my mind to wonder. I often find thoughts scurrying through my imagination as I imagine a world that understands and appreciates a conscious awareness of the value of the life around us. I imagine tapping into the world’s potential and creating a world of informed, educated, able, and compassionate, existence, it is somewhere inside this thought that the peace crane gains life itself. Perhaps restored from the tree of which it came, a spark of hope ignites life and it’s within this magic that imagination flirts with reality to create hope.
After capturing the cranes within the wall, I proceeded to move them to a nearby tree. Twigs in my curls, I maneuvered the cranes, each of which seemed to represent a lesson learned, or challenges I have faced within the last year. (For example the snow crane represented the ‘awfully chilly’ winds I have encountered within the area.) The only crane that I remained extremely cautious with, in regards to placement, was the truth crane. This crane was a more recent crane, the pattern of the once-paper- now –crane, the truth crane represents the one challenge I can foresee but have yet to ensure; I delicately tested the stability of the bark. Luckily only a few layers of mature, weathered bark fell to the ground, with the truth crane intricately placed. My quest for truth started long ago, but my active quest had forged actively toward what I had only before known as ‘life-long’ goals. The truth crane represents a quest for truth, a quest I intend to start with the same Buddhists who had taught me so many lessons already. 
Melting snow had left the grass swollen, but had not yet reached the tree, under which I lay trying to capture to scene with the snap of a frame. It always takes more than one frame to satisfy my curiosity. The wind blows, but I would not have noticed if the leader-berry crane has relocated, and a few others have turn as if to say ‘fare well’. After snapping what I believe to be a sufficient amount of photos I gather up the cranes, and brush off the traces of nature I know are not so sincerely appreciated by the janitors and head off to my class, satisfied and relieved.
For my project I used paper, sunlight*, and natural resources! Luckily the tree provided shelter for the Peace Cranes and they were able to pull off the shoot (as in fashion shoot), with success. My purpose of using paper was to connect the industrialized world we live in, to the natural world that we come from, all of us, even the flashy printed-paper. (The clashes of nature versus man, versus man being a product of nature, much like the paper- under the “nature” of the capitalist-man.)
This unique project inspired creativity through deep symbolism and intimate personal expression, I feel as though there is something within symbolism that expresses things that words or even emotions may not employ. I believe that what worked the most, for me, was ‘going’ with an idea, or possibility, not restricting the idea or message of the work but just allowing the art to speak for itself; after all earth without art* is just eh.
AvidNakedFoot (Yes, I blog, it’s nbd) Alexandria Valente
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