Djerassi artists create 'crop circle' anti-war message Djerassi artists create 'crop circle' anti-war message (February 26, 2003)

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff Writer

In the wake of 9/11 and the attack on Afghanistan, Nevada City sculptor Mel Henderson began dreaming about projecting a message of peace through sculpture on the landscape.

A February visit to the Djerassi Resident Artists Program with fellow alumni Bob Tyson and Frank Foreman finally turned that dream into a huge anti-war image on a green cow pasture west of Skyline.

A "crop circle" 200 feet in diameter made out of fractured straw bales contains the word "WAR" slashed by a giant diagonal. People can see the image from roads and hillsides to the south.

"Planes flying over can see it," says Dale Djerassi, who offered space for the peace message on his ranch, adjacent to the foundation established by his father, Dr. Carl Djerassi.

"We wanted to suggest peace in the strongest possible way," says Mr. Henderson.

That message will be enhanced when black angus cows return to feed on spring grass and alfalfa scattered with the straw. "They are peaceful, and we get ice cream from them," adds Mr. Henderson.

The artists and some friends spent about five days earlier in the month laying out the image on the green pasture, and then hauling straw bales up the steep hill and breaking them into flakes to form the picture.

This month has been a kind of reunion for the three artists, who have all worked at the Djerassi artists program. This allows artists to live in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean for a month, while they indulge their art, undisturbed by day-to-day hassles.

Mr. Foreman, who has retired to Santa Cruz after teaching art in a San Francisco high school for 48 years, installed a large, triangular, yellow "Yield" sign on the roller-coaster road to the artists' central barn. Only it says, "Yield to Whim." He chuckles, "That's been the unofficial motto of the foundation."

Mr. Henderson, who has a farm and a gold mine in the Gold Country, is a veteran peace activist dating back to the Vietnam War, with a taste for large landscape sculptures and the energy to create them. "I think of him as a heroic artist for the scale of his pieces and the work he puts in on them," says Mr. Djerassi, citing his "Stamp-Out-Evil" water wheel.

The water wheel is one of two major sculptures Mr. Henderson had already installed at the Djerassi Foundation. It sits on a large redwood stump by a creek, and drives a stone reminiscent of a stamping machine from the gold country: as the wheel turns, the stone pounds another stone labeled "evil," Mr. Djerassi explains.

Mr. Henderson says, "It actually runs when there's enough water."

Mr. Henderson also dug a shaft down into a hill above the artists' barn, and connected it with a horizontal tunnel to the western slope of the hill. Just as the ancients used to build temples that lined up with astronomical events, Mr. Henderson's tunnel lines up with the sun during spring and fall equinoxes.

"That's the attraction," he says matter-of-factly. "On March 21 and September 21, you can [sit in the shaft] and watch the sun go down into the ocean."

Mr. Tyson grew up in Palo Alto and earned a degree in geology at Stanford before he discovered photography and went back for a degree in fine arts. He specializes in documenting works of art. Now he's living in Italy, and teaching students at a university in Milan how to photograph works of art.

Mr. Henderson is one of Mr. Tyson's favorite subjects. He has been recording the sweat and effort of creating the new anti-war image. He was planning to go out last weekend in an ultra-light aircraft to get closer views from the air. He promises to go out yet again to get more pictures when the cows come home.

Mr. Foreman, who practices many forms of art, has also made a video of Mr. Henderson's latest anti-war work.

"We want to get the word out," says Mr. Tyson. "We want to effect a change of heart, a change of attitude. We want to wake people up to the effectiveness of protest."

For information and pictures of the anti-war image, contact Mr. Tyson by e-mail at bob@bobtyson.com.