Elijah has been a creative organizer of events in his community for years, and in the last few years has continually shown new work at exhibitions in his hometown and beyond, received NEA funding for his projects, and taken on running a collective art space. His time at Shared Space was split between several ongoing projects, each with a daily practice. After wedging a glockenspiel between two trees in the meadow he began writing one song each day, a series of 'Meadowtations' that he performed for the guests atA Pleasant Evening. He played guitar, glockenspiel, loops on pedals, and sang lyrics reminiscent of traveling, longing, and scenes of the meadow in summer. Under our basketball hoop, he measured out and painted yellow lines on the parking lot asphalt, to turn it into a proper half-court, and began shooting 100 free throws each afternoon. He tallied his misses and makes (with 55% on his very worst day, 89% on his best day) in this daily challenge in which Elijah looked at himself and how me moves in the world as a person with injuries and chronic pain. With time-based and ephemeral works, Elijah documented his findings in three small journals where he also wrote a poem each day and kept a dream log. The piece he left us with is a patchwork flag in the meadow, visible from our parking lot. It announces something to those who are entering the meadow path, hanging like a regal banner, in appreciation of our two crumbling birch trees and the shelf mushrooms holding them up.
