A boy drags an orange toboggan to the summit of a snow-covered mound. He turns, eyes the terrain, and positions the plastic sled. In a single, fluid movement, the sled is launched, and the boy stands, surfer-like, center of gravity low and forward, arms extended, balancing. He careens down the wave-face, exhilarated, to a cheering audience. Norman Shelburne, Greg Gustafson, and Madeline Schatz are similarly engaged in a kind of work-play, in pursuit of understanding.
Understanding is neither simple, nor straightforward.
It requires a mastery of language and technique, and a willingness to immerse oneself in one's work, to become the work. Then, strangely, they must step out of their own way, and allow something to unfold, of itself. It is work, in the moment. Tod Spedding is a free-lance writer living in Fairbanks.