Giants in the Wind is a fictionalized exploration of the author’s ongoing relationship with wind, landscape and art making in the deserts of the American West. Drawing on environmental phenomena, most notably the seasonal Santa Ana winds, the narrative blends poetic observation and artistic practice into a meditation on presence, resistance and collaboration with elemental forces. Set against the backdrop of the Anza-Borrego Desert, the story chronicles a series of wind tests between the maker and his environment, transforming acts of art making into ritualized, playful engagements. The narrative frames the artist’s labour as a physical dialogue that is both a confrontation and a collaboration, and a creative practice that is grounded in imperfection, adaptation and ultimately the relinquishing of control. Philosophical allusions to Don Quixote and Henry David Thoreau are woven throughout, positioning the artist not as conqueror but as companion to the forces that shape him. Giants in the Wind examines what it means to be moved – literally and metaphorically – by the world around us. The project blurs the boundary between performance and play, sculpture and weather, intention and accident. It offers a compelling, lyrical case for an artistic practice rooted in humility, failure and responsiveness, where beauty emerges not from mastery, but from the willingness to be transformed by encounter.
Lael Corbin (Wed,) studied this question.