Sunday, October 6, 2002
A field of peace dreams
Earthwork 2002 opens at Starr
Commonwealth
By Chris Springsteen, Christine
Iwan
The Enquirer
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ALBION -- Giant tube-shaped balloons in all the colors of the rainbow beckoned to travelers on I-94, inviting them to a 37-acre work of art in the name of world peace.
Starr Earthwork 2002 got off to a bit of a slow start late Saturday afternoon, with a sparse crowd viewing various painted banners on the festival grounds, but organizers were confident more people would show up as the day continued.
"I know it will be a great success," said Peter Middleton, an art teacher who helped create the stars and moons in the crop circle and one of the organizers of the festival. "I think it might still be a little early yet, but all the different groups will come out. As evening approaches more people are going to come out."
People who did attend earlier in the day certainly enjoyed what they saw.
Pam Coleman drove from Toledo, Ohio, with her children to participate in the festival.
"This is very nice," Coleman said. "I received an invitation in a packet at school and just thought I'd come check it out. It's a nice activity for the kids -- they're always bored."
People who showed up early enough were treated to the sounds of Down the Line, a Chicago-based roots rock quartet who noted during their hour-long set, "We've played in a lot of fields but this is one of the best."
The Earthwork idea was developed in 2000, when representatives from the Australian state of Tasmania, China, Norway, Italy and the United States met at Starr Commonwealth in Albion to discuss creating large scale art in each of those countries.
The Starr Earthwork was a beginning and an end at the same time for the hundreds of people who came together to pull it off, Middleton said.
"All the planning for the last two years has culminated in this," he said. "This is kind of the closing for this, but then we'll begin to go into different countries and do these."
While just about everything about the festival was larger than life, it is an appropriate way to tackle an objective like world peace, Middleton said.
"People say, 'world peace, that's a pretty big goal,'" he said. "Of course it is, and that's why we are doing it with big works of art. It goes together."
Middleton's personal favorite of all the banners, flags and other forms of art are the giant balloons, he said.
"These are my favorite -- they're huge and red," he said, while grasping one of the large, helium-filled tubes. "I would love to see huge lines of red across the sky, but then red is my favorite color. I like floating big things in the sky."
The balloons were not even as tall as they could have been, if Mother Nature would have cooperated a little bit more. Although most of them were between 50 and 100 feet long, it is possible to inflate them up to 700 feet, Middleton said. However, it was too windy and a 700-foot tube does not stand up very well.
Mary Tolliver, an art teacher from Harper Creek School District, also liked the balloons but enjoyed everything else as well.
"It's great, really exciting," Tolliver said. "All the flags and banners are very nice. I really like the things floating in the air."
It is wonderful that people enjoyed the art, and hopefully that will help them embrace the entire day's meaning and reason, Middleton said.
"If you change the hearts of people, then maybe you can change their minds too," he said. "World peace may seem idealistic, but somebody has to start. If a war can be started then so can peace."
Chris Springsteen can be reached at 966-0676 or at
KEVIN HARE/ENQUIRER
Peter Middleton and his son Jevin help to inflate one of the aerial sculptures at the Starr Earthwork 2002 site Saturday.