Yesterday I swam across Baroon Pocket Dam. This is the first time I've done a big swim in open water and it was quite a scary experience. We went across and back, it was 2.6 kilometeres and took about an hour. The others advised me to look up every 10 or so strokes and get my position on the bank to aim for but as we got deeper and deeper I just couldn't bear not to see the bank so I did breast stroke for most of the way. The feeling of 10o's of meters of dark water pressing from below and around was overwhelming. On the way back I stopped and floated on my back, lying in a huge bowl of water, surrounded by hills, looking up at the clouds drifting across the sky the peace and insignifigance were overwhelming.
So there are two sides of swimming in the open water, irrational fear of the unkwown, anxiety over whether you are going to make it, and exhilaration over the beauty of being all alone with natural elements all around, visual delight, and physical pleasure.
I've been moving into our Wallum Project, making new work and, although I try not to indulge in "artisty" neurosis it has been quite nerve- wracking.....and exhilarating.
