Anchorage Daily News

My last trip of the year to Homer last weekend was to watch the creation of a large basket made of local grasses, wood and fireweed on the beach near the base of the Spit. A week of building and decorating was followed by burning the basket on the evening of the autumn equinox.

The fifth work of ephemeral art in Homer by basket artist Mavis Muller, the sculpture and community event have marked the seasonal turning point and a way of getting people together again as thoughts turn to winter.

This year the basket was named "Surpass." Previous baskets were "Adieu," "Renew," "Reflect" and "Impart." Each has been called "a basket of remembrance and unburdening."

All week, the basket took shape with grasses woven around a frame of gathered wood. As the form was finished, people turned to decorating it with gardens' last blooms. Daisies, calendula, monkshood, yarrow and delphinium formed a floral display around two windows into the basket. Yellow devil's club leaves were added around the base, and dried dock flowers were woven in as well. Pinecone wreaths and garlands decorated the top.

Written prayers, wishes and sentiments were attached or thrown inside the basket windows shortly before it was burned Sunday night.

Writer Dawnell Smith described it last year:

"Like Buddhist sand paintings, the creation and destruction of the basket will herald the beauty of impermanence and letting go. How do the people who spend days building the basket feel once they torch it? What sort of burdens do they leave with the ashes? What other art forms involve the creation and then destruction of an object as part of the process?"

Artist Muller also traced the outline of a labyrinth into the sand next to the basket and let people fill in the form with shells, beach pebbles, seaweed, leaves, berries and whatever else they wished to use in creating small works of art. Each work looked like a little shrine or station that people paused before as they walked the maze. The labyrinth will be there as long as it can withstand the whim of weather and humans, even when the basket is gone.

It's hard to let go -- to the summer, to the light, to green things growing. To worries, to good friends and co-workers who are moving on. To the world as it changes around us.

But on Sunday night, as drums beat and the basket was lit, a collective whoop rose from the assembled crowd and the feelings of letting go and moving forward were met with emotions of catharsis and exuberance.

Talk Dirt is a garden blog for the Alaska community hosted by Fran Durner of the Daily News. Join the conversation at adn.com/talkdirt.

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