I’ve been thinking a lot bout Land Art during my farm running project–about pieces like Richard Long’s A Line Made by Walking, in which marks were made not with charcoal or pencil but with feet in the grass.

Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking, 1967

During my Broadturn Farm run, I began to think of the Cuban American artist, Ana Mendieta as well. I recalled Mendieta’s silhouettes, in which she marked the earth with her body and then transformed the marks with, in this example, red tempera paint, which was then washed away by the ocean tides.

Ana Mendieta
Untitled, 1976

Though my final drawings will formally diverge from Land Art, these artists’ methods of working paved the way for me to be able to conceptualize farm running as art. I’m grateful for the art historical precedents as I search for ways to translate the visceral nature of farm running to the act of making marks on paper.