What is a volcano but a creative force of nature. It doesn’t need to be anything else besides what it is. It may have consciousness but it’s not here to teach, to warn, to soothe, but to erupt.
Even in it’s silence it embodies creativity, it’s own eruption. Volcanoes appear in various landscapes. Some are active today, some are dormant and some are dead. People continue to live near active volcanoes. Other people, scientists, study volcanoes. Botanists explore within the volcano’s trajectory and region. Conclusions are drawn and not drawn. I’m just an artist walking up the lava path. Hardened and cooled into a black carbon walkway. I’m here to research emotions that arise around volcanoes.

At some point I bend down far enough so I can press my lips to the hardened lava surface. Really, I’m prone. Dusty, earth warm, a little granular but smooth at the same time. But the aroma! Acrid, deep, primordial, hard to describe. Uniquely it’s own. I always say, when I can’t adequately describe something, “It’s like trying to describe the flavor of milk. What the hell tastes like milk?”