It was my first burn this year

From a distance, in the dark, serpent mother reminded me of a roller coaster.

It was a nice warm spot at night, too, and even scared me a little (in a good way!)

I cant wait to see what these ladies can come up with for next year.

I like their energy that flows through their work. I had a great time hanging out in the deep playa alone with my fire hoop (bad safety person I know) and symbolically lighting up when their fireworks did, was pretty symbiotic in my own inner headspace.

This was my first energy and the giant flaming serpent really brought me serenity..strangely enough.

In a word: inspiring

However, one word just doesn't cover the feeling of standing in the middle of the serpent at night.

Thanks for the link to the film... it's awesome as well. I was a little peeved when I got home and discovered the SO had not gotten any night pictures of Serpent Mother.

;o)
Judy

Hey Laurence of Oliver ( i still giggle thinking of that one when we were atop the red bus), I'm downloading the large movie now. It was real pleasure meeting you. Will we see you at decom?

The serpent was amazing, easily my favorite piece on the playa this year. And this is coming from someone who is not easily wowed. I wish I had something more interesting to say beyond "woah that was awesome" but that was indeed my honest reaction.

i LUV the flaming lotus girls and their sculptures with the buttons to press for FIRE. actually the angel of the apocalypse is what rekindled my faith in burning man. that and piss clear. i wasn't there in 2003 or 2004, but i remember so clearly saturday night of 2002, wandering with my sweetie around the playa looking for things on fire. we'd see something off in the distance and get close and it would be a burn platform--mostly people unceremoniously burning their trash. and then we were like "oooh what's that?" and we got closer, and it was the remnants of the man. what the fuck? it's BURNING man. there was hardly any fire. i had to take some time off anyway for schooling issues but i didn't mind after that. if burning man was going to be more and more neon and less and less fire, i wasn't into it.

so i got to go back in 2005 and decided to have a Postive Attitude (tm) towards bman and to have my own project and be nice to people and accept the neon. and i was SO HAPPY to show up and see the angel of the apocalpyse. i wandered over there and a lovely f.l. girl said to me "would you like to push the button?" and i did and it was SO COOL. and i had so much fun pushing that button. and i loved that they let the Ladies push the button. and that you could actually burn someone with it and you had to be given this special responsibility.

it was such a great place to hang out, the firelight making everyone look so pretty. every night we'd go out & i'd go there & my friends would get impatient with me wanting to see other things.

this year i loved the serpent mother too. not as dangerous with the buttons--unguarded. i guess it makes sense with the crowds. and less monitoring work for the grrls. and i didn't quite catch what came out of the egg...? it was just.. open. whereas the angel of the apolcalypse had its driftwood pile burned and that was bad ass.

i left 2002 with the sad feeling that since fire was being slowly OUTLAWED that bman was doomed (for me). and i love that the lotus girls took the restrictions on fire and made a really great art piece within those restrictions. no burn scars but LOTS of flames and lots of warmth and good light for people to gather by.

i got a sticker this year & it's going on my truck.

big fan.

can anyone come learn how to weld?

The serpent was AWESOME!
This was my first burn, and I was simply blown away by the serpent.
And the fact that I could walk up and get my hair singed! (We live in
such a mommy society that anything remotely dangerous is quarantined
and cordoned off from the public). It was sooo refreshing to be able to
peek and poke around, play with the buttons, etc. I went there every night,
just to play with the buttons.

Great job, FLGs!! A big THANK YOU from a fan!!

all i can say is, holy fucking shit. the serpent mother was hands down my fav piece on playa this year! every time i went there, i felt amazing. the vibe was incredible, like energy would just flow through me while i was there. the music was sexy, the warmth was exciting because it came out of the serpent mother, and that art piece was obiously infused with the artists spirits... the art is impressive to say the least, but the women themselves whom i had spoken with have this beautiful calm about them which really turned me on. i put their stickers on my daughters' water bottles, so they could be extra cool at school. hows that for love? i don't know a thing about welding, but their art makes me want to learn.

I thought the Flaming Serpent Mother was one of the most beautiful amazing kick-ass sculptures I've ever seen, period!

The stuff they brought in the past was extremely cool, but the serpent was at a whole new level. It was so organic, so beautiful, and so frightening all at once. Other art was inpressive in some way but simple in another (the waffle, the bamboo star, the temple, etc) but the serpent had it all. They really shot their load on this one and have raised the bar for all of us.

I was fortunate to work along side of the FLGs this summer at the Box Shop in SF while building A Field of Sunflower Robots. These dedicated people never ceased to amaze me day in and day out. Their vision, their kindness, and their love for art, fire, and Burning Man was an inspiration.

I was completely floored to see the end result on the playa on Tuesday night. Absolutely beautiful. Where else on earth would we be able to see such a creation?

Thank you Flaming Lotus Girls! Thank you very much for all that you have given to the BM community.

~:Brandon

test

From a thoughtful artist, I received this comment in private. He didn't dare to speak out in public because of the possibilities of mis-interpretation, to offend others, and because he's not like everyone who likes to speak their mind without caring where the winds take them. I was looking for constructive feedbacks and constructive feedbacks he's sharing.

If you have frivolous reaction to his feedbacks, please write to me in private, i'd rather listen to your constructive feedbacks.

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I prefer not to be critical of people's work, especially art, in a public forum, so I make these comments in private. The following comments are meant as constructive criticism, I make them respectfully, any chance to improve great art is worth the risk of slight offense, so if any is taken that is regrettable and not my intent. As an artist myself (more of a craftsman, to be fair, but I take what I produce very seriously) I often am quite critical of my own work... Sometimes when others don't point out the flaws that are so clear to me it feels like they aren't looking- and if they don't see the details for that they are it means they don't understand the piece, which can at times be worse than criticism.

The Serpent didn't work for me, though it was appreciated as a warm place to hang out on a cold night and I must admit that playing 'mary had a little lamb' and 'funkytown' on flamethrowers may have been a highlight of the early week, I'm not sure it justified what must have been a tremendous effort. While the the metalworking of the spine was fantastic- the forming and finishing (I loved the semi-polish effect on light reflection) of the vertebrae was dead on, I found the work as a whole somewhat lacking.

At night the serpent had way to much of a carnival ride look to it, from a especially at least. The head
didn't have nearly enough flame in relation to the body (I spoke with a Lotus, I know that the teeth were meant to glow and there was some problem with making that function correctly- that would have been an improvement), further contributing to the 'ride' look, sort of a pringle-shaped loop with no strong beginning or end visually. Visually distinguishing a head or tail would be an improvement (perhaps differential flame size over the main chain segments), the tail and accompanying fire decreased in size too quickly and inconsistently. Also, the sine-waviness needs to be either increased or decreased- it is enough to look like something is intended that just doesn't happen (perhaps greater peak-trough distance, and frequency changups).

The robotics that moved the head added little, frankly I thought they detracted from the look since the movement was so halting and limited. Again, more would have been better, but not enough looked like just that.
It may have looked better to eliminate motion entirely in favor of a more rigid, powerful look if the range of motion cannot be improved. The halting movement made the head and neck look somewhat fragile, which was certainly not the intent of the piece.

Clearly the idea had potential. The subunits all looked fantastic, but it looked like a time crunch may have been to blame for many of the issues I describe, as the final work was somewhat lacking- I'm curious what the feelings of the artists were, especially in relation to last year's masterpiece.

Best, and I look forward to next year's work.

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I did not find out that the Serpent Mother was an instillation by the FLG until almost the end of the week. I was so inspired to find out that the group of artists were primarily women. The great thing about the Sepent Mother is that it was as aestically pleasing during the day as it was at night. It drew me in on my bike rides to get coffee at Center Camp and it called me just a few hours before sunrise when I was shivering.
I went to the Sepent Mother on Friday night with some friends. The music and the vibe there were incredible. Everyone around the piece and inside the mother seemed so happy to be there. It was such a beautiful thing to go see all of the smiles. I have a picture of myself there from that night and I just have this shit-eating grin on my face.

Here is the deal for me at least.

take it how you will, to me fire art is some what passay, yeah some person can make fire with gas and metal. O YEAH! not.

However I take exception to the Serpent Mother. Never in my life have I seen a peice of fire art that caught my attention both day and night, or that sparked my imagination so hard... I was dying to have a pollar opposite piece right next to that majestic creature.

I did agree with the private critic in that the head movement was too jearky, however applause for trying, no one ever raised the bar for art by playing it safe....

so I guess in conclusion the Serpent Mother was the first and only fire art that ever sparked in me the desire to create, which is what I live for...

Thank you Flaming Lotus Girls

I came to Burning Man this year for the first time because of the Fire Arts Festival at the Crucible. The Serpent Mother was only half done and they were working the propane blasts with a part of a midi keyboard. The women were so friendly - "come on, play something" - I had to see it complete. It was the most exciting thing on the playa. I actually thought there would be more propane art. Having so many pieces crowded into a parking lot at the Fire Arts Festival, I thought there would be an area like that at BM. I don't think propane art is passe'. It either sexes you up or it doesn't.

Where is the Hand of God in Chicago and for how long? I've only seen it in videos.