The Venus of Orting, WA

A tiny rock cairn among the now-dry braided channels of the Carbon River

The Venus of Orting

While wandering in the gravel and boulder fields of the Carbon River today, I found this little gem: a tiny rock cairn, maybe 8” in height, quite reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf. (And a little BB8 while we’re at the metaphors.)

Photographed with the Otus 100mm f/1.4 on the Sony A1 camera. This is a hand-held focus stack of two photographs to get a little more depth of field on the subject.

It was pure luck that I stumbled on the artwork. It a fun feeling to call attention to it and preserve it by way of the photograph. I have no idea who the artist is, but if I should hear, I will add the info.

Here’s the field of gravel around that area, and you can see that the little sculpture is barely findable. Good thing I didn’t step on it!

The cairn is at the center of the shot.

There was another very simple cairn not too far away, closer to the water. Someone has an interesting approach to these artworks; they are simple yet well thought out.

Do let me know if you have any idea who is doing this (presuming they want to be mentioned publicly).