It was September, 2016. Two Spanish women and me in a VW bus rushing checkpoint to checkpoint on a 170km trail race across France, Italy and Switzerland. Our jobs were essentially to make sure our friend, Biel, didn’t die as he ran for 3 days and 2 nights in the Ultra Trail Mt Blanc. We met him at each checkpoint to feed him and to give him the supplies and emotional support he needed for the next leg of his journey.
The 1st night took us from Chamonix, FR south into Italy. The three of us made the decision to hike up to see if we could spot Biel as he made his way around the peak of Mont Blanc under the full moon. At that point, he had been running for about 10 hours and it was around 2am. We parked and hiked about an hour up the mountain to where we could intercept the runners. It was a cool, crisp night and other than the sound of our feet and the occasional giggle; all you heard was the rushing of the river as it cut it’s way through the landscape. When we reached our destination, the three of us sat huddled on the cold hard ground waiting.
Beautiful Mt. Blanc long exposure by STÉPHANE VETTER http://www.nuitsacrees.fr/
After some time passed, we began noticing bright white glimmers in the distance. Like fireflies. They would twinkle until they met the back side of the peak, then disappear. More would appear...and again…disappear. Then there were 50, 100, 200 sparkling white glimmers bouncing around in the distance winding their way up the mountain in a jagged line on the left only to reappear again on the right and slowly wrap around and down the peak toward us. It was the runners; and the bouncing light was the light of their headlamps.
We didn’t see Biel until the next checkpoint, but the memory of those headlamps was burned into my mind. For years I attempted to recreate the magic of that moment through my sculptures until at last, Synapse came into existence.
The creation of Synapse was my triumph over a lifetime of being someone I wasn’t. I had found my voice as an artist. It was also the first time I felt the joy of working with other artists. ♥︎ More on that later.