At the Lightning Field

If you want to be transported to a different plane of being, read Laura Raicovich’s essay At the Lightning Field. The Lightning Field is an installment artwork by Walter De Maria, located in the remote wilderness of New Mexico. It is a grid of hundreds of steel poles; internet searches will reveal breathtaking photos of dramatic lightning strikes – but Raicovich found illumination far beyond the storms, in experiences just as dramatic but infinitely more intimate.

The author documents her several visits to the field; each one leads to a hunger to experience the place more fully and deeply, to understand it more completely. Her descriptions display her scientific training, her analytical mind, and her artistic soul; her musings are vivid and profound, connecting science, literature, and philosophy in novel and intriguing associations. Raicovich experiences The Lightning Field alone and with others, at night, in the early morning, and in the stillness of midday. She notices the wildlife and vegetation and the vast desert landscape, and ponders how all these affect her mental and emotional state, which you as the reader become immersed in as well. Her experiences were life-altering — for her and, through this book, also for you.