Campbell's Hole
with Omid Aski Laridjani
Campbell's Hole is a great place to hang with friends surrounded by water, rocks and plants.
I have spent has spent 15+ years creating music and art based on patterns found in nature. Playing yidaki a.k.a. didgeridoo is one of my passions, and also sculpting water vessels displaying nature patterns.
After returning from overseas travels, I arrived home to Austin Texas. Upon arrival I discovered that after 3 years of droughts, the rains had returned. Everyday it would rain and ultimately ended up flooding over a dozen times over the period of months. The first week of my arrival I needed to find a new place to live. To clear my head and re-tune my spirit, I went down to the greenbelt at Campbell's Hole and sat on the side of the creek where the water was raging downstream. I noticed that the water was forming a powerful and life-giving pattern as it gushed around and over a giant boulder in the middle of the creek. It was thrilling to witness how that big rock transformed the energy of the water into such an array of lines and shapes like a netted blanket covering it. Then the thunderclouds rolled in, yet again, and lightning kept striking like the snake's tongue sniffing the air. I stayed there mesmerized by this event, took it all in, and left to a coffee shop where I sat and began telling this story with art. After a few days, I had an interview for a housing opportunity, and after I showed them this drawing, I was accepted and given a great place to reside.That all felt so good, that by tapping in the very fabric of culture, that so many benefits arrive like fruits in a garden of trees.
I have recently created a collection of wearable creations based on my patterns gathered from nature. Check them out at wearmysprings.com
Campbell's Hole is a deep swimming hole which is fed by cold springs and which is located on Barton Creek about one-half mile up the creek from Barton Springs. It is thought to have been named for a family named Campbell which once lived in the area. Between the 30s and 60s some old-timers referred to it as Camel's Hole.