3 Things You Can Learn From the Art of a Man Who Makes Crop Circles Look Like Child’s Play
Art that isn’t meant to last
In the French Alps, there’s a man who walks around in the bitter winter cold for 12 hours at a time. He’s in his sixties, and he can cover as much as 30 miles.
But he doesn’t go anywhere.
Sunny days with no wind are the best for Simon Beck. Because on those days and with just his snowshoes, a compass, and a mental model — constrained only by daylight, energy, and his imagination — he creates landscape art at scale. His works are a race against daylight and time.
And they make crop circles look like a toddler did them.
They last as long as conditions hold — which sometimes isn’t even long enough for him to finish. A change in weather can wipe them away.
Beck’s art is the most generous kind: the kind that isn’t meant to last.
1 millimeter = 1 step
Exercise got him started. But curiosity kept him going.
Beck was an avid runner until foot troubles kept him from the sport, and he began to take walks instead. But it didn’t hold his attention. So one day he made things more creative: he paced a star shape into the snow. A big one.
