Outstanding in the Field Interview with Jim Denevan

Jim Denevan talks about his art and Outstanding in the Field at Coachella.

Transcript

00:00Outstanding in the field is where you eat like kings at Coachella.

00:09Yes, and we're going to talk to Jim Donovan. He puts on this whole event.

00:12We ate here last night and it was pretty much, I'm not even kidding, like maybe the best meal I've ever had.

00:17We were joking that it was like our whole family at one table.

00:19It's five courses and all of it's locally sourced.

00:22Yeah, all locally sourced from the farms of Southern California.

00:25So we get the notable chef and they show their stuff out here in this environment.

00:30You've got the musicians, they're the top artists with music, why not have the top artists with food?

00:34Take a bite of the herbs?

00:37Then wash it down.

00:39Well, let's talk about your art because you just did an installation, sort of, for vine stars using water.

00:46So, what was that?

00:48This is on a dry lake in the desert.

00:49Actually, the farmer that we had tonight, I went to his farm and I got his water.

00:53I sprayed it on the ground with six assistants all night.

00:56And then these kids showed up and they got in a helicopter.

00:59You saw the designs over there?

01:01Yeah.

01:02What was it?

01:03It's a giant alien.

01:04It's 525 feet across.

01:05How did you discover that you could do that?

01:07Well, I just started doing it on cement.

01:10Little ones, you know, like writing, doing graffiti with water.

01:13And I thought, I'm going to do this really huge outside.

01:16What's your advice for drawing the perfect circle?

01:19When you want to make a perfect circle, you've got to really center yourself.