I must admit that I’m excited about blogging! Content will not be a problem since I have about six years worth of material I can post. It’s just being patient about learning how to edit and work this system!
Just to get going I’m posting an image of a site specific sculpture I made yesterday. The first image shows the different strata along the river’s edge where water- deposited debris accumulates. I find a lot of materials for art tangled up in the driftwood.
Here’s what I collected on today’s walk along the river. Over time I have developed a vocabulary of materials and forms that I make with them. In this photo are several large chunks of polystyrene, better known by its trademarked name “Styrofoam”. This has become an important material for me and it’s unfortunately all too common. Also shown are various plastic items, mostly toys along with driftwood branches. This is my makeshift studio for today.
For the moment, I entitled this piece “Figure with Life Preserver”. Naturally, finding the orange ring was a big part of creating this sculpture. Everything I make at the Falls is a combination of artificial and natural materials. The body and head are Styrofoam. The eyes are fishing bobbers and the mouth is a piece of red plastic. The nose, arms, and legs are wood. Oh, and yes this figure’s head also sports a pink “pick” comb. My manipulation of the materials is minimal. Except for shortening the sticks I don’t do any carving on the foam…more on that in later posts. I use what the day gives me and try ultimately to create an interesting image that speaks of that day. To judge scale you will need to compare the figure to what is around it…I think of these things as being the size of life. In the case of this figure, the floating tire is a good gauge of scale. The found objects I didn’t use go back into my collecting bag.
Most of the time I leave the work to its fate. I left this guy standing on the riverbank waiting to be discovered by the next park visitor. My photos are the only complete record of my activities here. The first half of my project consists of 35mm drug-store photography and the second half is digital. It took me awhile to warm up to the new technology. I like that my project reflects that change in the technology and the way we perceive our own development and notion of progress. Thus far, I have resisted the urge to manipulate my photos…all the images are straight-up documents recording that day’s work. Most of the time my pieces take less than a day to make. Sometimes I go to the Falls with an idea, but more frequently the materials I find guide my process.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 
I like the several different pics of “before” & “after” of your art. It’s got me thinking abt things I see around on my walks that I can use for “Road Art”…. & I find it amazing that you don’t alter the pieces very much, especially the styrofoam.
Who knows what will show up on shore after this weekend of “Thunder”…….
Excellent blog, excellent pictures. I do hope this gets picked up more photographers as I would love to see your work under many different kinds of lights! The whole idea of driftwood and flotsam is really interesting to me, I often have the opportunity to visit beaches on the pacific ocean and although we never get anything near the amount of garbage you get it is pretty interesting to walk around and pick at the debris.
We do get cuttlefish bones, dried up puffer fish and lots and lots of glass! As well as, for some reason, half finished bottles of softdrink. Very few empty ones!
I’ll see if I can dig up some photos of the mos beautiful driftwood in the world (on a beach quite far from Tokyo where whole trees (branches, roots and all lie flung up on white stones). At first I though you had had some huge flood or something! Lots of trees lots of garbage.
Keep it up, and keep posting. Now that summer comes around you’ll probably get more chances to get out right?
If you’re new to blogging, let me give you some advice: keep it coming, a lot, or a little, but keep it regular. Your regular readers will appreciate it and it helps you get a handle on posting and editing. I usually post a week in advance, that way I have time to go back and edit pictures and text once the post has matured a little and I have had time to step back and look at it properly. Give proper names to all your images, links and URLs. Link to other sites and they’ll start linking to you. Get the best pictures you can! In a few weeks you’ll start going up the google rank and after a year or two you’ll probably be number one in searches on styrofoam art etc.
I’ll be back to see what you post next!
Oh, and the Colgate factory in itself is worth a photo essay at least!!! Could be cool to get a panoram view of Ohio from the clock too, sort of “while you are watching the clock this is what the clock sees of you”.
Thank you for your excellent blogging advice. I will keep your suggestions in mind. The Falls of the Ohio is an interesting place and I hope that my blog can do some justice to the many subjects found here.
Al, I like what Tokyobling said re: getting a “view” from the Colgate clock…. I wanna be there when U do it! Who would we contact? Tokyobling has some good blogging advice, too.
I wonder how Mother Earth is doing after the rains? Have U been back?