Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Before my first month of blogging slides into the archive, I thought I would sneak another post into the Riverblog.  There is a favorite patch of Virginia Bluebells or Virginia Cowslips ( same scientific name…different flower guides) that I like to visit at the Falls.  I noticed that this year the patch has gotten a little wider and more successful.  The flower buds are pink before they turn blue.  I am always looking for new places to pose the Styrofoam pieces I make that reflect the season and this looked like a good location.

Here is the “Key Man” posed in a bed of wildflowers that include the bluebells.  The figure is found Styrofoam, driftwood, and various plastic elements including tiny fishing bobbers for the eyes and “nipples”.  His name derives from the orange plastic key around his waist that was once part of a child’s teething ring.  Keys have power and are potent symbols.  How all that works in this context is up to you! 

Another view of the Mertensia virginica.  I would like to offer these to the poor guy who jumped off the 2nd Street Bridge the other day.  I was Falls bound, crossing the bridge by car, and saw that there were two other vehicles that had stopped in the middle of the span.  Drawing closer I could see  two men (later learned they were volunteer firefighters) trying to reason with  a person who was preparing to jump off the bridge into the Ohio River.  I drove on wondering if what I was seeing was in fact what was happening.  The following morning, the local newspaper reported that the man had indeed jumped, but was rescued from the water unconcious and taken to a hospital.  That’s all I know.  It’s amazing he survived a fall of that distance into a river with such dangerous currents.  Sometimes the bodies are never found.  These flowers are offered with hope that this unfortunate soul will be able to find some beauty in the world once again.