Posted in Absurd, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, unusual collection, watershed, tagged automobile tire, found objects, metal tanks, photography, process, wet and dry on July 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Looking through some recent images from the Falls of the Ohio, I came across three objects (other than my sculptures) that I had photographed twice before, but in contrasting situations. I’m curious to see how they look paired together and what they may “say” about process and the passing of time.
Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, watershed, tagged found objects, found toy, lost toys, mutant toy, photography, plastic elephant, plush toy, river finds on July 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I tried something different the other day at the Falls. I found the headless body of a plastic toy sheep and decided to improvise a new head for it. The results are not much different from some of the imagery coming out of Japan. I found a collapsing, materially fatigued yellow rubber ball and added a few acorns, polystyrene ears, and other bits of plastic and then photographed it in the riverine landscape. My kids think it’s cute! Here is another image of it showing the other side.
I’m always finding different toys. Some of which you can see in my Pages collections. I recently came across two other plastic animals and here are their portraits as the river gave them to me. I think they work with the mutant bunny as a kind of genre since they depend on non-naturalism for their effectiveness.
I like that it is difficult to judge scale from these images. They could be very large or very small. That ambiguity has been a part of my project from the beginning. With my other Styrofoam pieces you need to look at what else is in the picture to find clues to judge scale. To my mind, they are all the size of life. It’s interesting to see how the internet treats these images since that can be variable as well. The objects get tumbled by the river, while a similar thing occurs with the images electronically. Here is a recent plastic pony I found and a blue-eyed pink elephant too!
Okay, you talked me into it…here is a bonus image! This was taken during my last outing. If the Pink Panther were one of those bog bodies found in the peat moss of northern Europe…it might look like this. I think this was originally a large, plush toy, but the stuffing is gone now.
Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, watershed on July 5, 2009| 2 Comments »
The mayflies emerged a couple nights ago and were thick on the sides of some of the homes that lie outside the park’s entrance. They are a welcome presence even if they disturb people who think of them only as insects to be reviled and squashed on sight. The very fact they are here is a good sign since they prefer to live and breed around clean water. Naturally, the fish love them and may in part account for why the fishing has been so good. The mayflies’ life cycle lasts about a year, with the majority of that spent as larvae in the water. They emerge en mass as adults that live to breed, lay eggs, and are gone in a couple days…hence, Order Ephemerata.
Rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days and so I got up early to try to beat the drizzle. About fifty or so fisherman are already on the scene and I have seen some nice stringers of catfish. I found two pieces of Styrofoam and constructed this figure from driftwood sticks, nuts, and plastic. The black tire is too small for a real bicycle and must have been part of some other toy. The river has been receding for the last week and lines of driftwood form the high water marks. Between the wood and the river are large, open mudflats and I photographed this figure in this area.
While I was talking with a father and his three young sons, the figure I had stuck in the mud fell over and started floating away! At first I thought, so much for that one and snapped a couple images as it drifted downriver. The current, however, pushed this piece back to shore and I was able to retrieve it. Ideally, I would like to create one signature image that distills for me what that day at the river was all about. Sometimes that happens, but very rarely. Usually, I have several pictures that are interesting to me. Here are a couple more of this figure after it tested its flotation device.
I have always been interested in the patterns formed by this river mud drying. And, the plastic barrel stuck in the clay was too good a prop not to try at least a couple images. It was beginning to spit rain and so I returned to my studio under the willows and gathered my things for home. Among the days images, is this one of a large iron chain I came across. Far too heavy to pick up, each link was solid metal about eight inches long. How does something like this show up at the Falls? Shouldn’t this chain just sink to the bottom to be discovered at the end of time? Even if this dropped down from the railroad bridge nearby… is it possible that the river is strong enough to wash this ashore? The river isn’t telling.
Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, catfish, coal dust, fishing, freshwater fish, hairbrush, native people, sculpture, Styrofoam on July 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »
All along the Indiana bank at the Falls of the Ohio, fisherman were having success. The water level had dropped and is approaching its summer pool. Soon it will be possible to cross over and explore the world on the Kentucky side. I can hear the high pitch sounds of the Eastern Kingbird and marvel at how fearless they are as they dive-bomb the vultures trying to catch thermals on their way up. There’s plenty of food for scavengers, because the fishermen are wasteful. When they leave there’s a feast waiting for them.
This was the most impressive stringer of fish I saw today…but I wouldn’t want to eat any of them. It’s advised that you avoid making a meal of the larger, older bottom dwelling fish in the river. Although things are supposed to be getting better…there’s still toxins and metals that are present in their tissues. The species on this stringer include: a flathead catfish, freshwater drum, carp, and what I think are highfin carpsuckers on the left. Methods being used include both natural baits (cut-up shad and chicken liver) as well as casting with artificial lures (florescent jigs). I walked the bank picking up the odd item I could use and went and found my studio.
This is the figure that walked out of today’s junk found on the riverbank. The starting point was a broken hairbrush I pinned onto the head. A butternut split in half forms the mouth and a plastic cap from an ink pen is the nose. I created a cloak from a piece of flexible foam packing material I found nearby. I associate this figure with the indigenous people that once fished here for thousands of years…and could safely eat the fish! Finding the sticks to give the arms and legs gesture took up most of the time in making this piece. Even when you are standing on mountains of driftwood finding the right expressive stick can drive you crazy. I also photographed plastic containers and other junk stranded by the retreating waters. As someone reminded me recently, the native people lived here forever in a virtual paradise and in a little more than two hundred years we have trashed the place up pretty good. Here’s an image that’s proof of that. The drum is obvious, but the black sand you see is actually coal dust.
Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged cottonwood tree, herons, Louisville, site-specific sculpture, skyline, Styrofoam on July 2, 2009| 2 Comments »
Since I was feeling a little nostalgic about lost trees, I checked into my archive and pulled up these images from late June of last year. In the above photo, the tree in the right foreground fell during the last few months. This view with a glimpse of the skyline of Louisville on the opposite shore was made from the park’s western boundry.
I called this figure “Black Jack” when I made it. It didn’t last long in this configuration. Although this section of the park is more remote…”Black Jack” was found and assaulted by someone who needed to break something. I wonder sometimes if there might be a balance between the amount of energy it takes to create and the effort required to destroy? It would be some type of karmic equation. Yes, this wasn’t the best piece I ever made, but it did have some points of interest. I believe this was the only time I ever came across black polystyrene and in this case I believe it was once part of a car’s bumper. I also found the little stearing wheel and the broken baseball batter’s helmet along the same stretch of beach. Tires can be found everywhere and in this piece, made a nice base. The head is a battered Styrofoam form for styling wigs.
I left this sculpture parked by this wonderful cottonwood tree that has incredible roots. Over the years, the elements have eroded the bank exposing the roots without killing the tree. In this case, you can literally sit under the tree in this unique space and stay dry during the heaviest rainstorm. From the fire pits around this area it is obviously a favorite place for campers, fishermen, and lovers. The candy cane hanging on the tree is something else I found that day. It is a hand-painted Christmas decoration on wood and I added it to my growing collection of river junk I hauled home. This styro-sculpture had a buoy-like quality to it that appealed to me and nicely marked the day.
Across from where I sited my sculpture is an area of exposed fossil rock that touches the water. It is a favorite place for herons to do their fishing and a nice image taken the same day to end this post.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 