Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

You can tell by looking at this photo that Adam is the life of the party!  I hand my son the camera and the first picture he takes is of himself!  The two of us went to the Falls the other day.  We hiked around and then made some art together.  Here are a few words and images recording our adventure.

The river is in its summer pool meaning that it’s low this time of year.  The water in this photo is barely ankle to knee deep (and that’s if you step into a hole).  I usually wade over to get to the fossil beds on the Kentucky side.  Adam decided that he prefered the challenge of walking across this old telephone pole someone else had laid across the water and it was a good test of balance.  That’s what I like about walking over driftwood.  You need to pay attention to where you are going.  As we were exploring, Adam came across a piece of wood that reminded him of a dragon’s head and he decided to see if he could make the rest of it from other found materials.  I wonder where he got that idea?

As you can see, Adam has a pretty good eye.  This old beat up piece of wood does resemble a dragon’s head or snapping turtle skull (that was my vote).  The eye socket is in about the right place and it does have a complete mouth with maxilla and mandible.  The other side looks just as good too!  Adam carried his driftwood from the river’s edge to the site that has served as my outdoor studio for months now.  Recently, I did a little “house” cleaning by rearranging  all my found materials.  While I worked on my piece, Adam was busy working on his.  Little Styrofoam people watched from a safe distance and from behind a tree.

Finding material for the body and limbs was on hand, but there was the challenge of what to use for the wings.  Adam did a little scouting around and found this blue, foam-like mat that he cut in half with my knife.  The wings are pegged to the body to hold them in place.  I did help him when he asked for it…which was when we hammered the legs into the body with another piece of wood.  As we worked, I asked him how third grade was going and other topics of conversation, but there were also periods of silence as we focused on our projects.  I heard that’s how you can tell when men are comfortable with one another….when time goes by and neither utters a word to each other.  They don’t need to.

At last the dragon is finished and the beast seems to be roaring its approval.   Adam seemed happy with his efforts.  I’m pleased that for now, he still thinks its fun to come out with Dad to explore, make things, and use our imaginations.  I can’t conceive of  how a person can develop a love for nature unless you have some experience in it?  The outdoors can help nourish the body and spirit in ways that are hard to replicate in school.  We had some fun playing with the dragon which is a dangerous thing to do because they are proud and fickle beasts and one can never completely relax around them.  If you do… than this can happen!