I always keep a few images and ideas in the background in case I need something to post. Since the upcoming weekend is looking like a spectacular one, I know I’ll be visiting the river. Frequently, when I’m on site, I make more than one sculpture and this post is a case in point. I made this figure the same day I did the “Lifeguard” piece. The first image is of one of my collecting bags. Believe or not, I found this flag-festooned bag out here on the river and it has come in handy. Check out that beaver-chewed log and assorted chunks of river-polished polystyrene!
Although the figure is somewhat minimal, I like the overall image. Those cottonwood trees really make a big difference. I found the orange plastic toy gavel or hammer and this notion of an itinerant judge came to mind. Perhaps he is coming to town to dish out his own brand of environmental justice? Really, there was just so much junk along the riverbank on this day.
Here’s a detail of the figure. This piece is composed of Styrofoam, plastic, wood, and rock. When I was finished with him, I left him standing just where you see him in the photograph. I’m always finding toys and I like the way they photograph in this riverine context. Here’s part of a toy truck.
Frequently, when I see these images on my home computer…it’s easy for me to imagine that they are bigger than they really are. I guess I never considered computers to be a form of magnifying glass, but they do seem to function in this way. Here’s another shot I found compelling. I like the way this object is being swallowed up by the sand.
Final image, I love the way the cottonwood trees and their arching trunks and roots present themselves along this stretch of the park. The view through the hole is of Louisville’s skyline. Can’t wait to see what I find next!
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 
These images are really good! I love the figure you did with the gavel ‘going, going, gone…’ 🙂 The archway is fantastic – isn’t nature wonderful! the half a pumpkin mask and the half a truck makes me wonder about the people who disgarded them – plus…where on earth did the other pieces end up? I wonder if one day, the river shall return them too
I wonder all the hows and whys as well. As far as their ultimate destinations…the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River which then empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Once its in the ocean, who knows? I do find a lot of toys out here and it makes me think uneasily of children in proximity to the river. I’m glad that you like the images because it puts this stuff in context.
I have always found the found object very interesting indeed, like Jean Dubuffet. Have you ever looked at New Zealand assemblage artist Dale Copelands stuff she uses the found object in her assemblages (not sculpure though).
http://dalecopeland.co.nz/default.htm
I like the way you leave the sculptures – which have came from the disgarded, making them whole and better than the seperated pieces they were before. It’s as though you are synthesising them and making new statements. I quite like this – and also they way you leave some pieces in situ.
Andy Goldsworthy liked some of his nature pieces to fade back into nature, but he also did site specific sculpture which enhanced the environment – both natural and urban.
I like Andy Goldsworthy’s notion of “collaborating with nature” although I only work in this one spot because of it’s importance in the history of life. Like Goldsworthy, a photograph may be the only artifact left after the fact. The Falls of the Ohio State Park is a relatively small place, but I have found no shortage of things that I can connect with. I like the idea of working “relationally” which I interpret as including the other living things that are a part of this environment, hence so many bird related posts. John James Audubon’s earliest works were done at the Falls and so I feel that I’m in a very real sense… following in his foot steps. Some of the birds I’m watching are probably descended from the birds that evaded his gun. I have worked in galleries most of my life and began to feel that art wasn’t connecting to life in a more tangible way and was in effect losing some of the life-sustaining power it originally had. That’s a story for a later conversation. I hear my internal Bore-o-meter going off and so should end.
Yes, I like the idea of continuation – the following in the footsteps so to speak. there’s a sense of continuity which is always so pleasing to me.
Also by adding to it with your own contributions – you thereby also become part of the story. your stuff (or part of it) shall be found by future people who may in turn add their own interpretation (and wonder, like we do ‘where did this come from? what is the story behind it?)
Provided that this continuation occurs. The world wide environmental changes that are happening are a very real threat to that. The fossil beds at the Falls are a sober reminder of what can happen when the changes are greater than a creature’s ability to adapt. It may be that humanity’s appearance on the biological stage was another evolutionary experiment playing out? That’s why I’ve decided to root my art in the service of life. When I come to the river, it would be very easy to throw my hands up in the air and decry all the junk I find. But I want to make a difference, be positive, and work with a sense of purpose. By making my art from stuff I find in this context, I hope to provoke or awaken the innate creativity in the observer. It is my belief that we will need everyone’s creativity if we hope to stay on this stage long enough to realize our specie’s potential. What artists do very well, is take the same information that everybody is exposed to and come up with different conclusions, perspectives, and hopefully solutions. What I’m doing in this park is acting locally and it requires no technical skill or knowledge of art…just a desire to improve the quality of life, which is an aesthetic goal in the truest sense. I have come to think that having clean water is aesthetically “higher” than creating some museum worthy artifact. I’m using the language of art because I’m an artist and that’s what I know and feel compelled to do. Echo…sorry for the ramblings! I love arguing about this stuff and when I started this blog…thought more conversations like this would occur than have.