On May 6, the Oldham County History Center had a members’ opening for their Oldham County: Life at the River’s Edge exhibit…which was actually several exhibits in one. My sculptures played a part in the overall display and were integrated among the other exhibits. I really liked the idea that my work (which included objects and images) would find a home among other examples of our material heritage. Here are a few images from the event. Once I got home and looked at the pictures, I realized I didn’t have any with people in them! Yes, there were indeed people present and I enjoyed meeting and talking to them all! Thanks for the beer and bar-be-que too!
Nancy Stearns Theiss, the center’s director, lives on by the Ohio River and so she recognizes the materials I use and where they come from. She gathered up her own debris and put it in context with my work. Nancy has a strong background in environmental education and recognizes what my project is attempting to do in a way that I must say gets overlooked in the usual art gallery context.
This was also the first time I have been able to show my Falls images, sculptures, and collected objects in the same exhibit. I have always imagined that this would create the most interesting display. The photo above is an example of this and includes my “Fake Food Collection” that I have gathered on the riverbank over the years.
Become a Trash Artist! I guess there’s no denying that I’m one. As an activity, materials were on hand if anyone felt the urge to make something that was encouraged. My “3M Wasp” is hanging from the ceiling with fishing line. This piece gets its name from the protective mask I found that looks to me just like an insect’s face. Later during the summer, I will participate in a workshop making art from found materials.
Also on display was a Living Stream Touch Table, essentially an aquarium with native creatures that one might encounter in the local fresh water environment. Among the animals in the tank include several species of native fishes, crayfish, frogs, and a small water snake.
The exhibit will be up until August and I look forward to returning and participating with the center again. This final image is located on the center’s grounds and right next to an example of a root cellar.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 
Wow this is great Al! It looks an interesting exhibition too. It’s nice to see the large photos and a couple of the sculptures, the figures going for a little trip out of their natural environment 🙂 I bet the workshop shall be great fun for you to participate in and interesting as you will be working with pre selected material. But what a weird mask that insect has on… there’s some very strange things in that river Al. Have you ever found a dead body or anything grisly yet?
Hheh I shuddered a bit there 🙂
People ask me the “dead body” question all the time! Fortunately, I’ve never found a person, but I have met people who have. I recall finding a dead deer in a tree about 12 feet off the ground that was left there by high water. I could smell it before I could see it. Also once found a refrigerator in the top of a tree…that was very incongruous like seeing that Spanish galleon scene in Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre: The Wrath of God”. Have you seen that one? Klaus Kinski had a memorable performance in that film.
Do you mean the Fitzcarraldo film? where a ship sails up a mountain?
I’ve not seen it – but I’d like to. kinski has the most interesting face, it gets better as he get older I think 🙂
I would be opening stranded refrigerators with much trepidation Al……heheh! Talk about ‘past their sell by date’ eh..
Hi Linda, “Aguirre” is an earlier film, but “Fitzcarraldo” is also an amazing film as is the documentary about the making of “Fitzcarraldo”. The setting for “Aguirre” is also South America but is set in the days of the conquistadors. I believe the soldiers were looking for gold and El Dorado and trying to convert the indigenous people to Christianity along the way. The scene I referenced has Kinski’s character alone on a make-shift raft going down a big and uncharted river like the Amazon. As he slowly goes crazy he believes he’s halluncinating when he sees a stranded sailing ship in the top of a tree by the riverbank. I saw that film at college and have never forgottan it. I’m also enjoying Herzog’s switch to documentaries. Have you seen “Grizzly Man” or his most recent one set in the Antarctic?
No Al, not seen the ones you mention, I would like to see the antarctic one though. So many good sounding films to see and not enough time to see them in it seems. I was watching your oil slick on the news last night. It was orange and spreading. Lets hope the future isn’t orange – or it won’t be bright for any of us.
when I say ‘your’ oil slick, I mean of course ‘ours’ we should all accept responsibility for our planet.
I hear you. So much to do and see and only one life to live. Yes, that oil spill…what can you say about that? When it was first announced, I thought where was the sense of urgency?