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Thanksgiving Encounter at the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, lost and found, material culture, nature photography, Photograpy, recycled art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged absurdity, Art, artist at exit 0, climate change, ecostory, environmental story, Falls of the Ohio State Park, found materials, Hulk hand, man and nature, material culture, osage orange fruit, plastic, sense of place, Styrofoam, Winter's arrival on December 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a tale from my last visit to the river which happened to be a wondrous and warm Thanksgiving morning at the Falls of the Ohio. Before the family gatherings and the feasts that followed, I jumped out of bed to put in a few hours of personal time. As I recall, on this day last year it was 17 degrees and we had already experienced a snow fall. Despite Turkey Day’s balmy 70 degrees, I didn’t see many other folks out here with the exception of a few early rising fisherman who were casting for Sauger near the dam. Nobody seemed to be having much luck catching fish. I decided that I needed to start off my holiday season by doing a little holiday shopping Falls style. Meaning, no money is required…just come out here and sooner or later you will find something interesting that drifted in with the driftwood. After all, everything out here has a story connected to it. It’s finder’s keepers on the riverbank and you can cross off your gift list those particularly “hard to shop for” loved ones in practically no time at all! First, you need a shopping cart and after searching around I found this…see above picture. Despite its small size…I decided to pass on this find because the missing wheels would just get in the way. I decided that one of my many collecting bags would have to suffice. So, what kinds of things stood out on this day?

I came across many fruits from the Osage-orange tree (Maclura pomifera). I love their glowing color and weird surfaces that remind me of brains. A squirrel was eating one when I approached. I have heard of people who put these fruits in their closets and trunks to keep insect pests away from their out of season clothes. People do collect and sell these soft ball size fruits for this purpose. Osage-orange trees have quite a few other nicknames including: hedge apple, monkey ball, horse apple, mock orange, and yellow-wood. Potentially this orb could be a stocking stuffer for an organically inclined friend or two? Our next item was found waiting for me on the wet and slimy fossil beds. The rocks were so slick, I had trouble remaining upright as I approached the mystery object.

Here’s something else sporting an unusual shade of green. As gentle river waves lapped the exposed limestone fossil beds…something that looked like a large fist presented itself lying next to driftwood logs. As I suspected when I first spotted this item…it was a toy “Hulk” hand. Essentially, this is an over-sized, comic book character, soft boxing glove that a child could insert their own hand within when their inner Bruce Bannon gets overwhelmed by their raging Hulk persona! Smashing could then ensue. I considered dropping this into the collecting bag, but it was so heavily saturated with river water. Still, definitely a pop culture item that would be appreciated once the darned thing dried out. I’ll come back to this later, unless someone who wants it more takes it home first!

After I did my rounds around the Willow Habitat, I headed for my outdoor studio under the trees. I had stashed two large chunks of found Styrofoam at my site that had floated into the park earlier in the spring with this year’s flooding. I had to wait months for the largest piece to thoroughly dry out before I could even attempt to lift it. These larger chunks may originally have been parts of boat docks which do absorb water while retaining buoyancy. As I was imagining what I could make with this material, a stranger approached me. I was so rapt upon my polystyrene pair that I had let my usual guard down.

“Excuse me…I don’t mean to disturb or startle you, but do you mind if I ask you a question?” I’m sure I must have had that slack-jawed look of amazement on my face! The absurd looking persona in front of me was much taller than myself. I estimated he was at least 6 feet 5 inches or even slightly taller than that. Dressed all in white, he had a large nose and two eyes that were different colors on an otherwise huge head. Over one of his shoulders he was carrying a snow shovel that was missing half its snow blade. I did my best to gather my wits and replied in a slightly cracked voice…”Sure, what’s your question?” It’s not that unusual for people (especially children) who see me out here to wonder about what I’m doing?

“Can you hear that?” asked the giant. I’m sure I looked puzzled and so he repeated the question. I then stood still and listened and replied that all I heard were the local birds moving through the trees. I had noticed earlier that the chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers and other seasonable birds had been especially active on this beautiful day. My large “friend”, however, said that it wasn’t the birds he was hearing but rather something more abstract than that. My response was to ask him what he was hearing that seemed beyond the threshold of my own hearing (which is no mean feat these days)? The big guy gave a one word response to me and it was…”Winter”.

The big guy had this wistful look upon his strange visage and he said, “Winter is coming my friend and that is what I hear.” He then continued, “This year is nearly history now and all it’s good, bad, and indifferent moments will be covered up by a cold, white blanket of forgetfulness.” I’m sure he was right about that, but it did seem odd considering it was 70 degrees outside today!

I asked my new acquaintance if he thought this was going to be a particularly tough winter since he seemed to be presenting himself as something of an authority on the subject?

He replied, “That’s difficult to say considering all the weather patterns and all the factors that generate the weather are in a state of flux.” He continued, “It’s been many, many years since I’ve seen the planet be this confused. I have been wandering the land gathering clues and I’m afraid, that I can’t give you an accurate forecast. The only thing I’m sure of is that at some point winter will arrive and I will be out here to meet it.”

My own thoughts turned to an episode of Falls of the Ohio history. This whole river valley was originally sculpted by one of the last glaciers at the close of the last Ice Age. You can even find deposits of gravel here that date from that period thousands of years a go.

I had to ask this Styro-Snow Shovel Man if he believed the changes in the weather had something to do with our species’ activities? “Well”, he said…”there are a lot of you on the planet now and as a group, you don’t seem very concerned about what’s happening in the big scheme of things.” I reluctantly had to agree with him. I have my own anecdotal information gleaned from this park to back up my own thoughts on the subject. At the time of this writing, many of the world’s leaders are meeting in Paris to try to decide if any changes could be made that might help reduce the impact of our overall activities. I remain open and hope a positive consensus can be reached. Like the approach of winter…we shall see. With Thanksgiving waiting for me…I said my good byes and left my new friend standing in the park. Perhaps I will see him again…after the first snowflake falls?

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Trick or Treat River Finds

Posted in Absurd, art and environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, Falls of the Ohio, Found objects, material culture, Ohio River flooding, photography, plastic, sense of place, unusual collection, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, black cats, candy carrier, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, Halloween, Halloween novelties, Jack-o-lanterns, material culture, odd collections, Ohio River, plastic novelties, pumpkins, skulls on October 30, 2015| 5 Comments »

My images have been chosen and I’m writing quickly to create this Halloween-themed post before the big day arrives in our country. Meaning I have until tomorrow to post this if I want this story to be relevant to the day at all! 2015 was a very good year for finding Halloween related junk at the Falls of the Ohio. Some of this stuff I’ve saved into a small collection and the rest of my discoveries are preserved digitally. I have long since moved from the position that I need to save every physical object that I come across. Most of the time, having the picture is good enough.

The two bouts of flooding that we had during the Spring washed all manner of goodies into the park. It was an especially good year for plastic jack-o-lanterns. These common objects are essentially a plastic bowl for receiving and holding trick or treat candy. Naturally, real jack-o-lanterns are carved and hollowed out pumpkins that are illuminated from within often using candle power. I’m always surprised by the variety of plastic jack-o-lanterns that I have come across. This example was photographed as I encountered it…upside down and laying on top of the sand.

Here’s one that was crushed by the flood and some passerby hooked it onto a branched log. Here’s another plastic jack-o-lantern deposited by the river, but this one is much smaller.

Over the years, I have found many Halloween novelties including other containers for holding the precious bounty of candy. The jack-o-lantern form, however, is overwhelmingly the most popular. This year, I did find two different forms. Here is one that is the head from an unlucky black cat!

Now for a black plastic witch’s cooking pot that I nearly overlooked resting in the driftwood. The witch is dancing in silhouette next to her fire.

I even came across the remains of a mask. Costumes are a big part of Halloween and I don’t find many of them at the Falls. This one was pretty muddy, but after cleaning it up a bit…I saw that it was a devil’s mask made from a soft foam.

Okay, let’s look at a couple of shots of assembled river finds. This one has a variety of different character references.

This shot has a little bit of everything including vampire teeth, Shrek, Frankenstein’s head, a skull, a witch’s head, and a couple of scarecrows that also have a Halloween connotation.

Owls also are iconic to Halloween. Here I offer three found plastic bottles in the shape of owls. The big red one was found in 2015 and the other two are earlier.

Most of these are associated with candy novelties, but not all. I put this collection together at home when I noticed I had so many jack-o-lanterns in my various collecting bags.

Can’t say until now that there is actually a Halloween-themed chap stick that you can purchase. I am not likely to run across many of these along the riverbank.

I threw this guy into here because I like how expressive his face is. Some of that is due to the dark river patina it has acquired being in the water for a while. No doubt, I will keep running into this stuff at the Falls of the Ohio and I will try to document and or collect as I go along. One last image from this year…earlier I was doing site specific assemblages using found colorful plastic elements. Here is a detail of one piece I made and look who is taking pride of place? Happy Halloween everybody…be safe and have fun. See you in November!

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Green Bottles Revisited

Posted in art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Installation, lost sandals, material culture, nature, Ohio River, photography, plastic, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, watershed, tagged Art, art and nature, art and the environment, artist at exit 0, assemblage art, driftwood mound, Falls of the Ohio, green plastic bottles, lost and found, material culture, photography, sense of place, snow globe on October 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

That big summer rush is over now. The Interpretive Center panel is finished and this past Saturday, I picked up all the works I had on display at Eastern Kentucky University. I now have no other plans for my art which feels good for a change. I like staying busy, but don’t want to be so on the go that I don’t enjoy what I do. Art is one of those things we eat greedily until it time to move over to the next course. The process of creating and displaying new works has become such a consumptive activity on its own and it’s funny that I don’t hear more artists talking about the good and bad aspects of this. With this officially being Autumn, I went looking for traces of color at the Falls of the Ohio.

I showed up under the old railroad bridge with a mostly empty collecting bag. At this time of year, it isn’t so much the interesting objects that just floated in here with the latest flood, but rather the interesting items that have come to the surface after all this driftwood started to break down. As proof, I offer this recently discovered snow globe or dome. It’s too hard to see from my image, but there is a winter holiday scene inside the dome! It will be cold soon enough and Christmas as well. I’m all set with this little decoration that still has bits and pieces of fake snow inside.

Today I have no plan other than to wander. As luck would have it, I revisited an area that I haven’t checked out in the past 2 1/2 months. One of my favorite pieces I made this year involves setting up green plastic bottles inside an old boat dock that was deposited on top of the driftwood pile and that happens to be in this spot. When I was here last, the vines had pretty much ensnared and intertwined with all this wood and made walking a bit treacherous. All the greenery from those vines is now history, but the woody stems are still a tripping hazard. Coming across my piece from earlier in the year…I decided to reconstruct it as best I could. All the bottles were still here and the light was looking especially good.

Under the wooden dock are four compartments that I filled with the bottles. They can only be seen from this side and so this piece has evaded detection for the most part because it is not visible from the path that skirts the periphery of this driftwood mound. I just happen to like how the light gets concentrated within these green plastic bottles and activates the work in just the right conditions. The wooden compartments add a little structure to what would be generally be thought of as a chaotic composition.

Although we still have plenty of “green” in the environment. You can also see where “yellowing” is happening with the foliage. I expect as the season wears on and transitions to another that this Green Bottle piece will subtly change over time.

Walking over the mound, I came across an area that was completely obscured by vines a few weeks a go. What I uncovered in place was a series of found flip flop sandals I had parked here until a better idea showed up. For now, I record the lightweight shoes and move on. It might be transformed into something different the next time I pass this way.

The cottonwood trees that flank part of this driftwood mound are much “yellower” than before. When I first came out here during the month of May, everything around me was verdant and dark green. After setting this piece up again for the second time, I turned and walked away and cleared my head by walking to the riverbank. I will periodically stop by here and maybe after a few months will be able to create a series of images documenting this site specific assemblage as it changes with the seasons. For now, I will check out if the fishermen are having any luck…at the Falls of the Ohio.

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Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center Panel

Posted in Absurd, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, lost and found, material culture, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged aluminum, Art, artist at exit 0, assemblage art, broken flamingo, coal, coyote skull, driftwood, exhibit display, Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center, Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center Panel, Falls of the Ohio State Park, found objects, glass, lost and found, material culture, plastic, sense of place, Solid Light Inc. on October 18, 2015| 6 Comments »

Although I could have gone on making this panel richer and richer, at a certain point, you need to call this piece finished. Solid Light, Inc., the Louisville-based exhibit design team responsible for the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center’s renovation wanted to have everything in place by October. Officially, the center won’t open to the public until January 2016, however, the center wants to do a series of trial runs to see how well the new exhibits will work with school groups under the center’s educational staff. I worked pretty feverishly at my friend Tom’s large studio to get this panel realized before needing to turn it over to the designers. Also compelling me was the need to undertake a personal trip to Florida with my family to visit my ailing mother. Mom is getting better, but it’s just not life anymore if there aren’t many balls being juggled in the air simultaneously! I had more than enough found objects and river materials to get the job done. If anything, I may have had too many things to choose from! For this post, I thought I would share images of the panel in progress as well as some detail shots of its surface. The fun of this piece is looking up close to see the variety of objects both natural and artificial that have been fixed into place.

I tried several arrangements before settling on something that I thought would work. Central in all my compositions was the use of an old marine cable and the fragment from the side of a discarded set of wooden steps. The design team wanted a look that seemed to suggest that the objects and materials I was going to use had just washed up upon this place. Having something that appeared casual and spontaneous, but also composed was a big challenge. My own formalist tendencies wanted to work within a tighter composition, but I relaxed that by doing several dry run layouts before I nailed or glued anything in place. Of course, there is fantasy operating in the finished panel too because no where at the Falls of the Ohio have I ever encountered this much concentrated stuff in such a small area.

Another step that I realized was prudent before attaching stuff was painting my wood panel. I went for a mottled brown and gray background that resembled mulch and dried leaves. I think I did a good job of covering the surface and only in places can you see through to the wood panel below.

I was really proud of myself! I only dipped my painting brush into my coffee once! Once the surface was dry, I began by attaching the nylon cable around the panel first. I used a borrowed nail gun hooked up to an air compressor to do this. In fact, where possible, I used the nail gun as much as I could. I also used screws and a variety of adhesives (depending upon the material being glued) to attach items to the board. Working with polystyrene and various plastics can be tricky because certain compounds will eat and dissolve these materials.

I worried that my barge cable might make the panel look too much like the decor you see in seafood restaurants, but I think I managed to barely escape that impression. After the cable, I attached the wooden steps and glued the larger pieces of Styrofoam into place. I had other limitations that I haven’t mentioned yet, but this is as good a place as any to say what those were. First, nothing could project off of the surface any higher than 3.5 to 3.75 inches! The panel would need to be able to slide into a case that is 4 inches deep. Another concern was keeping a clean 3/4″ open wood margin along the entire outer edge of the panel. This would assist in sliding the panel into its case. Apparently, after the above shot, I didn’t take any more in process photos because I was too busy making the thing! Here’s a pretty close to finished view of the panel. I worked on this panel horizontally, but did tip it up to see it as others will see it and to find out if anything would fall off the surface? Fortunately, everything pretty much stayed in place.

There is a whole list of things you can find on this panel. On the base level, it is a good mix of the driftwood, polystyrene, glass, coal, aluminum, and other plastics found in the Ohio River. Here are a few details to give you a better look.

Some of the items on the panel like the coyote skull …I’ve had for many years while other pieces like the plastic Native American came to light a month a go. I had to include at least one doll in this assemblage because outside of toy balls…dolls are the most frequently found toy I come across at the Falls of the Ohio. I sprinkled in enough polished coal, walnuts, and mussel shells to keep it lively. I’m looking forward to seeing all the finished displays sometime soon. I’m sure this panel will look completely different in its case and in the context of the other exhibits. Looking forward to getting back outside to the river sometime soon. I still have a trip to Richmond, KY on the schedule to pick up my art that I have on display there . For now, I will content myself with this picture taken in the park several weeks a go. Thanks for dropping by!

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Artist at Exit 0 at E.K.U.

Posted in Absurd, Art, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, Installation, material culture, recycled art, sculpture, tagged Art, art exhibition, art show, artist at exit 0, Eastern Kentucky University, Falls of the Ohio, found bottles, found objects, Giles Galleries, repurposed art, Styrofoam on September 26, 2015| 20 Comments »

My Artist at Exit 0 show opened at the Giles Gallery on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY. I was able to make the opening reception which is a two-hour drive from my house. Gallery Director, Esther Randall did a great job of installing the artworks so they flowed easily from one piece to the next. I was wondering if I had brought too many or too few art works, but it seems everything worked out just right.

I was especially interested in how Esther would display my giant necklace entitled “La Belle Riviere”? She mounted the piece in a corner of the gallery and created a shape similar to the one I photographed on the willow tree. I had a new enlargement of that image created, a dye sublimation print on aluminum and it looked great located near the actual necklace.

What was especially gratifying was getting to meet and talk with some of the art students and faculty members who attended the reception. Many of them had previewed the show and a few had formed opinions which they shared with me. There was a lot of curiosity about the work. In general, the artworks were received favorably, however, knowing what my materials are and how I obtained them is also a sad state of affairs that left a few of the students feeling conflicted. My art is my attempt to reconcile those very same feelings within me. I describe the situation as being “absurd” which to me is a word that encapsulates both comedy and tragedy. Many of my Falls artworks have a surface charm to them, but when you dig a little deeper you find a darker side that critiques our handling of and perceived place within nature.

The reception lasted just a couple of hours and the time went by quickly. Before leaving for home, I did a quick spin around the space and made these snapshots of my work installed in the gallery. At home, I’m used to seeing them stacked on boxes or leaning on one another in my basement. Lack of storage space is also one reason I don’t save every work I make at the Falls of the Ohio. For me, it is also an odd feeling seeing my work on pedestals and treated the way other art is presented. That is another whole discussion altogether and it was touched upon in my conversations with the students. Following are a few more gallery views.

Here’s a few images of new works and details from favorite pieces. Let’s start with my plastic bottle piece, “Petrochemical Color Spectrum”. It’s a more formal work, but I like the color it brings to the show.

Another bottle piece from a few years back and made with found coal, plastic and glass bottles, and wood…entitled, “Mountaintop Mini-bar”.

Here’s a detail from a figurative sculpture I created entitled “The Inhaler”. Finding the inhaler on the riverbank was the starting point for this work.

A recent figurative work…”Jimmy D.” This piece has a nice presence to it. I think making the eyes a bit mismatched contributes to that.

A couple more images before closing this post. I did send Esther an artist’s statement I used unsuccessfully while applying for a grant. She did a good job editing it and this was posted on the gallery walls.

I was sorry to see the night drawing to an end, but there was one other nice surprise in store for me. On the drive home, I was treated to a really wonderful sunset! The exhibition will remain on view through October 16, 2015. See you soon near the banks of the Ohio River.

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It’s September and Current Projects

Posted in Art, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, Installation, material culture, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged Art, art exhibition, artist at exit 0, assemblage, driftwood, Eastern Kentucky University art department, Falls of the Ohio, Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center, found materials, found objects, Giles Gallery, lost and found, material culture on September 19, 2015| 10 Comments »

Although this is my first post of the month…my heart has not been far from the river or the odd kind of art that I make from the found remains of our material culture. A few months back, I accepted the generous offer from Esther Randall, who is the Gallery Director of the Giles Galleries at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond to show in their upstairs gallery. The bottom gallery will hold the colorful welded sculptures of Walter Early and his show will run concurrently with mine. I do like the postcard Esther created. She found two works by two very different artists that share the word “star” in their titles. Our exhibitions will open during the upcoming week and if you happen to be in the area. Please do stop by and check out our art shows. Richmond is about 22 miles past Lexington, KY or about an hour and 45 minute drive from Louisville. Here is the reverse of the card that gives other particulars about the opening reception and run of the show.

As you can see, my show is called “Albertus Gorman: Artist from Exit 0”. For all the work I’ve done at the river, I still identify very much with the “Exit 0” sense for place and the slightly existential “feel” that it implies to me. So much of my river art has been located in that interstitial area between the natural and artificial, between water and solid land, and between my own despair for the continued environmental degradation I experience in the park and the hope and optimism I want to feel as a human being rooted in the physical world. So what am I going to present in this newest exhibition?

Like many artists, I have the world’s greatest collection of my own artwork…or at least the pieces I’ve bothered to save from the river. Like many artists, I tend to keep moving forward making new stuff which means that many pieces exist that may have been shown only once or not at all. Of course, that is a big shame because different contexts bring out different qualities in the individual works and potential relationships that exist with the other pieces on exhibit.

Here are a few more artworks I have “staged” prior to loading them in a cargo van. I have many figurative Styrofoam sculptures that I have never shown in exhibition contexts. In the above image, you can see my latest piece which continues the work I have been doing with found plastic containers. I built a wall-mounted shelf from river-gifted wood and arranged the colorful plastic containers that I have also scavenged off the riverbank. The individual bottles have Velcro on their bottoms to help secure them onto their narrow shelf. A length of twine is there to help keep the bottles together while in transport.

All of these Styro-sculptures have stories associated with them and I remember them like old friends! This blog is their genealogical source recording their creation, their “lives” as art objects, and in some cases…even their demise.

I have five new works that were created specifically for this show. Three of them are larger photo enlargements I have had made that show works I created in the contexts of their river environments. For now, I will let Esther work her magic and I will post other images from the completed installation. I also have one other project going on that I have remained mum about so far. As you might remember, the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center has been closed for renovation as they upgrade their displays? Well, they have contracted with me to create an assemblage on a roughly 8 foot by 4 foot wooden panel showing some of the river junk I have collected within the park. I am really excited by this since this panel will be a part of their new presentation and will be the last panel seen as you exit the new displays. Thousands of people (many school tours) will get a chance to see this piece which will document many of the things that you can unfortunately find in the Ohio River. This panel is due soon and I have a lot of work left to do on it. Once completed, it will slide into a vertical case with a sheet of plexiglas with some text elements on it to help explain, cover, and protect it. It has already gone through several permutations, but for the moment, I will show just a few images taken of it in progress. Here are images from Phase 1.

As you can tell, this can go in a lot of different directions because of the wealth of materials available. All the stuff going onto this panel will have been collected within the Falls of the Ohio State Park. There is no need to go anywhere else! I want it to be as authentic as possible in so far as representing the kinds of stuff you can find floating in the Ohio River. Since these images were made, Solidlight (the Louisville-based company creating the new Interpretive Center displays) has suggested some changes. They want to see more driftwood used as a unifying element which should be easy enough to do. I hope, however, that they will appreciate that people will be just as interested in the variety of crap I’ve collected as well and not settle for a cross-section of materials that can be found at the water’s edge. To see that, a visitor simply needs to go down to the river to experience that already in place. My good friend, sculptor Tom Butsch is letting me use his studio to construct this. My own space at home is simply not large enough to accommodate this. A couple more pictures before ending.

A river found barge cable and section from a set of stairs are big individual elements going onto this panel. I keep playing around with different compositions. The trick for me is in keeping it more informal. My impulse as an artist is to want to order this in some more formal way. I will let you know how all this turns out. I have an early October deadline, so this panel will be my focus for the next few weeks. Until then…and from the banks of the Ohio River…see you next time.

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Rare Sandpiper at the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, birding, creativity, environmental art, found materials, Found objects, material culture, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, photography, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged accidental bird, Art, artist at exit 0, birds, Devonian fossil beds, Falls of the Ohio State Park, found art, material culture, Monarch butterfly, nature, photography, rare sandpiper, sense of place, site specific artwork, Styrofoam, the natural and the artificial on August 25, 2015| 4 Comments »

Once a year, usually in mid to late summer, the dam is closed and the water retreats off of and exposes the ancient Devonian fossil beds. It is an other worldly landscape of blonde-colored rocks that preserves in limestone the proof that life existed over 400 million years ago. This exact place during that time too ancient to imagine was in the latitude of the present day Bahama Islands. Then it is was a marine reef supporting early salt water animals, most especially a large variety of corals. Today, this is a fresh water environment defined by the Ohio River. My goal is to cross over to the Kentucky side (where the majority of the fossil beds are located) by wading through the shallower areas near the tainter gates. Unfortunately, and unforseen by me, all the recent high water has made the riverbank a slippery muddy mess and the current that is allowed to flow through a channel by the dam is still too strong to wade through. I got almost half way across and found the footing treacherous. I didn’t fear for my personal safety, but I didn’t want to risk dunking my camera and phone in the water. Thwarted today, I will need to make better provisions for that the next time I attempt this.

So, I did the next best thing which was to explore the riverbank and nearby Willow Habitat. The resident colony of Black Vultures was hanging out under what shade some of these willow trees could provide. The bird in the above image is a sentry maintaining its post outside of where the main group of birds were resting under the nearby trees. The vulture flock doesn’t seem as large as it has been in the recent past. Perhaps the prolonged conditions of having a high river forced some of these large birds of prey to seek greener pastures? The vultures would allow me to only get so close before jumping into the air in search of thermals to lift them even higher. I continued my modified trip by walking towards the fossil cliffs below the Interpretive Center.

It was a very hot day and in places you would come across areas that were once very wet and had dried revealing a wonderful network of cracks.

I’m proud of myself. In addition to wearing a cap…I made sure to bring along plenty of drinking water on this very hot and humid day. Here my bottle is wrapped in a heavy mil plastic bagel bag. I used this to keep the other items in my pack dry just in case this bottle leaked. I continued my hike to the fossil cliffs when I could see something snow-white in color moving along the ground. At first I thought this was a piece of paper disturbed by the breeze, but soon noticed it was moving in bird-like fashion. I continued approaching very carefully yet deliberately and had my cameras at the ready. Here is my first image of what would soon be many.

Switching over to higher magnification, I could see my new bird was a species I had never encountered out here before. In the comfort of my own home I was able to identify this little guy as the Yellow-collared Sandpiper (Caladris fascinati). This is a tiny shorebird more at home in the Pacific Northwest and has rarely been recorded east of the Mississippi River. This is the first recorded instance of this bird at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. So, what was it doing here so far away from home?

It is not unusual for this park to record rarities during the migration seasons in early spring and autumn. To see this bird here outside the normal times shorebirds would be migrating through our area makes me think this bird is here by accident. Perhaps one of the monster storms we have experienced this year blew this little one way off course? Looking at my reference guides, I identified this as being a juvenile of the species. You can tell that by the pink bill. Once fully mature, the bill turns dark, nearly black in color. I have recorded other juvenile shorebirds migrating through the park on other Falls of the Ohio adventures. In particular, I remember seeing juvenile Golden Plovers and once…even saw a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher. What makes these sightings all the more incredible for me is knowing that a few short weeks ago…these birds were beginning life as eggs in shallow nests located in the high Arctic tundra. Normally, the Yellow-collared Sandpiper migrates down the Pacific coastline of the United States, crosses into Mexico, and winters in Central America. This is a journey of several thousand miles.

I observed this bird for about a half hour or so. I watched it feeding around the margins of small pools of water that had puddled on the fossil beds. It used its pink bill to probe the soft mud in search of the tiny invertebrates that make up the bulk of its diet. The bird seemed not to be concerned about me and I took many photographs to document its presence in the park.

The mouse-like bird moved like a wind-up toy on the fossil rocks. When it moved, its tiny legs seemed to be going as quickly as they could. The sandpiper had a curiosity for the world and checked out every clump of vegetation and crack upon the limestone surface as potential sources for food. Perhaps it was the hawk that flew high over our heads casting a fast shadow upon these ancient reefs that scared it away or perhaps it just grew tired of my company…regardless, the Yellow-collared Sandpiper flew away in a blur of brown wings. I thought I could detect a high “peep” call note as it went skyward. Heading back to my vehicle, I had one more pleasant surprise in store for me. While this is not on par for rarity, seeing the beginning of the Monarch butterfly migration going through our small piece of the planet is still an awesome occasion. Like the Yellow-collared Sandpiper, the Monarch butterfly has a very impressive migration of its own as it moves from Canada to Mexico and back again. On my way home, I said a little prayer asking for the continued safety of all the small things moving through the world. I guess that’s it for this time at the Falls of the Ohio.

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Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, material culture, Ohio River, photography, plastic, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, assemblage art, colorful plastic, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, found objects, nature, photography, plastic, recycled art, repurposed art, sense of place, site specific art on August 16, 2015| 2 Comments »

Hot, sticky, and the humidity had me sweating the moment I entered the park. Today’s outing seemed more like an extreme sport than an attempt at art making. I decided to focus my efforts in the western section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. I knew the recent flooding we had experienced would more than likely deposit a lot of junk and debris along the driftwood cluttered shoreline. I was right about that, but first I had to “earn it”. To access the shoreline in this area of the park required going over, under, and around large trees that had either blown over by high winds or were undermined by the soil being washed away from the riverbank.

One thing I noticed being in this section of the park…was that all the purple loosestrife seemed to be gone. Normally, one can expect to find a whole host of butterfly and other insect species sipping nectar from the colorful flowers. On this expedition, I did not see one bloom from this admittedly invasive species. I think the Ohio River’s recent bouts of high water must have affected them? I find this somewhat unusual since I associate them with growing in very damp areas. Perhaps in their case, too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing? I will do some research to see if my hunch is true. Regardless of no purple loosestrife, there were plenty of vines to snag and trip over making the footing tricky…as if the soft mud and irregular surfaces of the driftwood weren’t enough of a challenge!

With the hot sun beating on me, I faithfully search the riverbank and collected the colorful discarded items that were first “gifted” to the river and then to me. Walking from one promising area to another…I found enough plastic junk to make my next site specific piece. Here’s another look at some of the objects that I found on this day.

The really bright and colorful plastic objects virtually scream at you when you bother to pay attention. Otherwise, it’s all just part of the material crap we create and dispose of indiscriminately. Maybe because I’m looking for this kind of thing…I see it more easily. I’ve trained my eye to spot the unnatural colors mixed among the gray and brown tones of the driftwood. I decided to set up a display in a particularly promising area between two debris fields that was also close to the river. I looked around and gathered some old milled boards and set them up on short, cut logs and before long had a table-like altar to lay my plastic treasures upon. Following are several looks at the completed work.

Here’s a view from behind the piece. You can see other bottles and junk mixed into the driftwood in the foreground. I set this piece up on an area of cracked and drying river mud.

Now a view from the front. I placed this work here to take advantage of the sunlight which was beginning to set in the late afternoon. I also wanted the verdant darkness behind all the colors to help create greater contrast. There are three tiers of boards that I used for this display. As is usual, I found less of some colors and more of others. In this instance, I could have used a few more orange plastic objects, but just one small plastic bottle was all I found this time.

In the late afternoon, all the various colors in this plastic are energized by the sun’s electromagnetic spectrum which causes this junk to glow. It’s the “golden hour” and one of my favorite times of day for its ability to infuse and unify the everyday with magic. I have stayed out on the river far longer than I first anticipated. The gnats and mosquitoes have had their way with me. Plus all my granola bars for energy have been consumed and my water ran out a couple of hours a go.

I’m fading fast and still have a long hike to make. All the obstacles that were there on the way in will also be there on the way out of the park. I took one last look back at my most recent project and decide that it is the best I can do at this particular moment. I’m calling this one, the “Park West Petrochemical Rainbow” so I can remember what section of the park I visited when I assembled this piece. I picked up my collecting bag and walking stick and made sure I wasn’t leaving something I might need behind me. The rest is one foot in front of the other. I let the fading beauty of the light distract me from my discomforts. Food, water, and a nice shower are waiting for me at the end of the line. See you later from the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

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Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature photography, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, photography, plastic, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, assemblage art, coconut, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, material culture, nature, photography, plastic, plastic bottles, repurposed art, sense of place on August 9, 2015| 5 Comments »

Eventually, the water does go back down and reveals after the fact, all the newest changes that the river has made in the park. You saw part of that in my last post with the way one favorite willow tree has been shaped by this latest event. In many places in the park, you can find logs that floated here from some potentially far away places.

Just a few weeks earlier, I posted images of Asian carp jumping over this very same spot. The walls of the dam were no obstacle then. Now the dam has been “graced” with many logs that were stranded along the top. They will stay here until the next flooding event or until something else shifts the balance.

Because this is summer and we have experienced so much rain, all the vegetation is really lush. Familiar paths are overgrown and the heat and humidity seem trapped at ground level. I am completely sweaty in no time at all. I went and checked out the green bottle piece I had made many weeks a go and it is still relatively in place. I assembled it on top of a large driftwood mound that this latest bout of high water was unable to fully reach. I can tell that the mound has shifted some and all of the bottles have settled within the upturned boat dock. Now, the entire mound is covered in vines. This makes it especially tricky to walk over. I snapped a few pictures and moved to the safety of the riverbank. There are lots of areas to explore and who knows what we shall find?

Slogging through the mud and wetness along the river’s edge, I make this amazing discovery. It’s a River coconut! I wonder what the tree that produced this hairy fruit looks like? Since much of the water that reaches us here flows from the north downward, I imagine that this is one hardy tree. I guess the coconut’s shagginess is a coping mechanism for cold winters? As we walk, there are more discoveries to be made.

Further down the riverbank I encounter this object. I am holding it as I am because initially, I thought this was an extra-large toy wristwatch minus the hands and numbers. Since I have been able to examine it more closely from the leisure of my home…I am now thinking that this is a child’s pro wrestling inspired championship belt? All the glued on rhinestones must have fallen off while the river carried it away from wherever it originated from.

Walking further west…I discover the remains of a riding toy. This is a blue plastic dolphin that came to rest in the Willow Habitat. There are more plastic items to find. Next was perhaps my favorite find of the day.

This is so small, that I’m surprised I spotted it among all the other small items both natural and artificial. It’s of course a plastic doll shoe, but this one has a nice patina acquired from being in the river for a while. I still find many dolls and doll parts, but this little doll accessory is a rare find. Unfortunately, there is also plenty of other plastic in the park that isn’t so hard to find. Here’s one such example as I found it in place.

Three plastic bottles and containers rest in a pretty disgusting looking puddle. The orange color is actually something I find occurring here naturally and may be due to some red oxide that exists below the many levels of clay and sand. Of late, I have been collecting various plastic bottles and creating other site specific pieces with them. On this particular day, I made a relatively small one due to time constraints. I have often found that it is good to have some limits with this river art. Simply, there are so many things one can work with and I have added to my vocabulary of forms and materials slowly over the years.

Like some of my previous efforts, I chose a particularly promising area that seemed to have a “wealth” of plastic bottles and containers. I then set out to find colorful examples to make an assemblage with. I like contrasting the high artificiality of these bright objects with the more subdued organic efforts of Mother Nature. The high-keyed colors are often cheery. I think that even on a subconscious level, we recognize the former products that were in these bottles even without their original labels which have washed away. From our own household experiences and uses, we are reassured by the soap that will clean our clothes or the oil that keeps our engines humming and in good condition. That’s where the tension lies in these simple assemblages…we know that this is far from the case. Since we now know that these containers and the products they once held were extracted from nature at great cost. In the aftermath of use…that cost continues as the packaging is disposed of irresponsibly. This particular artwork is heavy on the black which influences things as well. I simply found more black containers on this day and used them. After a few photographs, I picked up my collecting bags and headed home exhausted from slogging through the mud, heat, and humidity. I’ll leave this post with one more view from the Indiana side of the Ohio River. On the way home, I noticed a small flock of Canada Geese gliding past the skyline of Louisville and the river seemed at peace for the moment. Catch you later from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Willow Portrait

Posted in art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, Falls of the Ohio, Ohio River flooding, Photograpy, repurposed materials, sense of place, Site specific art, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, black willow, Falls of the Ohio, giant necklace, nature photography, Ohio River flooding, sense of place, site specific installations, tree portraits, willow trees on July 31, 2015| 3 Comments »

Last weekend I visited an old friend and was shocked by the state that I found it in. In this case, my friend is a favorite Black Willow tree (Salix nigra) that grows within the Willow Habitat in the eastern section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. We have just come out of a particularly wet June and July that saw the area this tree grows in being mostly underwater. Record amounts of rainfall have kept me on the very fringes of an encroaching Ohio River. Of course, I rushed back into the park when opportunity presented itself and things looked like they were returning to “normal”. Usually, lots of water is something that willow trees can appreciate. In this case, however, the willow trees near the old railroad bridge were submerged twice this year by the flood waters. In addition, floating and semi-submerged logs batter the stationary trees when strong currents push against them. Spreading willow roots do their best to maintain their hold upon the land. To add injury to insult, receding river levels often strand their floating driftwood loads in what’s left of the branches and crowns of these willow trees. The weight of this wood is a big burden which then further shapes the living willows. This is what happened to my friend. I found the formerly nice arc of its main branches and trunk now growing nearly horizontally with the ground. I decided to put together this post of images of this particular tree to see if I could detect other changes over the years.

Looking through thousands of images, I found this shot from November of 2010. Looks to be a cold morning. I’m not certain when this particular tree caught my attention, but it must have been around this time. I’m sure, however, that the processes that shape these trees were already at work. I can imagine this willow growing straight and tall if circumstances were different.

The next image dates to early June of 2011. This is the same tree with its long, narrow, and slightly saw-toothed edged leaves out in full. Already you can see an impressive and exposed root mass anchoring this tree in position.

Here’s an image from March of 2012 showing water encroaching upon our willow tree. I wonder how large the root mass actually is that keeps this tree alive in what seems an unpromising place?

A month later, April 2012, and the waters have returned to their seasonable pool and the tree is beginning to leaf out. From the way the three main trunks of the tree are all leaning west…I suspect that the weight of deposited driftwood? helped “train” the tree to grow in this position.

September 2012 and the leaves are beginning to show hints of autumn yellow. Soon the willow will drop all of its leaves which will eventually gather around the base of this tree.

Two shots of one of my favorite Falls projects. For over ten years I had been collecting the hard, yellow foam cores of contemporary soft balls that wash into the park minus their leather coverings. I decided to make a large necklace from my special river pearls that I named “La Belle Riviere” or The Beautiful River which was the name the French missionaries gave the Ohio River very early during its exploration. I posed my “necklace” and photographed it in many different places and positions. The images I made while it graced this willow tree were among the best.

The following images are from 2014. This one was taken in June. And, the following two are from August of the same year.

Now for some winter images. These more stark pictures were taken during February of 2015. We had some decent snow falls this year. I like getting a good variety of images showing the park during all the seasons.

That leads us to my most recent photographs. For parts of June and a lot of July, this tree was submerged from view. I never did get a good look at it with the driftwood that rafted onto it.

The willow tree has bent completely over and is “resting” on some of its branches. The tree is still in leaf, but turning more yellow, (perhaps due to all the stress it has endured?) So far, this tree has been a survivor and I hope that it can somehow “bounce back” from this turn of events. We shall see. I will make a special attempt to record what happens to this tree from here on out. I will close this post and the month of July with one last image of this remarkable willow tree. Until next time…from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Archive for the ‘Artist at Exit 0’ Category

Thanksgiving Encounter at the Falls of the Ohio

Trick or Treat River Finds

Green Bottles Revisited

Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center Panel

Artist at Exit 0 at E.K.U.

It’s September and Current Projects

Rare Sandpiper at the Falls of the Ohio

Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

Willow Portrait

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