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Skater

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, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Not much remains of the season’s first snow at the Falls of the Ohio…except for these images.  I shot these last weekend as well as another figure that I’m unveiling today.  I call him (or her?) the Skater and originally posed this figure on ice before moving on to investigate other locations.

Skater’s head is made from some odd bit of insulating material covered in black paper.  The facial features join a variety of materials including found plastic, wood, a clam shell, and a small acorn.  I had to chip a tiny hole in the ice in order for this figure to stand up.  I zigged-zagged across the park imagining this small guy visiting the sights with me.  Here are a few of the other scenes we came across.

I’m always on the look out for bird life.  During this time of the year duck watching can be very productive.  Although on this day, all I came across were these Mallards, it’s not unusual to see during winter other species including Common Goldeneyes, White-winged Scoters, and Canvasbacks.  Ring-billed Gulls, Great Blue Herons, Carolina Wrens, Song Sparrows, Canada Geese, and Northern Cardinals were among the other year-round residents seen on this day.

The temperatures are somewhere in the high teens, but luckily there is no wind to really make things cold!  After checking out the water’s edge with its ice formations, I moved back inland to check on my studio site and the few sculptures that are still in place.  Skater trudged along with me to say hello.

Among the past projects we came across were Pot Belly and Cross-legged Lorraine holding their positions.  Since the really cold weather, there haven’t been as many people out here to potentially mess with them.  A quick look around the snow didn’t show any human footprints.  There were, however, loads of various kinds of animal tracks now generalized by the elements.  Next I visited my Styrofoam cache, but couldn’t see much of it due to the snow.  Three figures from this past year were still on guard.

After a couple hours, I started to get hungry and the thought of a fresh cup of coffee seemed blissful.  I headed back to my car enjoying the sound of icy snow underfoot.  Skater decided to stay at the outdoor studio and I went ahead without him (or her).  I walked past that mysterious object that my son Adam dubbed in the spring, “…that giant plug at the bottom of the river”.  It will take a mighty flood to float this thing away.  I wonder who will eventually inherit it?

I still have some nice ice images to share with you from this day and perhaps I will put that post together in a day or so.  As I was walking home, I saw this object sticking out of the snow and it amused me and so, I’ll end this winterland adventure with it.  Might go good with coffee and pie!

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To Build a Fire

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, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , on January 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

The snow we had several days a go hung on over the weekend.  It’s still cold, but that is due to change as temperatures begin to climb again this week.  Experiencing the Falls of the Ohio during these conditions is one of my favorite things to do because the landscape is transformed so evocatively.  The snow changes sound quality.  I feel as though I hear things better.  Even the notion of time seems different, but that’s harder to explain.  It is more of a feeling of rearranged priorities and participating in something elemental and ancient.  Fewer people are out and the park feels like it’s mine.  I have materials in my collecting bag and I’m going to make something today.

Near the river’s edge the ice formations are wonderful.  I spent a good part of my visit just admiring the many shapes that frozen water can take and the way it can bend light.  I took many photographs and plan a future post on just ice formations.  The willow trees serve as armatures for the ice to build upon.  Mist generated from the constantly moving and warmer water from the river seems to coat the willows in successive layers of ice that get bigger and bigger the longer the days stay below freezing.  Ice stalactites and stalagmites, frozen candlelabras, and what I describe in my mind as ice sausages, candles, and ribbons hang from the delicately thin branches of the willows.  Everything seems dipped and coated in glass.

Because the snow is covering up my usual sources of Styrofoam, I reach into the old collecting bag and begin the first of two figures I made on this day.  I usually start by matching shapes.  For example, this hunk of Styrofoam seems like it would make a good head to go on this chunk of Styrofoam which will serve as the body.  I look for expressive sticks or branches that will become the limbs.  I also spend more time on the details of the head since it will act as a focal point.  On this figure, the eyes are pieces of river-shaped coal, the ears are wood chips, the mouth is the cap from some tube of something, the nose is off of a fishing bobber. I topped him off with a plastic toy element I found that features what looks like a man blowing air from his mouth.  I imagine he’s a zephyr or old man winter.

As beautiful as these conditions can be…there is also a very real hint of danger.  You don’t want to get wet.  I remember last year stepping through the ice of a snow-covered puddle that was maybe 8 inches deep.  There was that initial rush of incredible cold followed by a painful, burning sensation!  I immediately started walking back to my vehicle and by the time I reached it, my shoes and the lower part of my trousers were frozen solid.  My feet, however, felt oddly warm, but I didn’t want to take any chances with frost bite.  I took a nice shower and changed clothes once I reached home just six miles away over the 2nd Street Bridge.

When I was a boy, one of the short stories that impressed me for its realism was Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”.  It’s a winter tale of life stripped bare to its essentials.  For me, it was an early inkling of what I would perceive as nature’s indifference towards man.  I remember the character in the story who also became wet,  struggling valiantly to build his fire to warm his frozen body, and just when he was on the verge of success, falling snow from an overhead tree limb dooms him, his fire, and the last of his matches.  Back in grade school, reading stories about people who didn’t make it seemed especially profound on my impressionable mind.

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Frozen Ropes

Posted in art and environment, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, unusual collection, watershed, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

From the world of sports, have you ever heard the expression describing an accurately thrown ball as being a “frozen rope”?  I believe that means it was hurled in as straight a line as possible?  I know in the old days, that to make rope, often a space designated as a “rope walk” was necessary to braid the individual strands together.  In New Harmony, Indiana ( one of my favorite places and the site of two 19th century utopian community attempts) a rope walk is preserved.  On a recent walk around the Falls, I came across several frozen lengths of rope, photographed them, and now I’m splicing them together in this post.  While being frozen, none of them was found in a straight line.  The first rope, pictured above, is your average clothes-line quality rope.  There is something interesting to me, about how the rope meanders from solid water and back out into the air.  Then again, I’ve been accused of finding something interesting about nearly everything!

Frozen rope #2 was located stuck to the riverbank.  It’s a relic from the last bit of high water we had.  On many instances of visiting the park, I will come across something or group of somethings that then become a theme for that day.  So it was with these ropes.  While pursuing other interests, these ropes inserted themselves into the day.  And now, frozen rope #3.

This bit of barge cable is wound around the base of a small willow tree.  Unless someone removes it from this context, it will slowly unravel over the years.  Or, as I showed in my last post about bird nests, it might disappear strand by strand and become something else!  I like the ice formations on the right.  Here’s another ice shot I think looks like a miniature set design.

More willows have snagged a bit of plastic netting and I like the way the grid affects the way the ice looks.  It appears that ice and cold will be on the agenda for the near future.  The temperatures are in the single digits, but I’m hoping to go out tomorrow to experience a place I love during one of its extremes.  One last ice shot to go.  Stay warm everybody.

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Another Synthetic Nest

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, birding, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, tagged , , , , on January 7, 2010| 7 Comments »

On my last expedition to the Falls, I spotted this oddity about twenty feet off the ground on a terminal branch of a cottonwood tree.  I had a feeling I knew what this is, but clicked-off a couple more close-ups for more information.  The day was very cold, but bright and clear.

I believe this to be a hanging basket nest from a Northern or Baltimore Oriole.  I had seen one other similar nest years ago at the Falls that incorporated waste fishing line and long-stemmed grass.  This one is different in that it is made mostly from synthetic fibers teased out of a discarded barge cable along with fishing line.  These cables are very large, thick ropes that are used to tie-off and secure the barges used in commercial river traffic.  Here is a recent picture of just such a cable that was lost and wound around willow roots.  This one has blue and yellow fibers instead of orange like the oriole’s nest has.

As these ropes slowly break down, it’s interesting to think of nest-building birds preferring to use this material as opposed to strictly natural ones.  I know of other birds (more in an urban environment) that will use other bits of artificial litter in their nests.  A month or so a go in the western section of the park I came across another synthetic nest created by a different species and featured that in a post about rare birds.  Here is that nest reproduced again along with a close-up of the oriole’s nest.

Since a nest made of these materials will last longer…I’m wondering if the oriole or another bird will attempt to reuse it?  I will have to wait until spring to find that out.

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The Arctic Hummingbird

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

 

When the coldest of the cold air drops down from the frozen north, spreads over Canada, and then plunges down upon the U.S.A., then sights rarely seen may be glimpsed at the Falls of the Ohio.  Riding the cold wave, small groups of Arctic Hummingbirds move south to feed upon the Ice Blossoms.

Styro-Trochilae polystyrenus or the Arctic hummingbird is among nature’s most extraordinary and poorly studied birds.  Much of that has to do with the forbidding place that this creature calls home.  There is speculation that this hummingbird must be able to regulate its body temperature in the manner of other Trochilidae in order to live in such a cold environment.  Perhaps, its rarity is due to remaining hidden during its torpid state which might define most of its existence?  Hummingbird metabolism has always been amazing, but for this species to go from nearly zero heartbeats to a thousand a minute when active defies credulity!

I came across this beauty and through high-speed photography was able to steal these images of this bird with its bright orange bill feeding.  It is thought that the Ice Blossoms refract the energy of the sun and transmits that into a form of “solar nectar”.  The bird would need an energy source as unique as it is to exist!  The conditions at the Falls were just right this past weekend to bring out both the bird and its blossom.

There is very little more I can add to the known literature on this ornithological wonder. This species is larger than the more familiar Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but didn’t seem to beat its wings as rapidly.  I did observe it flying backwards.   It seemed like I watched this bird for a long time, but in reality,  it was probably a couple minutes or so.  I can say that being in the moment made time stand still.  I wonder as the climate changes particularly in the Arctic, whether this hummingbird will share the same fate as other animals that have evolved in such a specialized place?  With hope, the Arctic Hummingbird will prove to have some resilience.  One last image of this bird feeding from a blossom near a piece of fiberglass that was caught in the branches of a tree.

Epilogue:  The Arctic Hummingbird was made from materials found on site at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  The materials include:  Styrofoam, plastic, wood bark, coal, its beak is a combo of hypodermic needle cover and the tine from an old comb.  The Ice Blossom is Styrofoam,  river-polished glass, and wire.   All images by the author and shot at the Falls of the Ohio.

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Nature Calling

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, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , on January 2, 2010| 3 Comments »

At the beginning of the New Year, I was warm and cozy and in no hurry to do anything.  And then, the telephone rang.  Through my hand set I could hear the sound of the river and the wind blowing through the tree limbs.  After dressing, I grabbed one of my collecting bags and my camera and I jumped into my car.  By now, my family knows I’m crazy, I know I’m crazy, and so little is said of the matter of my leaving anymore.  I’m pretty well bundled up since it’s somewhere in the high teens on this first day of 2010.

It may be cold, but at least the sun is out and this has an enormous cheering effect on me.  I decided to check out a place that I don’t investigate as often, the riverbank just east of the dam and bridge.  The prevailing winds and currents do push materials along this shoreline, some of which beach here until the next flooding.  Among the many items I found this morning include an especially large and nicely shaped hunk of Styrofoam.  I set it on end and took a photograph of this polystyrene stelae with the river and bridge.  Even I have  a hard time guessing how big this hunk looks in the photograph and so I dragged it back to my car and created this other image!

Well, here’s the crazy part I alluded to earlier.  I decided to take this big piece home and amazingly, it just fit across the back seat of my Honda Civic.  I have other materials cached at home in our incredibly  shrinking basement.  As of now, I don’t have a particular idea for it, but it will come.  After wrestling with the Styrofoam block, I drove to my usual spot to check out the scene from there and to see how older works were faring.

There was a lot more ice just downriver from the dam and coated the willows closest to the water.  There is also more wind and turbulence which I can feel on the exposed areas on my face.  It’s not quite “Elmer Fudd” hat weather, but very close.  I reserve that unflattering head-gear for temps below zero.  The television weather prophets are saying my area will be chilling in the twenties for highs the rest of the week.  With hope, this will be the coldest it gets this year.  Last year’s winter, with the great exception of the infamous ice storm, was a comparatively easy and warm one.

I looked up two old friends and they were still hanging in there.  Lorraine had slumped over, but it was easy to prop her back up to join her beau, Pot Belly in standing guard over my spot under the willows.  I wandered around and very few birds were to be seen or expected.  I did run into a small grouping of drabbly-plumed American Goldfinches and stray Song Sparrows and Mallard ducks.  Oh, I did photograph a rare hummingbird and came across another interesting nest, however, in the interest of future posts…I will withhold those for now, but check back later this week.  I did come across one other image I recorded that is a bit more ironic than unusual and is not intended to be an endorsement of this product.  I like my beer with a lot more body, and flavor, etc… Happy New Year everybody!

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A Close Call

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , on December 24, 2009| 8 Comments »

The Ohio River rose and just as quickly receded.  Logs were left to dangle on top of the dam’s walls stranded there by the retreating waters.  Along the shoreline, new deposits of driftwood are laid out in parallel rows and tell a story of where this wooden wave crashed before relenting.

I’m always amazed at how quickly the water backs down.  Higher on shore, you will find where most of the bigger logs and limbs were trapped.  And, as the river draws back into its deeper channels, the lighter flotsam that was able to ride the waves is deposited about mid-bank in a debris field that features a lot of plastic.

As high water events go…this one was very mild.  I had no real idea how high the water would go when I blogged about the rising river.  A few more feet up the bank and the water would have reached my spot.  Here’s a shot showing the extant of the flooding.  Look at the color of the wood for the clue.  All the newest material is blondish-brown in color, while the older wood has had a chance to oxidize a greyish color from the summer sun.

This time I was lucky and my collection of Styrofoam and sculptures remained in place.  I checked out Pot Belly and Lorraine and they were pretty much as I left them with the exception of one detail.  Someone gave Lorraine a penis!  I guess they didn’t know she’s a lady…I guess you would have had to read my mind on that one since I didn’t provide any other clues as to their gender.  Most of the time that doesn’t strike me as being important in these pieces.  Here again is the happy couple high and dry.

I did make a quick, newer figure from the latest Ohio River junk.  My inspiration for this guy came from the green hand that says “Clap for the Lord”.  He isn’t a particularly handsome guy, but I am thankful that my site didn’t get washed away this time.  I don’t think I was ready to let it go especially when I still had so much material to use.

Just a few days a go, much of the northern and eastern sections of the U.S. were buried under heavy snow.  When that eventually melts, it will swell the streams, and creeks that are a part of the Ohio River’s watershed.  When that happens the river will rise here again.  How far it will get this time is uncertain.  It’s now officially winter and periodic flooding has been known to happen.  I know in my heart of hearts that the river will swallow up my studio site and I will have to establish a new base.  At least, I will have the consolation of discovering what the river has left behind.

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Ornaments Along the Ohio River

Posted in Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , on December 20, 2009| 1 Comment »

For the last four years I have been making images and objects for the holiday season from Falls of the Ohio materials.  How would you like to wake up on Christmas morning and find salvaged Styrofoam under or on the tree?  I would wager it wouldn’t be on the top of many people’s lists…but I have been surprised before.  The cards, however, seem to find a wider audience and I like the whole writing a note and actually putting a stamp on an envelope and trusting that it will arrive to whom it is intended kind of thing.  Placing pen to paper is also a more intimate and personal experience and something working online can’t duplicate in the same way.

The first several series of holiday images were figural.  About two years ago, I started making “abstract” ornaments from found materials and “posing” or “decorating” parts of this Falls of the Ohio landscape and photographing the result. The trees in this landscape are just as worthy of aesthetic consideration as the one you may select for your parlor.   The picture above is an image of ornaments I made that are decorating a sycamore branch.  A buffalo trace once existed in historic times not too far away from this view.

Two views of two separate ornaments.  I call these forms  “Ice Blossoms” and they are made with found Styrofoam and river-polished glass.  Many of these round foam forms were originally Christmas ornaments to begin with and I have rehabilitated them to their original purpose.  The glass,  I find along the riverbank.  It’s mostly bottle glass.  The interaction between river and sand polishes away the sharp edges and creates the “frosty” appearance. Also,  some of the foam balls I use were originally fishing bobbers…they are smaller and usually have some flourescent color on them.  I add an eyehook (if necessary) and found wire to finish them.

The ornaments work on a number of levels.  Some seem to emulate seed pods while others have an animal aggressiveness to them.  Photographing them against the fossil beds that were once a primordial marine environment, brings out their urchin-like aspects.  Can you imagine some of them creeping across the floor of an ancient ocean?  I can also “see” these being the  crystals of some strange silica-based mineral.  What do you see?

Locating these baubles  in different contexts is a way of interpreting the “sense of place” I feel is important about the Falls of the Ohio.  I never tire of seeing this spot as being one of the unique intersections of time and space in the history of life.  What I’m doing here continues that tradition in an albeit more modest way.  While the past is a big part of what this place was…it is, however, still very much alive in the present and moving on.

Currently, there isn’t much that’s still green around here.  I did, however, find this prickly briar vine and thought it was a good way to show off two bobber-type ornaments.  After I make the images, send-off the cards, I still have the ornaments themselves to give away as gifts.  Doing this puts me into the “spirit of the season” more than just about anything else.  That and staring at Christmas lights!  Here’s hoping everyone out there has a safe, peaceful, and meaningful holiday!

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Styro-Santa Images

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

With ten days to go until the big event, I thought I would share some of the images I’m using on my holiday cards.  Since I began my Falls of the Ohio project, I’ve tried to create a seasonal image out of the junk I’ve found here.  This year I have two series going.  The first features this tiny Santa figure I made and the second involves ornaments I made and photographed in this context.  I’ll show you the ornaments later, but for now….here’s Styro-Santa.

The first two images were shot on a nice day along the park’s Woodland Trail.  The path moves away from the interpretive center before looping back to the parking lot.  I started this piece by finding the bleached out Santa Claus head.  More than likely, this is off of some Christmas candy novelty.  I found the felt wreath, red plastic berry buttons, twigs, and Styrofoam and connected all the parts together.

I moved this small piece around to different contexts.  Here the figure is standing in brown and curling willow leaves.  This Santa is holding a diminutive plastic car.  I photographed this piece not far away from my studio site about two weeks ago.  The last time I visited the Falls,  the river was getting very high and I’m wondering if my spot was claimed by the waters? You can read my previous post for more details about that.

I suppose this picture was influenced somewhat by the whole Keebler Elves thing!  Many of the willow trees have these cave-like cavities at their bases that are perfect for pictures like this one.

This last Styro-Santa features a small, plastic baseball figure I found in the sand.  It too is posed among the driftwood and willow leaves.  Unless you know what the elements in these shots are…it can be difficult to judge their scale.  In this way, they can live large in your imaginations.  The decision to use polystyrene foam to construct a Santa figure seems appropriate on many levels.  For one, during the gift giving frenzy, a lot of this stuff will literally be thrown away.  Some of it may wind up in the river.  In my mind, Styrofoam has also come to embody much of what this holiday now represents…more mass and less substance.  In a way I wouldn’t have originally considered before starting this project, Styrofoam is a fitting symbol that captures the times we live in all too well.

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The River is Rising, the River is Rising!

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, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , on December 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

“The river is rising…the river is rising!!”  “All within the sound of my voice, hear me!”  “We may not have long to prepare before the water claims us.”

I visited the Falls last Saturday and indeed was surprised to see how high the river had risen.  The Army Corps of Engineers had let some of the water through the dams and this action, I figured, was a result of the rains that fell upriver hundreds of miles away?  The river had crept its closest to my studio spot since I established it back in the spring.  The Styrofoam that I had cached there became panicky and started organizing itself before the inevitable inundation.  The call about the river rising came from an especially large Styrofoam figure that I hadn’t seen before. 

“This could be it…this could be the big one.”  “All inhabitants of Styro-land make preparations.”  “Gather all things that are precious and can float away and seek higher ground.”  “Is there anybody out there that can hear me?”   

 In the background, the sound of logs crashing and rolling over each other in the waves made a particularly un-nerving grinding and squeaking sound.  Every once in a while a large pop would register as something wooden broke apart. 

“Is there anyone out there to harken to my call and needs help?” These words came from the figure I dubbed “Pot Belly” and I soon realized that he wasn’t alone.  At the edge of my vision, a figure moved.

“Dude, I’m here and what’s all the noise about?”  “Sounds like you need to take a chill-pill and relax.”  “The river rising is no big deal.”  “It’s happened a million times over thousands of years.”  “So, what could be that different this time around?”  This reply came from an equally large Styrofoam figure that was relaxing on a log and watching the waters inch closer by the moment.  I decided to give this figure the name of “Cross-legged Lorraine”…for obvious reasons.

Pot Belly then proceeded to tell Cross-legged Lorraine that unlike previous floods, this one was going to effect them directly.  This wasn’t a hypothetical scenario or some dim recollection from a by-gone day.  This is real.  Soon their bodies would get caught up in nature’s momentum and be carried away and altered in the process.  Whatever happens and wherever they may next wash ashore…they would be different.  For some, reaching the ocean would be one step closer as the river flows westward before reaching the Mississippi and it’s journey south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The realization of Pot Belly’s words could be read on Lorraine’s face.  I think the photograph I took of her conveys a little of the panic in the situation.

I watched as the two Styro-figures slowly walked to an area that was slightly higher in elevation.  Pot Belly lifted Lorraine onto an especially large log and that was where I left them.  I may or may not see them again and I suddenly felt sad.  I was the only human being around this day to witness this event.

Through the leafless trees, I could see the little area that I had made my temporary home for my flights of imagination this year.  I’m going to miss sitting on a familiar log with all this “potential” gathered around me. To all things there is a season and I know that the river will soon rearrange this spot as though I was never here.  All the materials I gathered will move along and perhaps I will recover some of it a little further down river.  Over time, the waters will deposit other materials and I will gather those too and make what I can make in this dynamic location.  I gave my studio site another good look and selected a few nice driftwood branches and walked away.  I can’t wait to see what happens next.

My thanks to my eight-year old son, Adam for his editorial advice.  He suggested that Lorraine should say “Yo, dude…” in her reply to Pot Belly, but I thought that sounded too skateboardish.

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