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Archive for the ‘Falls of the Ohio’ Category

Bonus Feature #301…How to Make a Styro-Bird

Posted in animal art works, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, Originality, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 2, 2012| 7 Comments »

I enjoy processes and since I had additional images relating to my last post…I thought I would throw them in for fun.  I also harbor this very idealistic idea that everyone is born creative…it’s just that most people don’t view themselves in this way which I believe is at the heart of our environmental dysfunction and a great shame.  Somehow we have replaced creating with consuming. The following images hopefully show that you can create magic out of nothing.  There isn’t anything technical happening here.  If you can do Mr. Potato Head than you have the basic idea behind creating this bird.  The materials are not manipulated greatly.  I like nature to form the shapes I use. The only carving involved is in cutting slots into the body to hold the wings.  I did shave away one wing to make it thinner. I did poke holes in the head for the eyes.  I shortened the willow roots for the legs and the beak is held in place with a wooden peg just as the head attaches with its own little stick which also helps the head to swivel. Now I know this sounds a bit flip, but the hard part is seeing the possibility behind something that’s intrinsically worthless and imagining what else this could be?  Looking at the following series of images at home, I’m struck by the altar quality of the log I have spread out my materials on at my temporary outdoor studio.  I do feel that being an artist is a reverential activity.  I like to think my “art” is somehow in the service of life.  I believe you will recognize most of the components of this bird, but they include Styrofoam, wood bark, dried willow rootlets, the plastic nose cone of a small bottle rocket, plastic and foam “gaskets”, and charcoal for the eyes.  All materials were found on site at the river.  I found the little bowl that morning and it’s great to hold the little pieces I use.  I’m not a great photographer in the classic sense in that I don’t concern myself greatly with exposures and settings.  My camera is set on automatic.  I do, however, try to create an interesting image or composition that “says” something to me about that day and this place.  Give it a try…it’s fun to do!

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Pop-A-Wheelie Collection

Posted in Absurd, Art, collections, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, Originality, recycled art, unusual collection, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2012| 6 Comments »

Frequent visitors to the old Riverblog may have noticed my penchant for posting images of wheels and tires that I find at the Falls of the Ohio.  Far too many automotive tires find their way into the river and many of them wash up here where they comprise omnipresent elements on the shoreline.  In addition to being more physical junk…they have also insinuated themselves into my imagination much as Styrofoam has.

When I see a wheel…I see an abstract portrait of our kind.  Through the cleverness of our minds we have invented such a simple device for first harnessing the power of nature to eventually “mastering” it.  It doesn’t surprise me to read that many experts consider the wheel to be our most important mechanical invention.  If you dispute this think beyond the ox cart and potter’s wheels…try imagining our world without gears, cogs, time pieces, jet engines, and the hard drive of your computer and more.

From what I’ve been able to find out, the wheel has been around for about five thousand years.  The oldest depictions come from Mesopotamia, but other cultures seem to have “simultaneously” invented the wheel too.  A lot depended upon domesticating draft animals to provide the power necessary to move a load.  In the New World…the ancient Olmecs knew of the wheel and used it on pull toys, but since they lacked draft animals their use of this invention was limited.  In more recent times, Industrialization and the harnessing of other energy sources has greatly and forever expanded the role that wheels play in our lives.  We have come a long way since the Neolithic.

Apart from objects, wheels also have other rich associations.  In many cultural contexts…wheels are also potent spiritual metaphors.  The Yin and Yang symbol can be thought of as a wheel.  The flag of India features a wheel which represents Dharma or the law.

The cyclical nature of things has me thinking about the changing of the seasons.  Spring is giving way to summer and it looks like our Memorial Day weekend is shaping up to be a beastly hot one.  Time is flying by.  Although I’m not a fan of auto racing, the annual tradition of the Indianapolis 500 is also set for this weekend.  I couldn’t help noticing that one of the symbols associated with this race track is a tire with wings!

When I go to the river, I bring a canvas collecting bag to store my finds.  I have more than one bag which I usually store on the front porch of my house to await later sorting.  As I have mentioned before…I have a very patient wife who with usual good humor, puts up with my obsessions!  It is this cycle of sorting through the junk that is the inspiration for this post and I had three full bags that had among other objects, toy wheels that have caught my eye.  I knew I had been picking them up of late, but hadn’t realized the collection I had formed until I laid them out.  With the exception of the odd skateboard wheel…my collection comes from toy trucks and vehicles where the heaviest load they have borne has come from the imaginations of children.  I like how they look visually and apart from that…I’m not sure what I will eventually do with them all!  Perhaps I will make some other metaphorical vehicle some day?

 

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White Stuff

Posted in Absurd, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 20, 2012| 5 Comments »

I’m back at the Falls of the Ohio and I can always count on finding different conditions or something new in the air…literally.  On this trip the willow trees were sending out their white fluffy seeds from their catkins.  In the low-lying areas in the sand or against some other barrier, the fluff accumulates into drifts like delicate dry snow.  Today the air is filled with this material as the willows express themselves.  I got used to seeing ghostly spots cross my vision.  Here is an image of where the fluff comes from.

At the river’s edge, more white stuff could be found washing ashore.  Unfortunately, this material is not as environmentally friendly as the willow’s product.  In several places I encountered thousands of tiny, soft, white, beads and I instantly recognized the source.

The white object on the right is a river-turned chunk of polystyrene.  Waves pounding the Styrofoam into the teeth of water born logs and the grinding of the Styrofoam into the sand at the river’s edge “sculpts” this material for me.  These mostly biomorphic forms are so hard-won by nature…that I feel a collaborative responsibility to not alter or impose my will upon them so much.  By shaping this material into organic shapes I “feel” the environment is curiously attempting to “humanize” the polystyrene by removing its rough edges.  Besides, I don’t want to free anymore of these white beads into the world if I can help it.  Here is another place I encountered where the freed polystyrene beads have run a muck.

And now, here are a few of the Styrofoam chunks I found this day followed by an image of where I store them until I can make use of them.

In the earliest days of my project, I can recall trying to fill up bags of this stuff for “proper” disposal.  It made me feel good that I was doing something environmentally friendly in the process.  Unfortunately, there is just too much Styrofoam in the world and places that I had picked up just became littered again with the next bout of high water and flooding.  That’s when it occurred to me that I could try to use this as an art making material.  If I could make something compelling enough…others might want to try to exercise their own creativity or help me out by taking the artwork home.  To some degree, I have been successful at this, but there simply is more garbage than people who care about what happens to it. At this point (soon to be nine years later) I’ve found that my own sense of aesthetics has changed greatly.  I’m from the old school that appreciates the narrative of art as it has developed with its various cultures, museums and landmark masterpieces.  Now, I feel that if we can’t develop (and soon) a more real sense of what is life-enhancing (namely the condition of the environment)…those other traditions won’t matter much.  Of course, there are other aspects of the formal art world that irk me as well and to see Edvard Munch’s fourth version of his “Scream” painting set a new world record into the millions of dollars makes me want to scream too.  Money is also a precious resource that should be used for better purposes.  Anyway, diatribe aside, here is my latest “mess-terpiece” for your delectation.  It continues the story from a recent post .  Enter the tire swing.

My little red-capped Styrofigure investigated the tree fort created near my outdoor atelier.  He visited his much larger relative who amazingly enough was still standing although his nose had fallen off!  It doesn’t look like the people who created this fort have returned recently.  Here is a photo from the family album.

After the visit, my newest figure did a little exploration of his own.  He came across a perplexing sight that made him scratch his head.

In a tangle of white fishing line was this image of futility.  How in the world, did this ball of monofilament snag a comb?  This seems the ultimate in entanglement.

Venturing to the water’s edge, my little Styrofigure found another large section of Styrofoam that was now beached.  For me, it was all becoming too much of this stuff on this day and my figure expresses this with a gesture of its arms.  “Why do we need even more of this material…is there nothing better for the intended purpose?”

Meanwhile…back in the river, the story continues.

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At Play on Earth Day

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2012| 6 Comments »

The stars were in alignment and I got to spend a nice Earth Day at the Falls of the Ohio.  It was a little cold and windy…nothing layering in sweat shirts couldn’t handle!  I found so many interesting objects and spaces that I filled up my camera’s memory card.  I now find myself with a richness of images I couldn’t post in one go…and so I will try to keep it focused in some way.  As proof that everyday should be Earth Day…the official celebration in the park has been moved to May after the Kentucky Derby.  Supplanted by a horse race!  Last night was Thunder Over Louisville which year after year is usually the largest fireworks display in North America and kicks off the two weeks long Kentucky Derby Festival.  Thousands of people were out here partying on both banks of the Ohio River.  They left their trash after the event, but fortunately it looks like the clean up crews are doing a good job and keeping this stuff out of the park.  After all, it already has enough detritus of its own.  Of late, I’ve been really fascinated by how these big barge cables and ropes that wash into here weather over time. They are made of tough stuff, but the river wins in the end.  Sometimes they unravel and drift beautifully from willow root to branch like mutant Spanish moss.  Some of their colors can even be shocking compared to the neutral earth tones of their surroundings.  Here’s one such scene I’ve been trying to describe.  This is one of my Earth Day photographs.

I later came across a nice length of barge cable stretched out across the sand. For fun, I started coiling it and taking pictures of the different configurations I came up with.  Here’s the way it looked stretched out.

When I look at my pictures at home, many of these cable fragments reference fossils.  I get a strong feeling of ancient sea lily crinoids and nautilus-like ammonites preserved in the rock that was silt millions of years a go.  I also played with the spiral form and activated an intimate space with its spring-like energy.

Creating a tighter spiral evoked ammonite shells and wavy tentacles.  Ammonites were coiled cephalopods with some resemblances to our squids and octopi. The ammonites were so successful for so long.  Beginning somewhere in the Devonian they prospered and radiated out to fill all the world’s oceans until the Cretaceous Period crashed.  Their run lasted more than 330 million years and now they are all gone.  We have a way to go to match that record.

In most of the places I walked today I could hear the Northern Orioles singing.  I tried imitating their call notes and once in a while I could get a bird to reply.  I saw various warblers, vireos, woodpeckers, wrens, and more…however, the most memorable bird event happened at my feet.  I stepped too near the nest of a Song Sparrow and flushed the bird that was hiding with its clutch of eggs.  Here’s a photo of the scene.  Can you find the bird’s nest?  Look closely at the dark spot on the left side of the young willow greenery.

And now…lets look a little deeper and closer at this spot.

Inside were four tiny eggs tinged in green and speckled with brown spots.  I’ve read that the Song Sparrow is heavily parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird which opportunistically lays an egg of its own among the sparrow’s clutch.  The unsuspecting parents raise the cowbird as their own.  As far as I could tell, this nest was in good shape.  Perhaps having a really obscure nest site has so far protected it from the cowbirds which are common in our area?  Walking further, I came to another nesting site of a different kind near my outdoor studio.  Like the Song Sparrow…this spot was also well hidden.

The tire swing helps give it away otherwise it easily blends into the natural driftwood environment.  I imagine a family coming to play here because there is evidence of children… including a misplaced fuzzy duck toy.  The kids keep raiding my Styrofoam cache, but haven’t made anything back at their fort!  Walking around the structure, I find the door is closed.

I even crawled up on the “roof”  for a look.  The builders have taken a natural space created by interlocking logs and enclosed and defined the space by leaning and propping up other found wood.  It all blends in perfectly.

I moved a few planks and logs aside and could see the interior.  I set the duck back up and snapped this shot.

Because my driftwood structure neighbors like to borrow the Styrofoam I’ve collected…I decided to leave them a present using the biggest polystyrene chunk they dragged over here.  First, I need to improvise a head.

After finding some appropriate limbs…I set the figure up in the corner of the log fort.  I thought it looked pretty good against the new green leaves of the willows.  In my head I heard this little bit of imagined dialogue…”Wait, wait…it’s not yet Earth Day!  That’s been postponed until May 12.  Come back then and bring the family.”…as he waved all wild-eyed and everything.

I’m not sure how long this guy will last?  It would be nice to think that the kids who play here could see this figure as a part of their creative environment.

The root mass from this great log makes up one “wall” of the driftwood fort.  Here’s another view looking back before I moved on to the rest of my day.

I’m going to bring this post to a close with two photos of a willow tree I saw the other day.  These trees are buffeted by the elements and begin to take on character and personality as their will to survive kicks in.  With their branches reaching for the sun…their incredible roots hang on to the mud and are sculpted by the Ohio River.  It’s good to think of trees during Earth Day.

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The Time Traveler, Another Found Object Story

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, Originality, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 13, 2012| 19 Comments »

In the beginning he was so unclear about what had happened.  There was this vague image in his mind of some kind of presence he felt that may have created him?  Even that “fact”  was up for debate.  All he remembers with any kind of certainty was that he couldn’t remember anything at all until the breath of life was blown into him.

What he remembers next is feeling the warmth of the sun on his face.  He tried looking at the sun, but his eyes couldn’t stand the gaze.  Averting his face, he saw a shape on the ground and was surprised when it echoed his own movements like a dance partner.  It was in this moment that he felt his body and became fully aware that he was physical and could move around in space.   He took a minute or two, three, four…to survey his birthplace.

What he saw astonished him!  Positioned in the sand were lots of pieces that looked like the same material he was made from.  It was a bit creepy and confusing for him and his next impulse was to escape.  This decision set him upon the path that would be his life’s adventure.  He walked and walked and everything he saw was new, confusing, and miraculous to him.  There were trees and plants and other life forms that occupied the same space and were delightful to behold. It took a while to absorb and understand some of the things he was encountering.  After a half day’s journey or so, the traveler came to a place different from where he began and after surveying this field…he had an epiphany.

It was a debris field full of all kinds of materials…some of which resembled the pieces he saw before and which constituted his very physical being.  He realized that he was made of the stuff of the world and felt the kinship.  He further intuited that these materials were themselves extracted from what had lived and came before.  Life is built upon life…dust to dust…ashes to ashes…plastic to plastic.  The Traveler moved on.

The Traveler was gaining experience of the world which then led to knowledge of it.  He encountered many other objects and filed them away in his being for future reference.  One such object was this immense cable or rope and our hero recognized that all the individual strands of this rope gave it great strength and unity when they were woven and twisted together.  The sun was at its high point and the day was getting hot.  The Traveler decided to move into the shade of the trees to cool off and discover what he could learn there.  After an hour’s walk or two or three…he came to a large black tunnel leading into the ground and it beckoned to him.

Reflexively, the Traveler overcame any misgivings and entered the tunnel.  It felt cool which he liked and there was blackness which he feared. In the next heartbeat there was an incredible burst of light and he found himself on the other side of the tunnel.  What he saw next was the most perplexing sight of this new and memorable day!

Impaled upon three sticks were three heads that were regarding him with interest.  The Traveler was a confusion of feelings that ranged from horror to outright fascination!  One head was blue and looked like an elephant minus its  ears.   The other two heads were childlike and misshapen.  Within his own mind, the Traveler heard the largest childlike head speak to him and it said, ” Welcome Traveler…we are the Oracle of the Sands of Time.  Together we are the past, present, and future.  All that you were before…you will be again…and more.

The Oracle then spoke in unison and told the Traveler that the Past, Present, and Future simultaneously coexist.  They were appearing to him now to act as a guide to the life that had been given to him.  Naturally, the Traveler was a bit  confused since he was new to paradoxes!  Then the larger head placed an image into the Traveler’s mind and said, “Do you remember that rope you saw today?…imagine a slightly different one more colorful and expanded. Now imagine it’s a model of the universe and everything in it.”

The Traveler then tried to grasp the idea that the universe is made of vibrating strings that phase in and out of time.   Because there are differences in spacetime and your point of view changes depending on how you focus on a moment…the possibility of multiple “you’s” can exist in different dimensions in space and time.  What you were before…you can be again…or not.  Yes, it’s all rather confusing and the Traveler moved away from the Oracle and tried contemplating what he was just told.

What was he supposed to do with this knowledge?  He then remembered the last thing the Oracle told him and it somewhat made sense.  As long as he was fully present and open in each moment of his life…he would be fine.  If he was having a bad day…somewhere in the universe those other “you’s” could be having better or worse days.  In the big scheme of things…it just doesn’t matter.  As the sun was setting in the west, the Traveler was able to face the sun with his shadow confidently following behind him.  He decided that he would keep walking towards the light and treat each day like it was brand new.

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The Variegated Oriole

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Green, nature photography, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2012| 9 Comments »

It’s Spring and I’m walking the eastern section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park looking for birds.  I have done this religiously for years and have seen most of the species that have been recorded in this park.  I love birds because they are such beautiful expressions of life.  I envy their extreme mobility with so many species able to call greater parts of the globe home than I will ever experience.  This is the time of year when many different types of birds that have been wintering in South and Central America undergo remarkable journeys.  Some will pass through this area on their way to locations as far north as the Arctic Circle. This is my chance to see them… if I’m lucky. The Falls of the Ohio also has another significant bird connection through the life and work of John James Audubon.  He essentially started his life’s work that would eventually become The Birds of America, one of the great achievements in publishing and the most expensive book in the world, by first drawing many of the birds he encountered at the Falls of the Ohio.  Audubon’s example and his journal descriptions of the world he inhabited are frequent touchstones for me and this project.  Two hundred years later…very little remains of the original landscape he was familiar with.  That process and transformation of the landscape is continuing and unfortunately not always in a positive direction.  Birds are such great indicators of the quality of the environment because they are sensitive to changes…the canary in the coal mine was a real thing.  To enjoy birds and birding is an activity that takes you out of yourself for a little while and causes you to engage life on its own terms.  On this day (which also happened to be April Fool’s Day)  I did experience many of the usual year round resident bird species, but did not see any of the neotropical migrants that make the Spring migration so special.  So, when this happens, I’m not above creating my own bird species.  This post is devoted to a new bird I discovered out here and I’ve named it the Variegated Oriole.

The Variegated Oriole receives its name for being multicolored. I first encountered this bird as various bits of detritus that I came across walking the shoreline of the Ohio River.  For the head, I used a small piece of river-polished Styrofoam.  Its brightly colored beak is part of a plastic and polystyrene fishing float that I cut with my pocket knife.  The eyes are small bits of coal.  I used a green foam gasket or washer to act as a transitional element between the head and the body.  It’s a trademark of mine that I seem to do with almost every piece I make out here. For the body, I found a blue piece of river-polished high density foam? that I cut a few slits into the sides to hold the wings which are made from pine bark.  I took one piece of bark that the river peeled off of a tree and I split that in half to form matching wings.  The tail is a piece of yellow plastic I found that reminded me of a bird tail!  I cut another groove into the blue body to insert and hold the tail in place.  The feet, are just rootlets that I sharpened and pegged into the body.  That’s it in terms of materials which I tried to alter as little as possible as not to trump what nature and the river had already shaped.  It’s important to me that this be a true collaboration.  If “we” are successful, then something of the spirit of a bird will take hold and inhabit this small sculpture.

After finishing the bird…I seek out environments that will help put this avian creation into some kind of context.  Everything matters and I hope my pictures convey something of the time of day, the season, the quality of light, the condition of the environment, etc…all those elements help create a sense of place.  I move through the willow trees posing the bird on various stumps and branches.  I usually take a lot of pictures.

Sometimes, I will imagine what kind of habits my new birds might possess.  In the case of the Variegated Oriole…it is not too different from the Northern or Baltimore Orioles that live and nest in the park.  They are among the migrants I look for. I heard one the other day calling, but didn’t see it.  The real orioles that live here are adapting to local conditions by using artificial materials (fishing line and barge cable fibers) in the construction of their hanging basket nests.  I’ve posted on this before in this blog a few years a go.  I think Audubon would have been interested in this.  Anyway, I left my bird sitting on a branch for anyone to discover.  It might still be there and I will find out today when I once again venture out to the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  Perhaps new birds will present themselves to me? I will let you know what I find…next time.

One week later…I returned to the spot where I left my faux-feathered friend and he was no longer perched upon the branch where I left him.  I was able to locate most of him scattered on the sand except for one wing.  My guess was that he was felled by a well-aimed and thrown rock.  The head was shattered and will need to be replaced provided  I recyle these pieces back into a bird again.

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Guardian of the Bottle Tree

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2012| 12 Comments »

On a variable day where the sun played hide and seek among the clouds,  I visited the Falls of the Ohio to see what there was to see and experience.  Thus far, Spring is shaping up to be much warmer than normal and many different  plants in the city where I live have flowered early.  I was curious to see if this pattern was holding true with the trees out by the river? Upon arrival, I could see that the trees hadn’t “leafed-out” and so I directed my attentions to a slightly high and wild river.  I began looking for river treasures when I met this strange fellow.

He called himself the “Guardian” and he was doing the same thing as me.  Namely walking along the edge of the river and picking up objects that were washing ashore.  The water level has been high and many of the youngest willow trees were poking out of the sand like large hairs on the back of some big animal you can’t totally see because it’s that huge.  I tagged along with the Guardian and we conversed freely.  It’s funny how no two beings react in the same way to the “treasures” the river offers up.  For example, people are always trying to give me driftwood that they think I will like.  Rarely, am I attracted to their finds.  Driftwood aesthetics is a matter of personal taste as is the attraction for all the other stuff that washes up here.  I didn’t think anything at all as the Guardian started collecting plastic bottles.  While those bottles held little interest for me…the polystyrene chunks I was stuffing into my collecting bag held no interest to the Guardian whatsoever.

The Guardian was keying on green plastic bottles in particular.  I had to know why these bottles and what was he going to do with them?  And then there was the added mystery of his name.  If he’s the Guardian…what is he guarding?  My new friend said he would be glad to tell me, but it would in fact, be easier to show me.  Together we walked up the shore to the tree line where my new friend had a project he was working on.

I was amazed to see that he had planted a river-polished cedar trunk into the sand and had attached his green plastic bottles to the nubs that were once branches of this tree.  Judging by his project’s progress…he had been hard at work before I ran into him.  Here’s another view that shows where he positioned his bottle tree.

He told me he had been doing this activity once a year for many years and that he is called the Guardian because he is the protector of this particular ritual.  It’s purpose is to awaken the coming of Spring after a period of dormancy.  There are other beings like himself that are scattered across the planet and serve the same or similar functions through their various rituals.  As he added new bottles to his tree, the Guardian chided me in a friendly way saying did I think the seasons just transitioned on their own? The Earth in fact needs the help of all who love her to keep her from falling into neglect.  The Earth needs to know that folks do care because that extra bit of genuine concern is important and provides the extra energy needed to sustain everything that lives.  Otherwise, this huge task is simply not worth it and the world slips into apathy and falls back asleep.

As the Guardian spoke to me, large dark clouds started gathering overhead.  The first large drops of rain began falling in the sand around us.  It was time to go and I parted company with my new friend.  I thought about what he told me.  I guess I hadn’t considered that the very planet might also be alive and would respond positively knowing that others simply cared.  As I walked home I said a little prayer of my own inside my head and awaited the further greening of the world.

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Goofy Guy

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2012| 10 Comments »

Welcome to another adventure set in the western section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  As promised, here is what amounts to part two of my last entry.  On this particular day I was involved with two sculptures made using found materials. The first was the Banana Palm Mockingbird that I was photographing when I was taken by surprise by this odd character that I call the “Goofy Guy”.  He walked out of no where (scared the bird away) and announced himself to me.  I was working intently with my camera and not paying much attention to what else was around me.  Let that be a lesson to me in letting my guard down.  Anyway, here is a picture of him.  Luckily, my absurd visitor was a very friendly chap!

You can see why he’s the Goofy Guy with his asymmetrical face and huge smile.  He seemed really curious about what I was doing and so he tagged along with me for an hour or so.  One of the first things he did was show me this tree that a beaver or beavers had gnawed.  It never occurred to me that beavers might be capable of climbing trees?  I could have this all wrong, but I’m not certain what else is around here that could do this type of damage? Might be some other mysterious critter that I have yet to come across.

I was working my way down the river bank and snapped this image of my new friend standing on a set of concrete steps.  Hmm…another mystery presented itself.  Although I have always acknowledged in my brain that these steps are out here…I have not considered for very long why they are here to begin with?  Obviously, this thing did not just float in with the high water!  In different areas out here, you do come across building foundations that preceded the formation of the state park.  Is this evidence of that or did someone go to great trouble to dump this here like so much back fill?  It certainly would take some energy to do this.  On the other hand, if these steps actually were attached to a building…who would build a structure this close to the Ohio River and for what purpose?  Is this the remains of a boat house?   Where is the rest of the house?  The mystery just deepens!

Since it was an unseasonably warm day…the Goofy Guy decided to cool his feet off.  Waves from the river were lapping the shore line.  If my friend isn’t careful he could easily fall into the river.  Then again in his case, he would just float off to some other distant place.  I believe the flower-like object on his head may be part of some large bubble wand…I just thought of that.  Over the years, I have collected many smaller wands and I should show you that collection at some point in this riverblog.  Always good to have something saved for a rainy day.  I’ll add that to my other esoteric river collections.  If you notice, Goofy Guy is missing the talisman he had on his chest.  It must have fallen off while we were having fun.  I think it was a plastic cookie cutter perhaps to make gingerbread men?  The day was wearing on and so I was working my way back to the Interpretive Center.  I was soon to say good-by to my new acquaintance, but before that happened I created a last series of images of him.

We stopped by a large tree that fell over a year or so a go and Goofy Guy climbed up on the tree’s root mass.  To me, he looked like a preacher on his pulpit.  I wondered later what topic he would elaborate upon and hoped it would have something to do with respecting nature and environmental responsibility.  This image shows the tree better.

Tired, thirsty, and hungry I bid my friend farewell.  I wonder if he is still hanging out or did he attach himself to some other people?  The next time I’m in this section of the park…I’ll make a point of looking him up.  Thanks for hanging out with me and engaging the many mysteries surrounding this special place in the world.

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Winter’s Giant White Ant

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2012| 5 Comments »

On a warm Saturday morning in mid February, I was exploring the eastern section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  At first glance, I had the place to myself and I began my systematic sweep of the shoreline looking for whatever the river had temporarily marooned here.  Usually, I will walk down to the water’s edge first and then I comb the bank walking back and forth until I hit the treeline.  This typically takes an hour or so and my collecting bag quickly fills up with all kinds of river treasures both natural and artificial.  This morning was to prove to be a memorable one when I came across a creature new to me and I believe science as well?

Years of bird watching had trained me to key on the slightest movement that might betray a creature’s location.  Such was the case when I came across this extraordinary insect that was exploring the same territory as me!  I saw a little motion from the corner of my eye while scanning the riverbank that proved to be this very large ant’s wiggling legs.  This is not my first encounter with a large insect at the Falls of the Ohio.  Previously, I had discovered five other giants of different species all belonging to a genus I had dubbed “Polystyrenus”… because their exoskeletons look like they are made from weathered Styrofoam.  The following is my report complete with photographs and observations made in the field.

I would estimate that this insect’s body, (which looks to be an  “ant”), to be about a foot in length.  Of course, the articulated legs make it seem bigger.  Its eyes appeared to be simple and its mouth parts seemed feeble.  I surmised that whatever it fed upon didn’t require the shearing power of larger mandibles.  I could be more certain of this, but I refused to “collect” or kill this creature in the name of science just to complete a more thorough morphological examination . The thought crossed my mind that this could be the young of the Giant Blue Ant I had seen here a couple of years a go?  I also noticed that many of its legs were different from one another and each appendage might be a different tool like blades in a Swiss Army knife?

While the ant explored its world I discreetly followed along.  My camera is equipped with a telephoto lens nearly as big as the bug.  Still, I found this particular specimen to be amazingly tolerant of my presence.  I watched it while it moved to the river’s edge, but I could not gauge its purpose here.

Interestingly, I did observe it checking out a couple of frayed barge cables that were snagged and unraveling among the willow branches.  It seemed very intent with the fiber strands and used its six legs to gather up the strings into a ball.

Here’s the ant on a different branch.  I wonder if it is responsible for the cuts on this cable?  You can see an intact length of this heavy rope on the sand below.  Could this be some form of play?  This is a question to be answered later.  I never saw the ant do anything else with these two cables .  Does anyone out there have a hypothesis?  Moving on, I did get some very interesting images of the ant either feeding or drinking that show how unusual this ant is from its smaller kin.

On several occasions I was able to observe our remarkable ant taking “sustenance” from iridescent water which flowed in rivulets from the sand below.  What is this stuff?  Is it petroleum pollution or the oils and minerals leaching from other biodegradable materials breaking down below the sand?  As it fed, the ant was at its least cautious.  Perhaps it was drunk?  I walked up to it and was able to take this aerial view.  The rainbow-effect on the sand contrasted nicely against the whiteness of the insect. You can easily see the basic insect body plan with its head, thorax, and abdomen.  Of course, all true insects have six legs.

Here’s another image that comes as a revelation and shows clearly how it feeds.

Like a butterfly, the ant unveiled a long proboscis or feeding tube and lowered into the sheen.  Its abdomen pulsed while it sucked.  I kept thinking about what this stuff is that bubbles to the surface and could it be responsible for the appearance here of these large insects?  Is this some local version of the “Godzilla-effect” where pollution mutates the endemic creatures into giants?  Well, at least I think Clarksville, Indiana will be safe from this ant for the time being.  Now if millions of these ants were to show up at the same time…then this story could change.

After imbibing this strange brew, I observed the Giant White Ant exploring the park.  A previous visitor had found an orange life-preserver and placed it over the branch of a tree.  Here the ant gets on its “hind” legs to investigate the ring.  This ant displays a lot of curiosity about its world.  For a short-time, I lost track of the ant which is able to walk across the driftwood more quickly than I, but I was able to relocate it when I came across this shattered plastic barrel.  It kind of looked at home here and so I left it be and moved on.

That’s it…I have more pictures, but they don’t reveal anymore about the Giant White Ant’s behavior.  Of course, I hope to see it again provided it manages to evade its enemies and stay alive.  What will the “Godzilla-effect”  produce here next?  I wonder if E.O. Wilson has encountered anything like this before in all his researches?  I’ll close now with a final image of my ant.

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The Temperate Bird of Paradise

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, collections, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2012| 6 Comments »

A gray day with the Ohio River rising and I’m exploring this huge driftwood mound created by last spring’s flooding.  Over the last few months this section has seen other minor floods and even a fire.  It’s interesting to me to see how the river has a leveling effect as it flows under and moves the driftwood pile. The shifting reveals new “treasures” that were formerly buried.  I’m out here to see what I can find and possibly reuse.  Soon I uncover a sign that tempts me.

Yes, I have a found sign collection as well and you can see it on my Pages section where I keep other collections of stuff I have stumbled across.  First, let me tell you why this particular sign caught my eye.  In this neck of the woods, we still remember the now mythic frontiersmen who explored and settled this great land.  Daniel Boone, Audubon, Lewis and Clark, and one Davy Crockett are among these pioneers.  Seeing this sign caused me to “flash forward” and I speculated what Crockett’s descendants were now doing after taming our great wilderness.  Did they as Joni Mitchell once sang “…paved paradise and put up a parking lot” and here was the sign to prove it?  As signs go, this one was interesting because it’s double-sided and the reverse message is different and says “Life Vest Required” in red stenciled letters.  Here is a detail that I like.

I was contemplating whether I wanted to drag this heavy and muddy sign with me when an unexpected thing occurred. Life happened! My activity flushed out a bird I didn’t recognize and it flew right over my head and landed in an area of bottom land just east of the railroad bridge.  I kept my eyes on it the whole time and I saw where it landed.  I forgot about the sign and grabbed my camera gingerly stepping over the driftwood.  I would hate to twist my ankle again as I anticipated my rendezvous with this rare bird.  After quietly searching the underbrush, I located it and excitedly snapped the following images.

I have the honor of announcing the first documented sighting of the Temperate Bird of Paradise ever seen at the Falls of the Ohio!  I found it at the water’s edge skulking among the litter and downed logs.  FYI, this is the only bird of paradise found in North America (hence temperate) from a family of birds that are almost exclusively tropical.  You are more likely to encounter a bird of paradise in New Guinea or the Aru Islands than here.  Interestingly, the first tropical examples to reach Europe were ethnographic specimens and the prepared bird skins were missing their feet and sometimes their wings.   This resulted in the early European naturalists assuming that the birds of paradise were forever on the wing kept aloft by their magnificent feathers.  (That’s a true story!)  Here are a few more pictures of this magical bird.

What this bird has in common with the other birds of paradise are very unusual feathers that the males use in courtship displays.  You can see the wiry, blue, flower-like feathers near the base of the tail.  In the wild, the males compete against each other for the affections of the females by wildly dancing and showing off their unusual plumage.  Once mating has occurred, the female builds a nest near the ground and the male takes off and plays no part in raising the young.  The particular bird I was observing was a juvenile male and lacked the small tuft of feathers found on the heads of the adults.

While I was taking these pictures and recording my observations, a train was passing overhead on the bridge.  I could tell it was making my visitor uneasy.

The diesel locomotives were noisy as they hauled their great loads over the span.  My bird of paradise began walking nervously back and forth and then flew away.  I was, however, able to snap one more image of it before it disappeared for good.  I returned to the area over several days, but it definitely left the area.  This is my final picture of the bird of paradise at the Falls.

Because this was a juvenile male, I’m hoping that this signals that the Temperate Bird of Paradise is on the increase and this young bird is seeking out new territories.  The bird initially became rare during the hey day when exotic bird plumes worn on fancy hats were all the rage.  Since then, habitat loss and the fact it is a ground nesting species makes it more vulnerable.  Excitedly, I rushed home to view my pictures on the computer!  I forgot all about the sign and I’m not sure it is still there anymore?  The rising Ohio River may have reclaimed it.  The next time I’m out there, I will look for it and the rare Temperate Bird of Paradise in case it returns.

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