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Coal for Christmas…2018 Comes to an End

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, environmental art, flip-flops, found materials, Found objects, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, Ohio River, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, art and nature, creativity, photography, plastic on December 31, 2018| 6 Comments »

Coal Barges trapped against the dam at the Falls of the Ohio State Park

Runaway coal barges on the upstream side of the dam at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

What a poor excuse for a blogger I have turned out to be! Just my second post of what has been an extremely active year which, however, is not ending on positive notes! Just in from the news room…2018 was Louisville’s wettest year on record. We are just over 69 inches (it is pouring now as I write this) of rain for the year breaking a record created in 2011.

That’s not that long ago and welcome to the new norm. When I started my Artist at Exit 0 River Project, I was partly curious if could I “witness” climate change within the relatively small confines of this well understood park situated in my own backyard? Certainly, the increased levels of precipitation over time point to this. The Ohio River during 2018 had high water moments and February set a new all-time record for rainfall for that month. The river had high water moments during July, September, and December a couple of times. We have had monsoon-like storms that literally have dumped billions of gallons of water on our area. Almost everything dealing with the weather is becoming an event. The city is digging out a couple of massive stone catch basins for all the excessive rain water that overwhelms our sewer system with some of these storms.

The disaster currently playing out breaks my heart. On Christmas day we all got coal for presents. An upstream tow pushing 15 barges loaded with coal broke loose hitting our Second Street Bridge. Of course, the river was way up and at least six of the barges have sunk releasing by a current estimate about 9000 tons of coal into the river! There are still barges trapped against the dam (see above photo) This is an ongoing, unresolved situation and even more coal could end up in the water. I will stop here with this, but 2019 will begin this way.

Final Styro-figure group of 2018.

This is an image of my last figurative group of 2018. The river has knocked them down now, but parts of them haven’t completely drifted away. After the loss of my first absurd Styrofoam group of the year, subsequent high water events and vandalism prevented this from going much farther. Much of the second half of 2018 was taken up in maintaining my various “plastic gardens” scattered throughout the park and skirting around encroaching waters. This, however, has always been my main site which is easy to access and plentiful in terms of found materials. At this site, I continued working with found flip-flops creating double spiral designs and meandering patterns dug into the sand. I continued working with found cigarette lighters which remains this year’s medium for me. I have estimated that I have picked up at least 800 spent cigarette lighters this year alone! I continued to create and maintain other plastic assemblages from debris found in the park. I have worked with found balls, soft drink bottles with questionable contents, and aluminum can bottoms which are the only part of the aluminum can that survives the river here and yes I have worked with coal too. Rather than tell you…here are a few images to show you.

Found plastic assemblage in the western section of the park nestled in the root system of this wonderful tree.

Found plastic assemblage created on site in the eastern section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

Found plastic assemble with purple jack-o-lantern in the western section of the Falls of the Ohio.

Last look at this plastic assemblage set up in the western section of the park. High water eventually took this piece down.

Double Spiral Found Flip-flop Arrangement

Found flip-flops were used to create this double spiral design.

Meandering pattern made with found flip-flops.

This piece eventually incorporated over 160 found flip-flops picked up in the park. Wiped out in early December.

Found Flip-flop piece at my outdoor atelier at the Falls of the Ohio

Final flip-flop piece before the river rearranged my studio site during late December.

Found cigarette lighters on a great pine stump.

A great pine stump was the site for this found lighter project.

Lots of sunken tires out here and they make good micro sites for projects.

Meandering found cigarette lighter design on found mattress

This mattress came in with the river and makes a good site for these found lighters.

Sunken tire and found soft drink bottle with contents piece

Found soft drink bottles with contents set in a discarded tire.

Found soft drink bottle with contents piece.

The colors come from sport and other soft drinks in their plastic bottles.

I also did my share of smaller figurative pieces. Here is a favorite that originally was a slow motion video shot with my iPhone. I started to play around a bit more with video by offering small video “tastes” of some of the things I do to amuse myself at the river.

My bird observations have manifested themselves in found objects that have become their own creative ornithology. Here are a couple recent favorite sightings of these very rare birds.

A high Ohio River has this Butcher Beak searching for food near the water’s edge.

On Sand Island by the Falls of the Ohio, I spotted this rare Black-tailed Tern in migration.

A 2018 highlight was coming across this Violet-tailed Bower bird finding river treasure for its bower.

I realize that I can’t post everything I made this year, but here were a few of the projects that still resonate with me. I will keep making art and seeing where life goes from here. I hope we all have a great 2019! I will be watching with interest what happens with our coal spill. I have already tested out a few ideas. See you next year from the Falls of the Ohio.

From this Summer…a coal man formed in a drift of coal dust and gravel.

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Flip-flops, Mystery Fluids, and Spent Cigarette Lighters

Posted in Absurd, Art, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, flip-flops, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, Installation, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, plastic, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, Site specific art, tagged Art, art and nature, artist at exit 0, backwash, cigarette lighters, Color spectrum in art, driftwood, environment, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio State Park, flip-flops, Genius loci, material culture, plastic, repurposed art, sense of place on June 5, 2017| 6 Comments »

Each year has a different character to it and for what I do at the Falls of the Ohio, a lot depends upon what I find. Last year, there was an abundance of plastic bottles in a full spectrum of colors that stood out among the natural driftwood. This year, we have had a mostly high river due to locally intense rains throughout the Ohio River Valley. There have been successive waves of wood and plastic that have had me wandering the wrack lines filling my collecting bags and stuffing my computer with images. The Falls are not a big area, but the dynamic changes that rearrange the riverbank keep it interesting. This year I have concentrated mostly on formal arrangements on site using flip-flop sandals, plastic soft drink bottles with colored backwash in them, and I have also been astounded by the number of cigarette lighters I have been finding. Following are a few of the many compositions I have already made this year. Chromatic arrangement in Flip-flops, Falls of the Ohio, Feb, 2017

Made this one on a sunny day in February. I found all these flip-flops on a single walk along the riverbank which is how I still like to work out here. I get ideas for projects based on what that day’s walk presents. Kind of like going to the grocery store and seeing what’s ripe and in season.

Flip-flop arrangement on the sand, Falls of the Ohio, March 2017

Why flip-flops? First, they are a ubiquitous part of human life around the river and they float and travel great distances to reach the park. I also like the idea that these sandals are unique to the people who wore them and have their “soul or spirit” imprinted on them. They come in a variety of colors and sizes and can be as variable as people. There is also that saying about not understanding others until you can stand in their shoes.

Flip-flop ring, Falls of the Ohio, April 2017

A work from April of this year made with flip-flops. Some colors seem to be harder to find than others particularly a true red or yellow. Once in a while, I will also pick up and use the sole of some other kind of foot ware if I think it will come in “handy”.

Cottonwood Tree Composition, late May 2017, Falls of the Ohio

My latest flip-flop composition from late May. Sited in the western section of the park, this piece is situated by a favorite cottonwood tree that I have shown in posts many times before. It uniquely has a space under the roots that you can stand under. It is a favorite place for locals to party. Now for the next part of this post…”Mystery Fluids”.

Found soft drink and sport drink bottles with partial contents, Falls of the Ohio, April 2017

Usually found floating in rivers and other bodies of water are these partially consumed sport and soft drinks capped and in their bottles. At the Falls of the Ohio I find them intermixed with the driftwood and everything else too. Often, it is the bottom of the bottle that is sticking up from the wood. I think being starved for color is why I gravitated towards this common element of our waste stream. When the light hits these bottles just right…the colors can be very jewel-like and attractive. Here are a few of the projects and images I made with them this year.

Found bottles and contents with the skyline of Louisville, Feb. 2017

Found bottles and contents, western section of the Falls of the Ohio, April 2017

Found bottle composition with contents, Falls of the Ohio, 2017

I have photographed these bottles in a variety of contexts and combinations over the year. Their contents are amazingly well-preserved and I have never found one that had mold growing in it. It could be that conditions have rendered these bottles sterile? Did they get too hot, too cold, not enough oxygen? Certainly, there is plenty of sugar, electrolytes, and preservatives in them. On site, I usually have arranged them on the back of stranded logs or boards that have floated in here and then I take my pictures and walk away. At my main outdoor studio…I have now been caching some of these bottles and flip-flops too for later in the year when the water level is low. Now for the final category….found cigarette lighters.

Found cigarette lighters by various manufacturers, Falls of the Ohio, June 2017

Took this photograph a few days a go and represents my record for found cigarette lighters in one day out at the Falls of the Ohio. I think there are 103 lighters here all gleaned from the driftwood. I have always known that cigarette lighters are out here, but not until now have I concentrated on them. When you begin looking for them, they can be everywhere up and down the riverbank and intermixed with the driftwood. Once upon a time, the ability to create fire was a special and important skill. It’s more than the climate that is changing. Before I show you what I made with a hundred lighters, here are some earlier attempts.

BIC lighter color line, found cigarette lighters from the Falls of the Ohio, 2017

This found lighter composition is unique in that only “Bic” brand lighters were used. The are arranged on the back of a log. I still like referencing light through color. The irony of our dependence on fossil fuels to make things like plastic and energy is that it comes from sequestered carbon created from sunlight by plants living millions of years a go. Now we need to just look up in the sky to see that same source of energy in the here and now.

88 Cigarette Lighter Oval, Falls of the Ohio, 2017

I think from April?, but definitely the western section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Created this oval from 88 found lighters. The river was still very high and this arrangement is up against the riverbank.

Found Lighter Circle, Falls of the Ohio, 2017

68 Found Lighter Circle, Falls of the Ohio, 2017

Lighter circle made with 68 found cigarette lighters. You can see the marks my fingers made in the sand adjusting the lighters to expand the circle.

Nearly forgot about this one! “Stump Star” composed of 48 found lighters, a yellow reflector, and of course…a stump. Made under the willow trees, the light playing through the tree canopy made this piece hard to photograph. It just occurred to me that I have no idea where butane comes from? All of these once stored compressed butane. As these physical objects age and are exposed to the elements, their metal components are the first to corrode and rust away.

Another day and visit to the river. I try to maximize each opportunity out here by making as many site specific pieces from the various materials I encounter. Here’s a quick piece with my the toes of my shoes poking in for good measure. I call this one “Keep Calm” because there’s one lighter that says that…or “From Clear to Blue” because if you look closely you can see between the white and blue lighters is one clear one. So far, that’s the only one like that I’ve seen out here. Okay, one more to end with and it’s the one with over a hundred lighters. I made another composition with these lighters, but decided to try a more open design and it turned out better than the first. Double-spiral Cigarette Lighter Composition, Falls of the Ohio, June 2017

When given the chance to go to the river or write about past experiences…I will opt for the river, unless the weather is bad and it has already rained hard today. I’m staying busy and engaged with art all around me which has had a calming effect on me considering all the political decisions people are making regarding the health of the environment and everything else too. If you are interested in some of what’s in the Ohio River and other rivers in this country…then I’m your blog. Until next time from the Falls of the Ohio.

Double Spiral found cigarette lighter composition at the Falls of the Ohio, June 2017

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Update from a One-eyed, Blue-tongued River Rat

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature photography, Ohio River flooding, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged art exhibition, artist at exit 0, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Kentucky artists, material culture, plastic, river art, sense of place, Styrofoam, the environment, trash on April 30, 2017| 4 Comments »

The One-eyed Blue-tongued Devil at the Falls of the Ohio

The river is rising as I write this. Just the other day…we had a storm that just sat on us and poured down a massive quantity of water. This is to my count, the fourth time this year that we have experienced high water on the Ohio River. Fortunately, none of them have been true floods on the big river. All the art projects and the materials I have collected and cached at my various sites this year are gone or in different locations within the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Having the time and opportunity to access the life at the Falls is a still a big priority for me, but the river and weather don’t always cooperate.

One-eyed Blue-tongued Devil with Blue Ball

I’m out here as often as I can get away and since time is usually limited…I work quickly forming plans for projects as I take advantage of what that day presents. A typical visit starts off first with a walk checking out what’s new in the area for potential materials and sites for projects. I’m also looking for new birds, what fish the fishermen are having success with, any new flowering plants and the insects they may attract. Because of the river, the areas I frequent are dynamic and change frequently which is a big part of the attraction. After making the rounds, I will return to one of my outdoor studio sites where I store materials for later use or to take home with me at the end of the day. If there is one change in my creative process over the past year, it is on relying on my home work space more to get things done.

Petrochemical Rainbow in progress in my home studio.

Work in progress, late January 2017

And, as you can see by these especially well-curated and selectively chosen images, there’s also plenty to work with here! If the river was to evaporate away tomorrow…I will be in good shape for a while as far as materials go. Drinking water and taking a hot shower, however, may be another story. Since I participated in a recent two person exhibition that I haven’t mentioned yet, this looks like a good opportunity to share something about that.

Post card invitation for Cross Currents exhibition, Feb. 2017

My friends David McGuire and Karen Welch formed Craft(s) Gallery and Mercantile in Louisville to help promote the work and sale of Kentucky’s creative people. I accepted their invitation to show with Mack Dryden who is another Falls of the Ohio enthusiast who also happens to be a professional comedian. Mack likes to collect the driftwood that he finds and makes more formal compositions with them. We decided to title our exhibition “Cross Currents…” since while we appreciate nature and what the river gives us…our approaches to art making are different. Here are a few installation shots from this show.

Taking my "Foamies" to market, late January 2017

I threw this picture in here because this is something most people don’t see or consider…how an artist gets their work from one place to the next. Fortunately for me, most of the shows I participate in are within a day’s drive of Louisville. In this case, I’m just going across town. Shipping can get problematic and costly. Ironically, since most of my Styrofoam projects don’t weigh anything…they do however, take up “dimensional space” meaning I’m charged for how much room my box occupies on the truck or cargo jet regardless of the weight. As you can see, I’m rather careless with my own work with minimal or nonexistent packaging. I think there is something about knowing where my materials come from that causes me to be casual and not at all precious about what happens to my projects. I still leave a lot of stuff behind at the river.

Cross Currents exhibition, Crafts and Mercantile Gallery, Louisville, KY, Feb. 2017

Cross Currents installation view, Craft(s) Gallery and Mercantile, Louisville, KY, Feb. 2017

Installation view of Cross Currents exhibition, Craft(s) Gallery and Mercantile, Lousiville, KY, Feb. 2017

Our exhibition was up for the month of February and was well received. I brought projects that hadn’t been seen in Louisville before including some new colorful, plastic bottle pieces I had been working on during 2016. My bird sculptures also did well and they seem to be many people’s favorite works by me. I also included new dye sublimation prints on aluminum that I had made of river works that no longer exist. Most of my Falls projects after all these years of doing this project remain preserved as images only. Styrofigure with found, plastic battery operated car, Falls of the Ohio 2017

Relatively speaking this has been a warm spring and delightful when it wasn’t pouring buckets of rain on occasions. When the opportunity presented itself…I started several new series of works taking advantage of and calling attention to the many other materials that I find in the park. I look forward to sharing them with you and hopefully…I won’t let so much time go by. Until then….

One-eyed, Blue-tongued Devil holding a white bottle, Falls of the Ohio, Feb. 2017

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Fish Stories from the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Photograpy, plastic, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sense of place, Styrofoam, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, creativity, Culture, earth, environment, fact and fiction, Falls of the Ohio, fishing, Fishing tackle, found fishing lures, Kentuckiana, life, material culture, nature story, photography, plastic, sense of place, short stories, storytelling, Styrofoam, White Bass on December 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The Falls of the Ohio offers a variety of fishing opportunities throughout the year. Whether you prefer light tackle action in the shallows or the pull from a fifty pound catfish while sitting on a boat…you can find that on the Ohio River flowing by Louisville. I always check out what’s happening on the riverbank when I come out here. I am especially interested in seeing what species are being caught and what’s being used to catch them. On this warm December day the action was happening in the shallows. Fisherman were using soft-bodied jigs to catch Sauger (a smaller relative of the Walleye) and this nice White Bass.

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The White Bass, (Roccus chrysops) was first described by the eccentric naturalist Constantine Rafinesque who was familiar with the fish life at the Falls of the Ohio. The White Bass is a big river fish that is also found in impoundments. This fish can get to be 15 to 18 inches long and a maximum of around five pounds. We also have a smaller relative, the Yellow Bass that is also found in the Ohio River. Both species are related to marine sea basses and scatter their eggs without further care of their young.

Since there is a lot of fishing activity on the river, I also find a lot of lost fishing gear. Broken poles, snagged line, and lots of plastic fishing lures like this recent example. It’s very easy to snag and lose a lure in the rocky bottom out here. Usually, when I find a lure, it is minus its hooks which either have broken off or have dissolved away. I also pick up lost fishing floats and have been amazed by how much design variety that fishing tackle can encompass. On the negative side, I also have a fairly full sandwich bag of lead fishing weights that I have accumulated over the years. When the river is down during the height of summer, I will check out the dried holes in the rocky bottom that catch and tumble lead and other metals.

If nothing else, 2016 will be remembered by me for the quality of the fishing. I was able to catch three species new to me to add to a growing list of species I have documented at the Falls of the Ohio. Check out the next couple of images of a rare Ohio River Bowfin (Amia ohioensis) I angled from under the railroad bridge.

The Ohio River Bowfin is only marginally related to the better known Bowfin, (Amia calva). The Ohio River Bowfin has adapted its life to living in shallow rocky streams where it ambushes other fish, frogs, crayfish, and other river invertebrates. Uniquely, its anal and caudal fins have fused into one large fin that comes in handy for scraping out nests in the gravel bottoms it prefers to breed on. After the male entices the gravid female into his nest and with a little luck and persuasion, a clutch of about fifty eggs is deposited and fertilized. The male assumes all parenting duties. Can also be distinguished by it long slender body and bright orange-colored eyes. After a few pictures and measurements the fish was released unharmed back into the river.

On another river expedition in November, I visited a different Falls of the Ohio location near the Interpretive Center to sample the fish life there. Within a minute or two of my first cast I caught this near world record Copperbelly Suckermouth, (Catostomidae cupricana). I was using a hook baited with clam meat which is the principle food of this Ohio River oddity. The boats anchored in the river are probably going after large catfish. This view gives you a good indication of the body type that evolved with some fish that inhabit swift flowing water. Drag has been minimized and the pectoral fins are strong enough to anchor the fish in place as it hovers over the clam beds it prefers.

Here’s a symbiotic side note…several fresh water clam species use the Copperbelly Suckermouth as an intermediate host during part of their life cycles. The nearly microscopic clam larvae attach themselves to the fish’s gills where for a short time, the larvae suck blood and grow before dropping off the fish to complete their life cycles in the gravely bottom. The host fish are left unharmed during the process.

A sneak peek on why this species is called the Copperbelly Suckermouth. It’s undersides are a deep, rich, red to orange ochre color that is particularly intense during the Spring breeding period. The strong sucker mouth is located on the fish’s ventral side and is flanked by barbels that help it locate food in the river’s bottom. This was also strictly catch and release as was the case with my next fishy find. As with most bottom dwelling fish at the Falls, one should limit how big a meal you make from your catch. Toxins are more prevalent in the lower reaches which then are ingested and stored in the fish’s fatty tissues. This particular species, however, has minimal food value.

Another day and location at the Falls of the Ohio and another unexpected catch! Using a grasshopper I caught on the bank and a beaver-chewed willow pole I found nearby, I fashioned a rig with an old line and a hook and caught this Kentucky Killifish, (Cyprinodontidae gargantua) by jigging the grasshopper around the shadows cast by the fossil-loaded limestone. I dropped the grasshopper into just the right dark hole and pulled out this beauty.

This is a giant among the killifishes as most are under a few inches in length. Its blue eyes are distinctive. Small invertebrates in the form of insect larvae are its main food item, but experience has shown it will go for whatever it thinks it can swallow using its relatively tiny mouth. This fish has no food or sport value what so ever. During the summer breeding period, the males of this species can get very colorful in an attempt to impress. Still, a very nice way to cap the year with a new fish to add to the life list!

Fishing on Mars or the Falls of the Ohio? The setting sun has colored the dried riverbank a lovely Martian red. Here explorers are doing what we do…searching for life in the most promising place we know which happens to be by the water. I hope 2017 manages a way to be kind to our rivers and freshwater everywhere. I’ll end my fishing story with a look inside the box where I keep my found fishing lures. See you next year…from the Falls of the Ohio.

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A Reality Check by the River

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, driftwood, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, Green, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, photography, plastic, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, box turtle, Dakota pipe line, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Genius loci, material culture, nature versus culture, photography, power of place, sculpture, Styrofoam on November 7, 2016| 10 Comments »

Well, the season for grand political theatre is almost over. I’m feeling like most of the country who are so tired of the divisiveness that has defined this overly long election. Certainly, a major disappointment is the lack of any real environmental dialogue or engagement from either of the parties. Three national debates…and hardly a mention of climate change at all. We were much more preoccupied by Hillary’s emails than we are the fact that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed a historic and negative 400 parts per million this year for the very first time ever! We have no idea what this will ultimately mean. We believe that this can’t be a good thing, but we are willing to take the chance? Do facts matter and are we close to a point where it won’t make much of a difference what we think and feel? Nature has her own schedule and we have been consistently wrong in guessing what time it is.

I find going out into Nature breathing deeply and keeping my eyes open helps a great deal. This is my restorative. Walking parallel to the Ohio River and atop the Devonian limestone, my eyes register the circling Osprey looking for a good fish in the shallows. The nearby purple loosestrife flowers are alive with insects of many species doing what is important right now which is attending to life. Cooling its feet in a shallow spring, I come across one of the park’s box turtles. I give it my full attention and love. It’s life amazes me. Once it was a leathery egg laid in a dirt hole. When it hatched, a tiny, nearly exact replica of its parents emerged from the shell debris and soil. Instinct led it to seek shelter and to react to that gnawing sensation in the pit of its stomach by eating something. It’s alive and has its own reality deeply rooted in the history of life.

Living with the seasons, the turtle puts on a new growth ring for another year of life. I have caught up to this one…decades after it left the egg. I feel at peace and a feeling of well-being when I see Nature going about its daily and routine ways of life. This is the way it has been before there was an us to proclaim ourselves to be the height and purpose of it all. One needs to go out into nature more to fully appreciate creation beyond the strictly abstract and intellectual.

Plastic flower blossom in the sand at the Falls of the Ohio, October 2016

Our ability to transform our world is so complete that we can use a material like crude oil to create plastic flowers! But should we and why would we want to in the first place? It is specifically the effects of using fossil, hydrocarbon-based energy sources that have led us to the situation we now find ourselves. Collectively, we have let oil and coal become more important than clean air and water. Here in Kentucky, the political campaigns are fueled by the so-called “war on coal”. What most people miss, is that this has less to do with environmental regulations and more with market forces. Coal is a dirty form of energy that has been supplanted by the use of natural gas which is much cheaper. Ordinary citizens are not taking down the old coal-burning plants and replacing them with natural gas burning utilities…big business is. Coal jobs started to really disappear when it was discovered that you could reach a lot of coal quicker and employ fewer miners with mountaintop removal. The fracking techniques used to obtain today’s boon in natural gas are also fraught with huge issues which are now coming to light.

We have the current and not fully resolved situation involving the Standing Rock Sioux people and an ill-advised and designed pipeline that the big corporate world have decided needs to go under the Missouri River. Despite all our vaunted technologies, we lack the ability to make a pipeline that won’t eventually break releasing its poison into the waters. What is so hard to understand about that? I stand with the people who know that clean water is life. For awhile, it looked like the Ohio River was making progress, but in a way, the changes we are seeing in the climate have affected us here. Currently, we have several large basin projects under construction in Louisville to deal with the reality that it rains more and a lot harder now which now overwhelms our sewers sending untreated waste directly into the river. It will take billions of dollars and a lot of resolve to fix this, but I suspect, we will limp along trying to convince the people who make money the measure of everything to act sooner than later.

So, here I stand on the wrack line between land and liquid. I will continue to come out here and record with my camera and pen, the anecdotal changes I see happening in the park. I come out here to challenge my creativity, see what there is to see, and restore my spirit. Ultimately, the quality of our water and the environment at large is a referendum on our collective spirit. We certainly have been found wanting and another election cycle is going by without so much as an acknowledgement that there are big challenges to the very substrate that sustains us all. I will try to curb my disappointment, by immersing myself in the moment. So long for now…until next time from the Falls of the Ohio.

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The Crying Indian

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature photography, Ohio River, plastic, recycled art, repurposed art, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, driftwood, ecostory, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, found materials, Genius loci, green-washing, Hidden Hill Nursery and Sculpture Garden, Iron Eyes Cody, litter, Louisville, nature, photography, plastic bottles, plastic containers, pollution, polystyrene, repurposed materials, river materials, sculpture, sense of place, Styrofoam, The Crying Indian, trash on May 29, 2016| 12 Comments »

I touched on this briefly with my last post, but it has taken a couple of weeks to return to the story of “The Crying Indian”. This post is both about the figure I created from found Styrofoam and the true story about one of the most successful Public Service Announcements of all time. A few months back, I accepted the invitation of Bob Hill to show some of my river creations at his Hidden Hill Nursery and Sculpture Garden in Utica, Indiana which is just across the river from my home in Louisville, KY. After the high water we had in late winter and early spring, I had the opportunity and collected several large pieces of Styrofoam off of the riverbank with the intentions of making a few large figures that I could use for the Hidden Hill show. I was successful in accomplishing this goal and the first figure I made was to become the piece I call “The Crying Indian”.

I really don’t have a proper studio. Just a basement at home that I hoard all the materials that I bring home from the river and the few finished works that I keep. I really do prefer working outdoors at the Falls of the Ohio where I can work relatively quickly. On occasion, I have a need to create work that is a little more formal or ambitious and requires more time to put together. With a deadline approaching for a May 21 opening and weather unpredictable…I set about creating what I could in this cramped space. There are some advantages like being able to listen to music or moving the laundry along and snacks are just a short staircase away. Sitting at the foot of those basement steps, I weighed my options and introduced elements that may or may not become a part of the finished work. The large chunks of Styrofoam that I had brought home from this year’s flooding were outside leaning against my house. I selected the third largest piece and brought it into the basement. It was time to go to work.

Going into this sculpture, I knew that I wanted to keep it fairly “classical” meaning that most of the elements I used were white in color in “imitation” of marble statuary. I chose a river-polished hunk of Styrofoam for a potential head that felt somewhat in proportion to the figure I envisioned. I sifted through bags and boxes of river collections and chose two hollow, plastic, and crushed fake golf balls for eyes. The nose is a piece of polystyrene that is cone-shaped. The mouth is a plastic and foam element from an old football helmet and the ears are pieces of Styrofoam. The element that would become “the feather” in the Indian’s headdress was a broken plastic kayak? paddle that I had recently found and thought would look great in this context. I would later use glacier and river worn quartz pebbles for the tears, but this was one of the last elements I introduced into this piece. The rest of the work would be Falls of the Ohio driftwood and plastic elements collected in the park.

As I’m working on this, I’m also having an internal conversation with myself. Talking to my materials I silently ask, “What do you want to be?” I’ll pose questions and trust my subconscious to help me out by providing a few clues that become ideas that can be elaborated upon. In this case, I was remembering that great Public Service Announcement from 1971 that is known as “The Crying Indian”. I was wondering why there weren’t similar ads on television now decrying pollution and litter and extolling the public to do what they can do to help which is also the right thing to do? What seems to rule the air waves now in the way of public service has more to do with finding cures for cancer and other maladies that afflict us…and that is important too. Another little voice within me also feels that many of these physiological problems we endure will find their root causes in an increasingly degraded and contaminated environment. For old times sake I looked up that original Crying Indian ad that was sponsored from the Keep America Beautiful folks and found it as effective as I had remembered it. During my search, I clicked on a few other stories related to the Crying Indian and that’s when my jaw dropped in amazement.

The first big surprise is a story full of ironies beginning with the actor playing the”Crying Indian”…he was not a Native American in the first place. “Iron Eyes Cody”, America’s favorite movie and television Indian was born Espera Oscar de Corti in Gueydon, Louisiana in 1904. He was actually a second generation Italian American. He had a rough upbringing and when he was a child he left with his father for the American West. It was out there that he first experienced indigenous cultures as well as the entertainment industry where he was to find life-long employment. His first role, playing a Native American child happened in 1919 in a silent film entitled “Back to God’s Country”. Iron Eyes Cody’s film and television career ultimately spanned the 1930’s to the 1980’s. He claimed to be of Cherokee and Cree descent, but he needed his braided wig to become at least the image of an Indian. Apparently, he never quite confessed to his deception and even lived to the ripe old age of 94. Although Iron Eyes Cody was not a real Native American, he seems to have lived his life otherwise respecting the indigenous cultures. He married a Native American woman and they adopted two Native children…one of whom became one of the best Native American musicians. Perhaps it was the times, but I have to believe that if this ad were to be remade today that the public would insist that the Indian be at least genuine.

I didn’t feel that this figure was complete without photographing it in the context of the Falls of the Ohio where I originally found the materials that comprise it. The addition of the white jugs became important not only because I have recently been doing a lot of outdoor assemblages using plastic containers, but returning to the fascinating story of “The Crying Indian”. As was mentioned, this PSA was sponsored by Keep American Beautiful and the Advertising Council did the ad for free as a way of stimulating business interests in our country. The Ad Council also created Smokey the Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, this is your brain on drugs with the egg frying in the pan, buckle up for safety which was an early seat belt public service announcement and many more. As for the Keep America Beautiful folks….well, they actually represented an organization consisting of companies that produced bottles and containers of all kinds which make up a huge part of the litter you see everywhere but in the PSA crafted for them. The Crying Indian ad is now considered a classic case of green-washing. What occurred with this PSA was to put the responsibility for litter square on the backs of consumers and deflected any blame away from the manufacturers that produce these containers in the first place. Once upon a time, containers were returned to their point of origin to be cleaned and reused, but there was a lot less trouble and more money to be made in convincing the public that single use containers were the way to go. We are still in that place forty years later. You can never underestimate the power of ad agencies to understand human behavior and psychology and use it against us to further the goals of their clients. A good part of the shame people felt upon seeing trash being thrown at the feet of Iron Eyes Cody had to do with the subtle guilt that many people feel for displacing and persecuting the original inhabitants of this land. That added ingredient helped make this one of the most successful public service announcements ever made.

Here are a few images of the finished piece in place at Hidden Hill Nursery and Sculpture Garden. It looks great where it’s at and I will do another story soon that will include the other sculptures I made for this occasion. Some of them turned out very well, although they don’t quite have the back story that the figure does. Hidden Hill is a special and beautiful place and I look forward to sharing more pictures with you.

I used Ginger Brand’s great article entitled, “The Crying Indian” that originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Orion Magazine for much of the information included in this post. Brand really goes much farther than I could go here and I highly recommend this read. Here is a link to that story…https://orionmagazine.org/the-crying-indian/ Another good source of information came from Priceonomics and the link to that story is http://priceonomics.com/the-true-story-of-the-crying-indian/ And, if you want to see the original one minute long public service announcement, it is available on YouTube and at the end of this post. Until next time…

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Plastic Arrangement in Black and White

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Installation, lost and found, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature photography, plastic, Plastic art, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, Bernheim Arborteutm and Research Forest, Bernheim Artist in Residency Program, Chiel Kuijl, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Genius loci, material culture, nature, nature and culture, photography, plastic bottle, plastic container, plastic pollution, public art, sense of place, site specific art on May 1, 2016| 6 Comments »

April was a busy but mostly productive blur. Lots of balancing went on encompassing family, work, loss, art, birthdays, and spring transitioning to summer. We had an issue with our family computer that kept us quiet for a while, but hopefully that has been resolved. At this point, I have thousands of photographic images scattered everywhere and if by chance I happen to lose something…well, chalk that one up to the will of the digital gods. I had this strange realization about being a survivor of a by gone analog era that my sons don’t understand or have much experience with. These digital images I have been creating at the Falls of the Ohio can be as transient as the artworks they document. Fortunately, for my sanity, I was able to get to the river on a couple of occasions in this month, breathe deeply, and relax with my art. The last two visits I made to the park in April were gorgeous days and productive. Here are images made from that day’s project.

I have been having fun gathering up the different plastic bottles and containers that I have been coming across the last two years and making something with them. The arrangement I made today was composed of black and white plastic junk I came across after a few hours of work. All the black and white containers were found in the general area of where this piece eventually came together. I moved around a center location and after fanning in and out found enough stuff to bring back to “base”. I had previously picked out a place where I wanted to make something because I liked the view with the railroad bridge and the City of Louisville behind that.

I found a couple of nice plastic buckets and a nice fairly straight wooden plank and set the arrangement up with its back shielded by a huge log. There was an even larger log that had an end on it that had been scorched by fire, but it worked with the scene. First, I arranged all the black bottles up and moved from left to right and kept the large containers on the bottom row. I set the three “grayish” containers up next and that including the two silver jugs I came across. At least they seemed to represent some value between black and white and I took several photos with them in the configuration. Later in the day, I did return back to this spot and shot a few without the gray containers in the pictures…just the black and white ones which I liked too.

Here’s an image with a train crossing the tracks. Unfortunately, I did not get a shot before my piece was set up. Now for a progression of other work in progress photos documenting the brief peak of the “Arrangement in Black and White Plastic”.

While I was working out in the driftwood, new friend and fellow artist Chiel Kuijl came out looking for a few choice pieces of wood for his rope installation. Chiel has been the Artist at Residence at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest and is originally from the Netherlands. We have crossed paths out here at the Falls of the Ohio as well as socially with mutual friends. He has returned to Holland, but is due to return to Louisville this year to work on a recent commission.

Chiel later built a beautiful rope installation over water as well as distinctive “furniture” from ropes and driftwood. Park of this busy April included visiting Chiel out in Clermont, KY to see what he accomplished during his residency. I look forward to showing you a few images of his work in a later post. First!…let’s get through this one. I did remove the “gray” containers so it is just black and white butting up to one another.

I week after I made this piece, I returned to check on it and inspect my base studio. Here is an “after” picture. I already have plans in mind on how I can reuse this black and white plastic. One other fun development…I am working towards my show at Bob Hill’s Hidden Hills Nursery in Utica, IN. That will open on May 22 after some of the Kentucky Derby madness has subsided some. I have three very large figures I have been working on and you will see those soon. Have a wonderful Sunday…from the Falls of the Ohio and the Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog.

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Heisenberg’s Hammerkopf

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, birding, birds and birding, creativity, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, material culture, nature photography, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, photography, Plastic art, recycled art, repurposed materials, sense of place, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, birds, Chiel Kuijl, driftwood, ecostory, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Genius loci, Kentucky, Louisville, nature, photography, plastic, rare animals, sense of place, Spring bird migration, Styrofoam on March 24, 2016| 5 Comments »

Went out to the river, but to tell you the truth…I thought it would be too high. Just a couple of days earlier, the Ohio River was once again over its normal banks. Every year is different and this year the tail end of our winter was marked by warmth and high water. Although the riverbank was muddy, I was happy to be able to walk around. I’m having a show at a friend’s place in May and I was on the lookout for more washed up materials. As it played out, this first official day of Spring would be a more memorable one than I had first anticipated.

One of the reasons that this can be an interesting time of the year at the Falls of the Ohio is the annual Spring migration of neotropical birds. I have been known to set my collecting bag aside and just hit the woods on the look out for migrating birds. The first time you see a male Scarlet Tanager or a Rose-breasted Grosbeak will make a bird watcher out of a lot of people. This past weekend, which is still a bit early for the usual migrants…I came across something totally unexpected that I couldn’t identify at first. I didn’t get many pictures, but what I have is here. If you have never seen (or much less heard of) Heisenberg’s Hammerkopf, (Aviana indeterminus)…you wouldn’t be alone. Hammerkopf translated into English is hammerhead and that description seems to fit. Heisenberg’s bird is about the size of an American Robin. Among the features that stand out the most are its massive red bill and the petal-like feathers found at the base of its neck. The wings can be brown or white and it has been known to have a crest, but some individuals have been seen that don’t have this feature. There is no consensus as to its overall population, but a few individuals seem to make the news each year. This bird is an enigma and it seems to prefer things that way.

The individual I came across is a second year male. Looking at the info there is on this species did say that the unusual ruff of feathers around its neck could turn bright red as the bird matured and was ready for the breeding season. What little there is in the scientific literature suggests that this is a highly variable species that can be found anywhere at any time. With this bird, you really can’t pin down where it originates and it doesn’t seem to have a “normal range”. It seems to be a very uncommon bird with a world-wide distribution.

This individual kept surprising me. I almost felt that it “changed” the more I observed it. By that I mean at first I found it by the mud and then it changed habitat by going into the trees. I lost track of it for a short while, but rediscovered it at the water’s edge. From there, it moved back under the willow trees where I eventually lost it for good. I saw it use its large bill to delicately probe the mud and hammer through a driftwood log and in both cases wasn’t sure of what it was eating if indeed it found anything to begin with? I just saw enough of this bird to pique my interest, but I have had bird sightings that have lasted mere seconds that were satisfying enough to last a lifetime.

While I was out exploring the Falls environment, I did come across another individual who can vouch for me that this strange bird was indeed out here. I struck up a conversation with him and as it turns out he is also an artist. His name is Chiel Kuijl and he is from the Netherlands. He has a residency at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky where he is working on a unique outdoor rope environment. He was looking for select, interesting pieces of wood that he could incorporate into his art project and the Falls of the Ohio are a perfect place to do this. Talking with Chiel, one of the things he is enjoying most are the new and unfamiliar birds he is encountering in this country. I asked if he had ever seen a Heisenberg’s Hammerkopf before and he said that he hadn’t and it was really unlike what he was accustomed to back home. I am sure I will see Chiel again, but what of the hammerkopf?

I don’t often make an appeal to the larger blogging world, but if anyone should happen to see this bird or something similar to it…I hope that you will post pictures of it. It might make an interesting research project to see where in the world this species will turn up and what it might have to say about those particular places where it is found. For now, I will leave it here and hope you will follow along the next time I am hiking at 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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A Different Kind of March Madness

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, art and the environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, Photograpy, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged 3 Stooges Ball, Art, art and the environment, artist at exit o, assemblage, driftwood, ecological art, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, March Madness, nature, Ohio River flooding, photography, plastic, sense of place, Styrofoam on April 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A view from last weekend when the water level was dropping and the sun was shining and welcoming. Curiosity overwhelmed me and I ventured forth over the driftwood piles and muddy riverbanks. Looks like most of the driftwood at the Interpretive Center has been washed away, however, under the railroad bridge, a sizeable mound of twisted matter has accumulated. To avoid sinking ankle-deep in mud…I gingerly walk on the backs of huge logs and pick my way through the debris field.

This most recent bit of flooding has deposited a large number of plastic drinking bottles onto this landscape. I am assuming that the river isn’t through rising for the moment because two days ago…we received about six inches of new rain overnight. Statistically, that was the most rain ever recorded on an April day in Kentucky’s history and the fourth biggest rainfall total for a day during any month in our state’s experience. We had a lot of localized flooding from that storm and coupled with the immense fire at the General Electric Appliance Park, put the national spotlight on Louisville…twice in one day. The GE fire and subsequent thick, nasty smoke with its fumes and particulate matter from incinerated plastic rose into the clouds and was a nearly apocalyptic vision. Many people mistook the immense column of smoke for a tornado and the weather services were peppered with false alarms. All this goes into saying that environmentally, it’s been a rough few weeks around here. Spring while lovely with the returning sunshine and greenery, also has this dark side which it is not afraid to show from time to time.

I can be sure to find novelties among all this brown materiality. Can’t say I have ever come across a Three Stooges ball before and there they were, Larry, Curley, and Moe looking up at me! There were other treasures as well. Here’s a snapshot of a toy I found that I dropped into the old collecting bag.

Discovered resting upon the wood and bark chips was this plastic fragment from a vintage toy. It is missing it’s backside. I have found similar old toys before and now suspect the river has cut into a landfill and liberated these older toys from the ground.

Came across this large carp which was one of three dead animals I found. Also located the remains of a Black Vulture and a Canvasback Duck that looked to be what was left from a bird of prey’s meal. Every now and then, you discern a sickly sweet smell emanating from the driftwood and you know some other unfortunate life form is buried under the debris.

This is the centerpiece of my former outdoor studio area where I had cached many of the materials I found in the park. All the Styrofoam pieces I had salvaged for artworks have washed away, but there is a fresh batch for the picking. This large, painted, metal disc is what I’ve been calling the “UFO” which is short for Unknown Floating Object. It washed into the park several years a go and subsequent floods have yet to move it out. It is now tilted and has all this driftwood around it. Formerly, it was laying flat on the ground and made a nice surface to work on. My time is limited today and I want to make something from all this “abundance” out here. I select a few large chunks of Styrofoam and begin constructing a figure.

Large, Styrofoam head in progress, March 2015

Some of the large pieces of Styrofoam I want to work with are water-logged and too heavy to move. I will wait a few weeks and see if the sun dries them out more? I select two pieces for what will be a large, absurd figure and get to work. I pick up junk around my feet and created this large head. I move a really large polystyrene block into place atop the driftwood pile next to a river buoy that says “Idle Zone” on it. For the next couple of hours, I will be anything but idle.

While I was constructing this figure, I decided to call it “March Madness”. According to the Walls Street Journal and ESPN, the Louisville area is the epicenter of interest in the college basketball game and its season ending national championship tournament. Our region usually has several teams competing for top honors. On the day I made this figure, the University of Louisville Cardinals were knocked out of contention. I attached an old basketball to the end of a very long arm. The slight breeze blowing at the time caused the figure’s arms and head to sway and vibrate in place.

I look forward to spending a bit more time out here…weather permitting. If everything remains in place, there is a chance to make several large figures this season. I will be curious to see if this figure is still standing or whether park visitors or the elements have toppled it? I just received a notification from WordPress that I have just reached my sixth anniversary of blogging with them! For today, I will end with a picture of a tree that recently was completely underwater. You can tell how high the water rose from the junk caught among the branches. Happy Easter everybody!

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Archive for the ‘Louisville, Kentucky’ Category

Coal for Christmas…2018 Comes to an End

Flip-flops, Mystery Fluids, and Spent Cigarette Lighters

Update from a One-eyed, Blue-tongued River Rat

Fish Stories from the Falls of the Ohio

A Reality Check by the River

The Crying Indian

Plastic Arrangement in Black and White

Heisenberg’s Hammerkopf

Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

A Different Kind of March Madness

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