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Archive for the ‘nature photography’ Category

More Ant Sheen

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, ecosytem, environmental art, fresh water, nature photography, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2012| 6 Comments »

Okay so I’m bowing to a little peer pressure and presenting additional images from a project I did the last month.  The day I made my Styrofoam ant project I also kept crossing areas on the riverbank where iridescent flows from something oily was percolating up through the sand and mixing with slow flowing water.  In my original story…imbibing this stuff is what mutates the ant into a giant!

I still don’t know what this prismatic film is that is seeping to the surface?  It could be old long-buried petroleum or some oily residue from decaying vegetation?

These rainbow flows are a fact of life at the Falls and gives me another setting my sculptures can help interpret.  The colors and patterns on the water and sand can be very striking.  Here in quick succession are several more abstract images created the same day as the ant project, but minus the Styro-insect.

In the above image, you can see a few recognizable objects including nuts, sand, and coal.  I’ll close with a final image of why the ants are so large here…they are drinking the sheen and it’s the Godzilla effect all over again!

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The Water Weasel

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, recycled art, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2012| 12 Comments »

Twenty four hours later, people in the Kentuckiana area are still trying to absorb what happened yesterday.  A monstrous tornado completely wiped out several small communities including the town of Henryville which is about twenty miles from my home in Louisville.  It’s a scene of complete destruction and there was loss of life all along the course of this twister.  Believe it or not, we were anticipating that this could happen.  Meteorologists were telling us that the conditions were right for violent storms. I was sent home hours early from work as were many other people in town to take shelter in our basements and safe places.  I wonder how much worse it would have been without the advance warning?  Thus far, we are more than double the usual tornadoes normally seen in the early spring.  Throw away your Farmer’s Almanac…I’m not sure it describes the physical environment we now live in.  It seems we are living in extreme and unstable times.  Pick your poison, too hot, too dry, too wet, too many powerful storms, too many natural disasters.  I hope this won’t be a dangerous spring…but it is already off to a bad start.  My heart goes out to all the people affected by this tragedy.

I’ve watched the local news on television and read the morning newspaper.  I feel like escaping and so I go to the Falls of the Ohio.  I see just one other person all day, otherwise, it’s sunny, windy, and the river is rising.  The tall figure I made last weekend is gone!  Not a trace…nothing.  I guess it got up and walked away.  To haul something that big out of here takes some effort and commitment.  I head down to the water’s edge which is creeping up the bank.  As the waves crash against the shoreline, I’m scouting for the flotsam and jetsam the river gives me as gifts.  Here are a few of today’s finds.

I believe this might be a teething ring for a doll?  It’s tiny and the black object next to it is an ordinary plastic bottle cap which is a good gauge of scale.

And now for another object whose identity I’m not sure of!  My guess is this is some plastic toy vegetable?  Anyway, I dropped it into my B. Deemer Gallery collecting bag and moved on.  My fake produce collection keeps getting bigger!

In my hand, I’m holding a plastic smiley fish!  Probably a child’s bath tub toy. And now, for my favorite find of the day!

When I find something like this I wonder how long it’s been in the river?  It could be years based on the patina it has acquired.  I was admiring the frogman when I saw something else moving along the driftwood.  I froze so I would not scare it away.  From memory I quickly recognized it as a Water Weasel which is a seldom seen animal in these parts.  Carefully, I eased my camera up to my eye and recorded these images in quick succession.

The Water Weasel is an unusual mammal.  It’s always on the move and it’s always hungry.  Rarely do you see more than one of these critters at a time.  It can probably only stand its own specie’s company during the mating season. The Water Weasel is also extremely secretive and so it’s exceptional to spot this guy.  As it comes closer to my position…I realize why it hasn’t seen me.  The weasel is chasing something and is focused on its quarry.

The Water Weasel has relentlessly pursued its prey across wood and sand and made its kill.  This time the victim is a small White-footed Mouse that had the misfortune of crossing paths with this predator.

The mouse disappears with a few bites and with a quick lick of the lips the weasel vanishes into the nearby driftwood mound.  The whole predator/prey relationship crosses my mind.  It’s not about picking winners and losers…nature is indifferent and has no stake in the outcome.  I notice it is getting colder and the wind has picked up again.  I can hear the logs crashing into one another in the river and making that sound which I associate with the grinding of teeth.  A drop of water falls from my runny nose.  It’s time to go home and cross the bridge back into Louisville.  I wonder how high the river will rise?

Postscript:  The Water Weasel is similar to another small mammalian predator known in folklore as the River Ghost.  Here is a preserved specimen from the collections of the Museum of Unnatural History.

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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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Pied Woodpecker Sighting

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, environmental art, nature, nature photography, Originality, recycled art, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2011| 4 Comments »

After a brief cold and wet spell I made it out to the Falls of the Ohio last Saturday.  The Ohio River was rising as were the temperatures which had dipped into the 30 degree mark  for a few days.  One look around here and there is no doubt that it is autumn in Kentuckiana.  The willow leaves were noticeably yellower and many of the trees were in the process of losing their foliage.  I was scouting around for what else was different in this environment and spotted this tiny butterfly moving about.

This small whitish butterfly was sipping on something on the sand.  I was practically nose to nose with it and recognized that it was a member of the skipper family.  Last year was such a banner year for butterflies at the Falls and to my eye…this year was a noticeable drop off.  After following this skipper for a few yards I was able to take this image of it.  At home I identified it as the Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis) which is considered a very common species.  It seemed rather late in the season for a butterfly, but I was able to observe a few rag-tag Buckeye butterflies and a few tattered Viceroys too.  Funny how I had never noticed this skipper before.  Nevertheless, I felt a sense of personal discovery as though I was the first person ever to see this tiny revelation. It was about this time I heard a distinctive tapping coming from a stand of willow trees.  Somewhere a woodpecker was plying its trade.

With its jet-black wings, white body, and bright red bill this bird is easy to identify…it’s the Pied Woodpecker.  About this time of year the northern population of this interesting woodpecker begins its southerly migration to the warmer climes of Central America.  Although I had added this bird to my “Life List” while on a family trip to Wisconsin…this was the first Pied Woodpecker I have seen at the Falls of the Ohio.  I observed it moving up and down the trunks of the willow trees exploring the crevasses in the bark for small insects.  It likes to move head down in its search for food like nuthatches are known to do.  Every now and then it would use its bill to chip away the wood to uncover the bugs it sought and it seemed quite unconcerned about me taking pictures of it.  I snapped as many as I could as I followed it on its path through the woods.

Soon it came to a grove of trees that were covered in wild grape vines.  The Pied Woodpecker explored the bark here too, but I saw it augmenting its diet with the tiny fruits this vine was producing.  Every once in a while it would make this nasally sound that I tried imitating.  Fortunately, this bird didn’t take offense and fly away.  Perhaps it “cut me some slack” for at least trying to talk to it in its own language…or at least that was my thought at that moment.

From the vine-covered trees, the woodpecker next flew to a large log with a large exposed root mass.  When this tree was living it must have been huge. The Pied Woodpecker didn’t linger here long and I watched its rising and dipping flight pattern as it crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky.  I wonder if I will ever see another of its kind here again?  That’s the funny thing. There are birds that are considered common and regularly recorded here that I have yet to see.  I’ve seen them elsewhere, but not here at the Falls of the Ohio.  That’s the thing about birds…their extreme mobility can make them unpredictable!

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It’s Early October

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

After the briefest cold period, we have had a glorious week of perfect weather.  It’s been good to get back to the river after having the focus of the project shift away from the park and into a gallery.  Looking around, you can begin to detect those subtle shifts in color beginning to happen in the tree leaves.  Actually, there is quite a bit of color all around when you begin paying attention to it.  For instance, check out this morning-glory vine.

This purple flower is practically glowing.  And the Viceroy butterfly is all in burnt orange as it mimics the Monarchs that currently are migrating on their way south.  That large black vein crossing this butterfly’s hind wing is found only on the Viceroy.

Now blooming at the Falls are several species of the Composite flower family that look so close to one another that you need to have a few on hand for direct comparisons.   Many are yellow in color like these twin blossoms.

When I wasn’t noticing the local color, I was poking around for old booze bottles.  I found a few more to add to another piece I’m making at home.  I also came across the remains of another bowling ball and I added this one to my collection.  This is how I found it.

At first I thought I was going to dig this ball out of the dirt, but I didn’t need to.  What you see is essentially all there is!  It’s just a chip of the ball that happens to include a couple of finger holes, the ball’s brand name, and the name of its former owner…Gladys Coons inscribed on the surface.  I dropped the fragment into the water to clean it off and the metallic colors begin to shine.

With the Styrofoam I also found out here I fashioned yet another figure and posed it next to an old tire that I had placed river found coal into.  First here’s the tire nearly overgrown with plants since my last visit.

Now for a more eccentric view with my Styro-figure posed above it followed by a shot that places things in better perspective.

It’s been a few years since I worked with coal as intensively as I have this year.  Our spring floods did a lot to redeposit this mineral in the form of rounded coal pebbles and gravel.

I reposed this simple figure several times mostly in the area that had the most coal deposits.  Much of the time I was filling empty bottles with coal for that other project I mentioned.  In places you can find “beaches” of coal gravel several inches deep.  Intermixed with the coal are white mussel shell fragments and a bit of brown tree bark.  I will post images of my bottle sculpture once it is finished.  For now, I will leave with a picture of where I left this particular figure in the park.  I found a different arm and placed this piece in the context of these beautiful flowers.

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The Black-billed Heron

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2011| 12 Comments »

It’s the Falls of the Ohio State Park in late summer.  We haven’t had any significant rain in a few weeks and the fossil beds are exposed as the river has retreated away.  This isn’t a permanent condition…just the way it is during this season. Visitors are walking over the rocks and admiring the many ancient fossil corals that during the rest of the year are under water.

The best time to get a sense of the extent of the fossil beds is during summer.  From the top of the riverbank you can get a good overview of the area.  You can see across the fossil beds to the high wall that keeps the Ohio River at bay. Bird watchers are scoping the rocks and the top of that wall on the look out for seasonal birds or that once in a lifetime rarity.  Well today was their and my lucky day!  I was sitting by the picnic table when in the far distance I noticed something large and white winging its way across the ancient limestone terrain.  At first I thought it was a pelican, but it clearly wasn’t big enough.  That’s when I heard one of the bird watching flock who also spotted it say that he thought it was a heron or egret of some kind.  I grabbed my camera and hustled down to the river.

I watched the white bird circle the area by the lower tainter gates and I anticipated its possible landing spot.  As I approached the area my mental field guide was going through all the possible species.  Great Egrets are seasonally common here and while they are white…they do not possess a black bill.  One white wader that does have a black bill is the Snowy Egret, however, it is smaller and has black legs with yellow feet.  Snowy Egrets come to the Falls but they are less common.  It couldn’t be a Whooping Crane because I couldn’t see any black tips on the wings.  For a moment, I even thought this bird might even be an albino.  Nevertheless, it was shaping up to be a mystery which are among the most fun birds of all.

I saw the bird alight in the sedges and grasses near the river which is where I took these photographs.  This beautiful bird was distinctive with its black bill and white head crest.  It’s tail feathers were also tipped in black.  I watched it catch and eat grasshoppers that were numerous in the weeds.  For the moment, I would concentrate on taking pictures and being discreet.  I could always identify it later in the comfort of my home, but already I knew it wasn’t a bird normally found here or in our country.  This bird’s beauty was enough and knowing its name wouldn’t make it more beautiful.  Time stood still until the bird spooked or just decided to fly off.  Later that day I saw the heron return to the river and I hung around hoping for just this opportunity.

I was struck by the great contrast between the snow whiteness of the bird and the dingy black of the tire resting in the water.  I thought the heron was exhibiting signs of distress or anxiety, but I was surely projecting my own feelings onto this animal…or maybe not!

In one of the most curious bird behavior moments I have ever observed, the heron walked over to a group of discarded plastic bottles and started hitting them with its bill.  I guess it was just checking them out?  A passing fisherman came too close and the bird was gone for good.  I took a deep breath and hoped that I had a few good images and turned for home.  The bird turned out to be the Black-billed Heron which is more accustomed to being found around the heat of the equator.  Few confirmed records exist of this species being seen this far north. But since it’s been hot just about everywhere this year, the right conditions were present for it to make this appearance.  This same individual would create quite a bird watching stir wherever it was sighted in the United States and even made the cover of several bird watching magazines.  The Falls of the Ohio was as far north as this bird was seen and for me it was a happy privilege to see a bird that even John James Audubon never saw.

Postscript:  Readers familiar with the riverblog know that the Black-billed Heron was made with materials deposited at the Falls of the Ohio.  These found materials include:  River polished Styrofoam, plastic, sticks, river tumbled coal, the black tail feathers were cut from the soles of cast off shoes.  Thanks for tagging along on this avian adventure!

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Cubby and Rock the Rocks

Posted in Absurd, Art, birds and birding, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, Ohio River, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2011| 6 Comments »

It’s been nearly a month since I last visited the Falls of the Ohio.  My still tender twisted ankle and the brutal heat of this summer has me concentrating on other projects and exhibits.  Admittedly, I haven’t posted much and that periodic malaise that can affect bloggers hit me too.  My ankle is slowly getting better (intimations of mortality!) and with hope the oppressive heat is relenting?  I made the short trip from my home in Louisville to Clarksville, Indiana where the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center is redoing its exhibits.  I’m glad the mammoth skeleton will still be on display and I’m curious what else will be featured?

Each year the center’s foundation stages its “Rock the Rocks” fundraiser which features a silent auction.  I usually contribute one of my sculptures made from the river-born junk I find in the park.  This year my donation is entitled “Priscilla” and she’s a piece I made years a go and predates the old riverblog.  I hope she finds a nice home.  “Priscilla” with her dark eyes has a depth to her that seems to raise many questions.  Well, that’s how I read her!  The main question remains…why do we do the things we do that we know can harm the environment?  “Priscilla” knows she shouldn’t exist.

After my errand, I hung around to look at the Ohio River as it presents itself at the Falls of the Ohio.  Most of the fossil deposits are exposed and in my mind I’m walking out among them which in reality is always an interesting experience.  It’s easy for me to fantasize that I’m on another planet or a different place in time.  I know, however, that it will be a while yet before I wade across the shallow river and back out upon the water-scalloped limestone.  I don’t think my ankle is ready for that test yet.  It would be a long way to limp back.

I stopped and talked with several birders who had their scopes and binoculars fixed upon the distant fossil beds. Summer shorebirds were present including Great Egrets, Caspian Terns, Spotted Sandpipers, and an uncommon siting of an American White Pelican which had just flown away!  I missed it but was glad to hear that it had been seen regularly over the last three weeks.  I recall a few years a go, there was another young male bird that hung around for a while.  Once upon a time they were seen as far east as the Miami River in Ohio, but that was in the 19th century.  Now the pelicans are seen more frequently and might be extending their range again eastward along our great rivers.

I enjoy birds of all kinds and near the birdwatchers, a male American Goldfinch fed on sunflower seeds from one of the center’s flower beds.  I don’t know exactly what it is about the attraction to birds, but it lifts my spirits.  I go back to my car and collect the surprise within.  Although I haven’t physically been out here as much as a usually am…my thoughts don’t stray far from this environment.  I made a new figure in my basement and I’m eager to snap a few shots of it in the context of where the materials I used to construct it were found.

This is “Cubby” and he is eager to see the world.  We walked along the trail together and came across this spot where the morning-glory vines were growing in profusion.  Only in the shade did we find the blossoms still open.  The heat of broad daylight would shrivel them to nothing.  Along our walk we could hear the sound of cicadas and the smell of sun tan lotion was lingering in the air.  It’s the weekend and the park is full of visitors.

As we walk through the grass, the blades come alive with the many grasshoppers that are present.  “Cubby” and I check them out and we also notice a few nice Buckeye butterflies flitting about with their beautiful blue eye spots checking us out too.

It’s amazing what a month can change around here.  It seems so verdant and overgrown.  We find evidence that some of the recent and powerful thunderstorms have blown over a few old trees.  This seems to happen with increased frequency.  When it does rain, it seems to be accompanied by strong winds and torrential downpours.  There is so much moisture and energy in our weather systems as the fronts move along the Ohio Valley.

It’s been a year of contrasts.  Our spring was so wet and led to some flooding.  Several months later the driftwood evidence is all around.  The park staff have had their hands full re-establishing the walking trails.  Chain saws and small bulldozers are required for that job.  All this wood will just sit here until it decays or washes away with the next flood.  The Ohio River is a dynamic element that continually shapes this park.

I made “Cubby” for an exhibition that will be held at Bellarmine University in September.  It’s a two person show and my exhibit partner, Scott Scarboro, also uses found materials, but his works are of a more urban nature.  He likes using discarded mechanical toys and using sound in his work.  I will post more about that show as it happens.  As for “Cubby”, he derives his name from the unique head-gear he wears.  Last year, I came across the “skin” of a river-exploded teddy bear and saved it into the collecting bag.  This is how that find manifested itself.  To further reinforce the bear cub idea I added a small plastic bear head image that I think came from a pacifier.  It holds his breach cloth in place which comes from the lining of an old glove.  And in case you were wondering…he’s also anatomically correct underneath.  If you are bothering to cover the loins…there might as well be something there!!!  Well, I guess that’s it for now.  It feels good to blog again.

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…the Heat Rises

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 7, 2011| 7 Comments »

I threw my arms up into the air and said “WHAAAAA”!  I had been resting in the shade after a couple of hours of junk scavenging when I heard this low vibrating sound and the bump of something landing on my head.  Reflexively, I knocked off whatever was on my noggin and it fell to the ground…and this is what I saw.

This is the Eastern Eyed Click Beetle or Big Eyed Click Beetle, (Alaus oculatus).  It’s one of my favorite indigenous beetles and one I’ve seen at the Falls of the Ohio on numerous occasions.  As beetles go, this one is on the large side approaching two inches or about five centimeters in length.  Getting smacked in the head by one certainly surprised me, but it turned out to be a good one.  I love the cryptic bird dropping coloring and those two large eye spots get your attention!  After the beetle recovered its senses, it flew and landed on a dead tree trunk right behind where I was sitting.  It turned and started walking down the tree towards the ground.

I watched as the beetle lowered the tip of its abdomen at the base of this dead tree.  I’m hoping it might be laying an egg or two.  When it was done, it walked back up the tree trunk before flying off for the next tree or head that catches its fancy.

I was rummaging around one of the driftwood mounds for whatever secrets it was carrying and to separate out materials for the river sweep clean up.  Nearby, was the beginnings of another garbage pile that someone else had started.  I decided to throw my junk into this lot to consolidate it and make the removal just a bit easier.

It was the usual lot.  A few plastic 55 gallon drums, a bit of hurricane fencing, tires, and a palette or two were among the larger items that were deposited here by the last flood.

Of course how these things came to be in the river is another story.  It’s amazing what our kind can tolerate and consider acceptable.  I suppose this represents the collateral damage we are willing to endure to support our ultra consumptive way of life.  It makes me want to retch! I think this partly explains why so much of this trash is colorful.  If we have to look at it…it might as well be pretty.  When I finished up in this area I moved on like the click beetle did to new surroundings.  There is no shortage of trash out here.  After this Spring’s floods there is also an abundance of coal gravel and coal chunks in the eastern section of the park.  Here’s an example.

The Falls of the Ohio is famous for its fossils, but this black rock wasn’t originally a part of the geologic scene here.  More than likely, this piece of coal was removed from the top of a mountain in Eastern Kentucky and shipped by barge to this area to be burned in a plant to produce electricity.  For some reason, this and many other pieces of coal got into the river where they were tumbled and ground to bits.  In case you were wondering…coal does not float.

In places the coal gravel was several inches thick and reminded me of the black beaches made of volcanic sand.  Also interspersed on this river bank were many automotive tires.  I couldn’t help but associate the coal with the tires and I began to combine both of these elements in this landscape.  Here’s a picture of me in action.

Walking around in this area, I found enough large coal pieces to fill a tire.  Doing this was highly addictive for me.  Here I was picking up real chunks of fossil fuel to place inside a circle that itself is made from fossil fuels in an area that’s well-known for its Devonian Age fossils.  How all these things affect or reference life made my head swim more than the actual heat and humidity.  When I finished filling one tire…this is how it looked.

And now, for an aerial view.

To me, this looks like some kind of unusual and bizarre fire pit ready to go.  Scientists have already established that “burning rubber” and coal are contributing to the excess amounts of heat, energy, and toxins now found throughout many of the Earth’s systems.  In Kentucky, the coal debate is a complex one.  We have an abundance of coal, but it comes at a dear price to the land and the people who call the coal fields home.  The sun is getting hot and I have already had a busy day watching fishermen and making sand drawings!  For now, I will have to leave the coal debate where it is, but I’m sure to return to it since there is so much coal here at the Falls.  It will remain here until the forces that shape this planet decide otherwise.

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River Horse

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2011| 5 Comments »

June began all bare bones in the aftermath of our minor flooding and now at month’s end it passes overgrown with vines.  Near the tainter gates, a massive raft of driftwood lies intertwined with the landscape.  We haven’t seen such a wooden mound in many years.  June had some odd and compelling images and here are a few more before we turn the page.

The willow trees are the heroes here tenaciously clinging to the sand and clay.  This taunts the Ohio River which sends high water and a battering ram of floating logs their way every once in a while.

Willow wood is flexible and the sustained high water’s flow is echoed in the shape of these trees.  I imagine the river as an artist shaping its garden at the Falls of the Ohio.  There’s a bit of that bonsai- look if you can get past the larger scale.

The willows’ branches do their part in snagging some of the flotsam and jetsam floating loosely in the retreating waters.  Branches become decorated with plastic bags, fraying barge cables, driftwood, the occasional dead deer, refrigerators, fishing line, and whatever is present in the Ohio River.

Here plastic sheeting has been caught and stretched some length across these trees.  It looked like something some installation artist might attempt.  I also came across a “nylon crinoid”…in actuality, an unraveling barge cable that made me think of the extinct sea lilies of ancient oceans and in fossils which are pages in the book of life.

Walking across the sand I came across this unusual view which gave me the idea for the title of this post.  Very nonchalantly, this mostly destroyed hippopotamus was standing its ground.  I’ve read somewhere in a book that the name “hippopotamus” means “river horse” in some African language?

Another view, but this one from the top.

I made another Styrofoam figure on this day.  I imagine this as being a figure of some exotic Spanish dancer with fancy combs in her hair.  I won’t say this is the best figure I’ve ever made, but it’s also not the worst.  It just happens to be how things turned out when I picked this group of materials and objects to make something with at that particular moment.

Now for a full length view.  That pink radiating thing is made of plastic and helps to add other visual interest.

Before leaving for home on this day.  I watched a couple of guys using a throw net to catch shad to use for fishing bait.  I couldn’t help but see them in the context of the Ohio River which was so many more feet above their heads.  Here we are at the bottom of the valley.

Since I’ve used the book metaphor a few times in this post…it’s fitting that I end with this picture taken on this day.  It’s really a small plastic photo album whose transparent sleeves were full of coal gravel and water.  Until next time…

 

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