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Eric’s Universal Bio Fuel Machine

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, assemblage art, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, Green, material culture, Ohio River, photography, plastic, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Styrofoam, tagged absurd story, Art, artificial and natural, artist at exit o, bio fuel, energy machine, environmental machine, environmental story, Falls of the Ohio, finding one's purpose, found wax, material culture, photography, plastic junk, sense of place, Styrofoam on November 15, 2015| 8 Comments »

When I received the call from my friend Eric, I was already heading to the Falls of the Ohio. A simply gorgeous autumn day was upon us and the smell of freshly dropped leaves perfumed the air near the river. Soon we would experience our first full frost that would truly signal an end to the warm days and the coming cold, grayness ahead of us. For now, everything seemed perfect and both man and animals reveled in being outside. Like so many of my friends, Eric is a bit of an eccentric. He’s highly creative, full of surprises, but has difficulty at times channeling his enthusiasms into something positive and useful. I can somewhat relate to that and perhaps this forms the basis of our friendship? The plan was to meet at my outdoor atelier under the willow trees so he could show me his latest invention and sure enough…I found Eric standing next to what looked like some kind of unusual machine. Eric was fiddling with the various gizmos, dials, and buttons when I greeted him.

My friend was excited to see me and rushed to shake my hand. He spoke to me in out of breath fashion until I told him to relax and slow down. Of course, I was curious to learn what he was up to. Eric told me that he thought he had the answer to all the world’s energy problems and it took the form of this contraption that clearly looked like it was cobbled together from secondhand junk. Eric called me because he wanted a witness to observe a demonstration of his device’s capabilities. If all went well, Eric intended to send the plans for his latest invention to the patent office and from there who knew? Filled with curiosity, I asked Eric what was the function of his machine and how exactly did it work?

To back track a bit, here is a fuller description of the look of this device. The main body of the machine was boxy and covered with a white insulating material. All sides of the box were embellished with tubes, light bulbs, vials of mysterious fluids, gears, pulleys, dials, levers, and what appeared to be radiator panels for keeping the machine cool while it operated. A large yellow hose protruded from the back of the machine. In the front where the operator did his “thing” was a “hopper” where material could be fed into the machine. A large, clear, horizontally mounted bottle introduced water into the process. The whole contraption was mounted on four wheels which made it a mobile power plant that could be moved to any location that was required. Now, I’m not a scientist and so a lot of what Eric told me I frankly did not understand, but in short, here is what the machine did along with its practical applications. The purpose of the machine as Eric explained it to me was to produce “UBF” or Universal Bio Fuel which my friend believed would not only make us energy self-sufficient, but would also solve the world’s hunger problems as well! Anything organic could be fed into the “hopper” and as a way of demonstration…Eric picked up a large arm load of dried leaves and stuck them into the cup and fired up his machine. One of the beautiful things about his invention was that it operated on the fuel that it produced. The next stage occurred within the bowels of this odd mechanism. I could hear sounds of the leaves being broken down, ground up and masticated into mush. Water, various enzymes, acids, and yes…bacterial cultures were introduced into this leaf mash. As this bolus moved through various internal chambers, the mash would ferment and in quick order convert into “UBF”. The desired product has a waxy consistency when cool. Eric’s machine not only could produce “UBF” to be utilized for industrial needs, but also had a soft-serve function where it could be doled out like some nutritious, but hardly tasty ice cream. Flavoring could come later. According to Eric, apart from a cheese-like odor, very little waste would result…so complete were the reactions that created the “UBF”.

As I watch, I’m thinking the machine is working as intended, but soon notice that Eric is frantically operating the buttons and dials and a small puff of white smoke emanates from his machine. He quickly runs to the yellow hose where a small bowl for receiving the “UBF” has turned over on its side. Too much of the precious bio fuel is being produced and is spilling forth and coagulating on the ground. I ask is there anything I can do, but Eric doesn’t hear me and for some unknown reason takes the following rash action.

Eric grabs the end of the hose and sticks it into his mouth! I hear a guzzling sound as he swallows a massive amount of the surplus “UBF”. He then runs to the front of the machine and hits the button that stops all the reactions. Why Eric did not do this first is due to the fact that he panicked. He told me that in his mind, he heard his inner voice saying that this fuel is precious and should not be wasted. Eric had a dazed look upon his face and then the oddest thing happened…all the hairs on his head stood straight up and they remained that way!

Exhausted and over-wrought, Eric decides to call it a day. He leaves his bio fuel extracting machine where it stands and with assistance from me…we head for home. Eric is a persistent fellow and with his mission to solve the planet’s energy needs… I know this latest setback will not keep him down for long.

Sure enough, about a week later, I run into my mad scientist friend back at the Falls of the Ohio on another beautiful day. As it turned out…this hair-raising experience was permanent. The “UBF” is such a rich mixture and the full physiological effects of eating such a large dose are unknown. Certainly, he had eaten more than a minimum, recommended serving which according to plan was to be determined later. Just a little bio fuel goes a long way. Luckily for Eric, there were no other scary after effects. Undaunted, Eric is willing to try his machine again soon, but first he had to clean it out and replenish his water supply. On this day, I find him waste deep in a stagnant pool of water. He has adjusted his hose by placing one end into the water and the other end delivers liquid into the hopper. This is required to flush all the enzymes and other residues out of his bio fuel plant.

As he tinkers with his contraption we converse. Eric told me that he has a lot more to learn about which organic materials produce the most energy. I ask him if by organic, would that also include plastic and a lot of other waste products and detritus that our current technologies produce? He’s intrigued by the question and thinks plastic by-products could work to create energy although he doesn’t think they would have much food value. I nod my head in agreement.

I don’t know if Eric was ultimately successful in earning his hoped for patent. I didn’t hear what happened the other times he tested his machine. I know he places a lot of faith in technology and believes that it will save us in the long run. Of course, reality is more complicated than that. Part of me fears that if he was successful in his quest…some large corporation would just buy him out and warehouse the solution until they could profit from it. What I appreciate about Eric is that he never talked about money or getting rich. There simply are great problems out there in the wider world and he finds fulfillment in trying to resolve them. Working on his machine has given Eric a renewed sense of purpose. As I contemplate the prismatic colors on the surface of the water…I hope Eric finds an answer. Until next time from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Trick or Treat River Finds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Green Bottles Revisited

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Fun with Plastic Jugs

Posted in art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, driftwood, found materials, Found objects, fresh water, Installation, lost and found, 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, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, assemblage art, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, Ohio River, Petroleum Rainbow, plastic containers, plastic rainbow, Rainbow, sense of place on June 28, 2015| 3 Comments »

Balancing on the spine of a water-soaked log, I crossed over to the western section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. A gorgeous day with the river high from torrential hurricane remnant thunder storms the valley experienced a couple of days a go. It has been a few weeks since I was last in this section of the park. Everything is green and growing and pressing upon the life around it. This was another productive excursion to the river and I made several site specific works with the plastic I found. I’ve decided to break those posts up into several stories because many of the pictures came out well.

For this piece, I selected an area that I knew would have lots of plastic washed ashore. With the river currently high, the searchable area is constricted by the encroaching water and high-walled riverbank and by dense vegetation. When I unloaded my collecting bags and the contents of a milk crate I pressed into service…this is what I picked up. Interestingly, this collection also includes plastic palettes from rival cola companies. The rest of the best includes plastic containers for petroleum and laundry products. As you can see, most of the labels have come off of the bottles due to river immersion. I picked a place with lots of growing grape vines and set up my latest bottle piece. Here is a quick sequence showing the progress…starting with building a three-tiered structure using local wood and logs I found in place.

There are always surprises in what colors are available in a given area. In this section of the park, black, green, and purple colored plastic was harder to come by. I used five boards, three small logs, and a large log (hidden in the grape vines) to build this three layer structure to hold my found bottles. I worked on this piece and another one I will show later moving back and forth between the hot sunlight of this assemblage and the piece I was making in the cooling shade. Here are a couple more bottle details which I like to show off the color.

Everything about these containers is so highly artificial that they contrast with all the greenery around it. So much thought and effort went into the design of these bottles to make their intended contents as desirable as possible. That part worked because these plastic bottles were consumed in large numbers and many of them found their way carelessly into the Ohio River.

The reality that this was made from discards is balanced by the good cheer I feel from the rainbow-inspired colors arranged on the weathered wood. If I had not put them into this form, they would be nearly invisible plastic units scattered over the land. These bottles are ubiquitous in our lives and even without the labels…we recognize what many of the products were.

This is where I left the latest of the Petroleum Rainbow series…pressed by verdant grapevines and an ever encroaching river. Since I made this piece last week…our area has been buffeted by torrential rains and high winds. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that water now laps at this assemblage’s “feet”. It has been a remarkable week in other ways with the upholding of the Affordable Heath Care Act and making marriage a right for all throughout the land. I hope that these great quality of life decisions we make will keep the state of the environment a high priority too. One last picture before leaving…also taken in the western section of the park….so long from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Green Bottles and Flip-Flops

Posted in Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, flip-flops, Found objects, Photograpy, plastic, repurposed art, sense of place, Site specific art, tagged Art, art and nature, art and the environment, art process, artist at exit 0, collection, creative process on June 1, 2015| 4 Comments »

May was a quick month and this year is flying by. I’m still exploring much of the flotsam that was left behind by early Spring flooding. At several places in the park you can encounter large driftwood mounds and debris fields that are aggregates of the natural and artificial. I was exploring a large mound near the railroad bridge and came across this large, wooden, manmade structure that was laying partially exposed. I was curious about what this could be and so I picked a route over the driftwood to take a better look.

Walking carefully to the other side, I discovered that this wooden structure is a fairly long boat dock that the river had claimed. I was taken by the dock and its visual proximity to the railroad bridge. The idea that this could make a nice location for another site specific work soon came to mind. I have been having fun making images and assemblages of plastic bottles that washed into here and looking around…well, despite the overwhelming browness…there is also a lot of colorful plastic mixed into here.

What I could see was a “wealth” of green plastic soft drink bottles that lemon/lime carbonated beverages come in. So, I walked around the mound and boat dock and collected all the green bottles I could find. In the interest of full disclosure…there are also a few green glass bottles in here, but 95% of them are plastic. My idea was to activate this area by massing all the green bottles I could collect and store them “inside” the boat dock. Here are several views of what this looked like after I was finished.

The wooden dock echoes the structure of the bridge behind it. I feel that this site specific piece successfully worked with its immediate environment. The green of the bottles plays against the verdant green of the vegetation. As of this posting, this artwork is still intact. Many things I make out here are either destroyed by visitors or eventually fall apart on their own. If you were looking at this dock from the other side…nothing would betray the surprise that exits on the flip side. Here’s a few more views of my plastic green bottles piece. I’m needing a good title for this one, but nothing has registered with me yet.

While I was searching through the debris field, I was also looking for lost flip-flops. I found a nice number of them consisting of all sizes and colors which I stored in my collecting bag. After finishing the idea I had for the bottles…I looked around for another location to do a flip-flops site specific piece. My search took me to the nearby fossil outcropping and rocks. I emptied my bag upon the rocks and played around with several configurations until I hit upon something I found visually interesting.

I arranged the sandals from right foot to left and from largest to smallest. The oval shape echoes some of the ancient coral forms present in the rocks which date back to the Devonian Age over 350 million years a go. One of my all time favorite fossil discoveries was made in Laetoli, Tanzania by famed archaeologist Mary Leakey in 1978. She found preserved in hardened volcanic ash, a set of bipedal hominid footprints of a possible family group that dates back 3.7 million years and at the time were the world’s oldest human-like footprints. Flash forward to the present, these flip-flops are the descendants of those ancient tracks. When I’m out on the rocks at the Falls of the Ohio…I often think about how deep time is and how far back the history of life goes.

June is already shaping up to be a rather interesting month at the Falls of the Ohio and I will be interacting with the park in some different ways than I usually do. More about that as the month progresses. For now, I will end with one more image of my flip-flops piece as I left it upon this ancient landscape. See you later!

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The Disquieting Rainbow

Posted in Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, deer skull, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Found objects, Green, lost and found, plastic, Plastic art, sense of place, Site specific art, tagged Absurd, Art, art and nature, art and the environment, art process, artist at exit 0, Beach combing, collecting, creative process on May 25, 2015| 2 Comments »

May has turned into a productive month for me. If April was defined by rain and flooding…May has been on the dry side. This break in the weather (along with the nice coolness of Spring) has me out at the river at every available chance. Friends of mine already think that I live out here, but that’s far from the case. I wish I could physically be out here more because I don’t tire of the park and I find enough stuff to keep me busy. The reality is I’m lucky to make it out here on the weekends and holidays. Over the years, I’ve established routines and I know the place so well that as I walk along, I’m strategizing on what can be done with the materials that I find at various locations. The digital part is done from home.

In the aftermath of our most recent flooding, a great amount of wood and manmade debris has settled into the park. I find something interesting to me most everywhere I look. Here’s another Sand Rose that I encountered, blooming among the driftwood. This blossom has fabric-like petals and lacks the wonderful perfume that more conventional roses possess.

Covered in burrs and various plant seeds is this plush parrot that I found intertwined in the driftwood. Lost toys are evocative and in this case, I’m also reminded that 2016 will mark the centennial of the extinction of the Carolina Parakeet which was this country’s only native member of the parrot family. Both the Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet passed from existence within a couple of years of one another in the same small aviary that now stands as a memorial to them at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Walking through the driftwood I found this intact and antlered deer skull which is a first for me. I have found other white-tail deer skulls before, but they all were from does. Over the years , I have found deer remains out here in the wake of flooding. Perhaps the most memorable experience happened about twenty years a go. While hiking with a friend, we came to an area where we could smell the sickly sweet odor from something decomposing, but searching the grounds we weren’t able to locate the unfortunate creature. By chance, I happened to look up where the smell seemed the strongest and discovered a deer carcass that was lodged in a tree about 12 feet or so off the ground. Of course, it found its way there when the river was high and became stranded when the river receded. At the Falls of the Ohio State Park you are likely to find unexpected things snagged in the willows.

Over the last few weeks, I have been “playing around” more with the brightly colored plastic elements that wash into the park. I find these site specific compositions rather fun and provoking to do. Usually, all the plastic elements that the river delivers become somewhat unified and integrated within the matrix of mud, wood, and other detritus. I believe this thorough mixing keeps people from seeing the true extent these artificial materials and objects are present in the free world. By choosing to concentrate on a color, like red in this case, I hope to call attention to these materials in a novel way. This piece started with the nailed together wood frame I found on the driftwood pile. There are also lots of milled and used lumber elements in the mix too. Building on previous pieces I did with other colors, I decided to see how much red was in this given area. “Red Composition” was the result. With red being such a popular color…I thought I would come across more red than I actually did. What I did find seemed subject to bleaching in the sun and made me wonder if red plastic was in general use less because of the fugitive nature of the pigments? Next time I’m at the grocery store I will test this theory more. Among my red finds of the day include an old flashlight body that had filled with dirt and had a small willow tree growing out of it. Here’s another example of a plastic composition I did on this particular day.

This is another in a series I have been calling “Petroleum Rainbows”. I started with the wooden bench I found in the immediate area and set it up near the riverbank in the willow habitat. I gathered all the brightly colored items I could find tangled in the driftwood and sitting on the sandy beach and of course most of them are made from plastic. Testing my fugitive color theory, I did notice a prevalence for the colors green, black, blue, yellow, and white. Red, orange, and purple were a little harder to come by. I filled the top of the bench with my river finds and loosely organized it to resemble a color spectrum. As one Facebook observer noted with a little ire, my colors don’t follow the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet scheme of a true rainbow. I have done this intentionally as a further provoking element. Beyond the surface attraction of this party-colored plastic, the brain does register that something is not quite right here which is the feeling I want to leave the observer with…hence, disquieting rainbow. I made this piece a couple of weeks a go and it has remained relatively intact. I have been busy at the Falls and have more to show, but will wait a bit before posting those projects. I hope everyone out there is having a nice Memorial Day holiday. See you next time from the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

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Petrochemical Playground…Falls Style

Posted in Art, assemblage art, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, nature, photography, plastic, repurposed art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged Art, art and nature, art and the environment, art process, artist at exit 0, Beach combing, cottonwood tree, Falls of the Ohio, petrochemicals, plastic on May 17, 2015| 2 Comments »

We have had a stretch of gorgeous days along the Ohio River! Lately, it has been more fun to be outdoors than indoors and consequently, documenting and posting about those adventures has taken a back seat to exploring. With rain in today’s forecast, it seems a good day to play catch up. Allow me, “Insert Name Here”, to be your host on what was a very productive day spent along the western shoreline at the Falls of the Ohio State Park a couple weekends a go. This was the first time I had ventured on this side of the park since our seasonal bout of flooding. In the past, this has also been a good place to find driftwood and plastic bottles. For today, I decided to walk along the riverbank utilizing the materials I came across and see how far that would carry me. Here’s today’s results in order of completion.

This year, I have a new series that I have enjoyed exploring in this driftwood and petrochemical playground. In part, it is a response due to the abundance of plastic bottle’s in this year’s flotsam and jetsam. It’s a challenge to try to use these materials in ways that will cause others to notice them afresh. We have become accustomed to having so much plastic around us and despite the often brilliant color of these objects, are relegated to the background like so many other things we have used or don’t care to acknowledge or know what to do about because so many other things are competing for our attention. To try to regain some element of focus, I have been clustering and combining mostly plastic containers in site specific areas along the trail. It’s an all organic study. Some of them present as shrines and are a reminder that we are all pilgrims on the river’s journey.

This piece which I’m calling “Arrangement in Blue Plastic” was assembled not too far away from the previous work. All the blue plastic elements were found in the surrounding area and deposited by high water. Among the found blue oddities includes a plastic boom-a-rang, the spade from a broken plastic shovel, and a beat up, formerly plush, blue plastic puppy. The arrangement is backed up by found, joined lumber.

This is a detail of the head from “Bemoaning Figure”. He’s a large Styrofoam sculpture about 6 feet tall. The area where I left him was very muddy…which in this case also aided in standing him up.

The polystyrene floated into the park along with the plastic bottles. I try to respect the shapes the river gives me with this foam. I thought the head was a particularly nice form. I was additionally lucky because both the head and body were found near one another and I didn’t need to carry so much stuff back and forth.

I left “Bemoaning Man” mired in the mud which was more than five inches or so of thick sticky fudge. I stepped right out of one of my shoes setting this figure up in the landscape! I had to find and pull my shoe out of the mud while balancing on one leg.

On the way from my trip…I stopped and reused a shelf I had set up earlier. I have become so much better at strategizing and planning as I go along. This is resulting in more pieces being photographed at the river.

As I walked along, I was picking up lost flip-flops and putting them into my collecting bag. At the end of day, I try to make an image with whatever I happened to find. So far, I’m calling this piece “Family Circle”. I left the wayward footwear right in this spot and moved on. All that’s left to look at before calling it a productive day are a couple of pictures of me (for scale) taken earlier in the morning.

Here I am posed next to one of my favorite trees in the park. It’s a large cottonwood tree that has been featured on this blog many times before. I have taken refuge underneath its roots during thunder storms and people like to camp out around it. It is one of the best features in the western section of the park. The day has been a long, but productive one with several river art projects realized. Thanks for tagging along…here’s one last look back at the full height of that cottonwood tree.

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Plastic Color Concentrate

Posted in Art, Artist at Exit 0, Clarksville, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, Installation, Louisville, old refrigerator, photography, plastic, public art, repurposed materials, Styrofoam, tagged Absurd, art and nature, art and the environment, art exhibition, art process, art studio, artist at exit 0, Beach combing, blue, collecting, creative process, driftwood, flip flops, plastic bottles, plastic containers, yellow on May 4, 2015| 4 Comments »

April’s tale was of a high Ohio River and rain fall for the record books. Twice the river rose to flood stage before subsiding back into its muddy banks. Left in its now drying wake are trash mounds and islands of wood and debris that were pushed and floated upon the water’s surface by wind and current. In this mish mash of culture and nature I carefully pick my way over and through the debris fields at the Falls of the Ohio. All along the riverbank, the dull and muddy colored wood contrasts with the reflected light from hundreds of plastic bottles and chunks of bright white Styrofoam.

I picked a great day to visit the river. As soon as I arrived in the park, I could hear several newly arrived male Northern Orioles calling back and forth through the tall cottonwood trees. I even found several eggs. Here is a large blue plastic egg nestled in shredded tree bark and plastic bottles. I also found a muddy, but real Canada goose egg now too cool to incubate. There was an adult goose hanging out near me and I suspect some early nesters had their clutch washed away by the second flood. I decided with so much brightly colored plastic scattered all over this woody mound…I wondered if I could put any of it to use?

As you can see in this detail image…I decided to concentrate on the color yellow. I stayed within a certain area and collected all the yellow objects on this driftwood mound. It was tricky work because the footing was not good. Several times I sank to my hip as my leg would go through the loosely tangled branches, dirt, and logs.

I call this piece “Yellow Concentrate”. It consists of mostly plastic, quart-sized oil containers along with a few larger laundry detergent jugs. There are a few odd items as well. I found three rubber ducks on today’s adventure and used two of them here. I used a bowl-like depression in the driftwood as my setting to assemble and sort through the junk. I was glad to have the wooden platform in the foreground because it was also easy on the feet.

This site gave me potential for a few good views. Here is “Yellow Concentrate” with the railroad bridge in the background.

Now here’s the same piece with the skyline of the City of Louisville on the southern shore. All that massed yellow really pops you in the eye. Individually, all these yellow plastic containers barely registered scattered across the debris field, but it’s a different story when you bring them together. Feeling pretty good about yellow…I decided to next try a different color.

As I was collecting all the yellow containers…I was also sorting out the blue ones and throwing them in the driftwood bowl. On a nearby fallen, diagonally leaning tree trunk…I arranged my collection. The big blue Easter egg is near the center. As I worked on “Blue Extract”, the hole I was standing in kept getting wider and deeper.

Most of these containers are plastic oil and liquid detergent bottles, but I mixed a few aerosol cans in as well. In this line are seven plastic and rubber balls. One last project before calling it a day. I stayed in the same area and pulled aside all the lost flip-flops I encountered. I laid them all out on the white surface of a metal refrigerator that had floated in here with the last flood. It looked like the Shoe Shaman had been this way too.

The stark whiteness of the fallen refrigerator reminded me of the white pedestals that you would find in an official gallery. I organized the lost foot wear from smallest to largest, left to right. I soon left for home with a hefty collecting bag full of “river treasure” and a camera loaded with images. Every thing else was left in place. I will come back when the river level drops a little bit more and the fudge-like mud has had the chance to harden in the sun. There is still so much more to explore in the park and can see myself keeping busy for the rest of the year. Here’s one last look over the shoulder at today’s location at the Falls of the Ohio. I realized after the fact, that the found milk crate I used to move materials around was so bright red that it holds its place among the yellow and blue. Until next time!

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Archive for the ‘plastic’ Category

Eric’s Universal Bio Fuel Machine

Trick or Treat River Finds

Green Bottles Revisited

Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

More Fun with Plastic Jugs

Green Bottles and Flip-Flops

The Disquieting Rainbow

Petrochemical Playground…Falls Style

Plastic Color Concentrate

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