Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Styrofoam’ Category

River Ghost

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 13, 2011| 7 Comments »

Seldom seen and thus aptly named, the River Ghost is an unusual small mammal living at the Falls of the Ohio.  Over the course of several days I was able to photograph a young adult as it was surveying potential territory.

Don’t let the cute face fool you.  The River Ghost is a relentless pursuer of anything it can catch and eat.  It’s diet includes birds, fish, other mammals no larger than twice its size, eggs, reptiles, and if necessary, insects and carrion.

The River Ghost has a long and flexible body that allows it to pursue its prey through underground burrows.  It also utilizes abandoned burrows to raise its own young.  Two kits are usually born, but only the strongest will see the light of day.

I photographed this specimen walking along the mud line that was deposited by the recent flood.  The mud is a five-inch thick layer of “fudge” and very soft and moist.  That’s my boot print in the picture.

This mud is also perfect for recording the foot prints of other animals that cross over its surface.  Scientists are uncertain which senses are most important to the River Ghost, but it seems to have a keen sense of sight and hearing.  This odd animal has kinship to both rodents and weasels and may be a throw back to an older evolutionary line.

Despite having formidable survival skills…the River Ghost is not thriving for a variety of reasons and primary among them is habitat loss.  More and more the riverine bottomlands it prefers are being divided and developed.  It’s prey species are also experiencing a decline in populations.  Many species are dependent on large areas of intact ecosystems in order to remain viable.

It would be a shame to allow this curiosity among the local fauna to disappear before its time.  Humans have coexisted with this intrepid predator for thousands of years.  The native people have legends and myths about the River Ghost’s ferocity and toughness and its way of getting out of trouble that it starts.

The last time I saw our River Ghost it had moved onto higher ground around the Interpretive Center and Woodland Trail.  It seemingly followed every lead and poked its head into every hole looking for food to satisfy its insatiable hunger.  It occurred to me, that it was heading for the picnic tables where people have been spreading dry cat food on the ground.  I wondered if the River Ghost “knew” that other animals would be attracted to the feeding station…or was it here for a bite of cat food too?  Perhaps I will see it again?

Read Full Post »

Danger is My Middle Name

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2011| 7 Comments »

It’s a wonderful spring day on the debris heap.  On the old bridge several diesel trains have been carrying their vital shipments back and forth across the Ohio River.  These trains are also a noisy element here when they are crossing.  Among the other sounds you can count on hearing are the aircraft about to land at the local airport and the sound of the river flowing under the gates.

The flooding we experienced a few short weeks a go has left a lot of debris deposited at the Falls.  During the height of the water, the area I’m exploring today was a watery gyre of spinning driftwood, junk, and plastic jugs and bottles.  It’s dry now and in the eastern section of the park under the railroad bridge.  You can’t miss it because in places it must be 12 to 15 feet tall.  It’s all interwoven logs and debris and it can be very treacherous walking here.  You always must be careful where you place your foot and weight because it might just be an air pocket covered in paper and leaves that can cause you to fall into a hole.  It would be no fun walking out of here with an injury.  I usually have a long walking stick with me to help me maintain my balance walking over the backs of logs.

If you are careful, you can explore this wooden mound safely.  It presents several interesting vantage points for photography.

Naturally, I’m also on the look out for interesting objects that have come to rest here.  My collecting sack soon fills with mostly plastic artifacts.

This wooden mound has waves of its own.  It has peaks and valleys and you can sense how the water moved from the artifacts that were swept along and how and where they came to rest.  The lightest stuff like plastic bottles are good indicators of how far the margins extend and where drainage occurred.

After exploring the area and collecting materials, I soon had another temporary studio going.  This time I’m not finding any huge sections and chunks of Styrofoam around.  There are, however, lots of smaller pieces absolutely everywhere.  I gathered these pieces up and soon I was making a figure to take advantage of this riverscape configuration at the Falls of the Ohio.

I found a spot with a good view of the city and made this guy.  His name comes from the spot where I left him.  I can feel that my face has received more sun than unusual and since I didn’t bring any sun block…decide that it’s time to go back home.

The place is marked by a “Danger” buoy that drifted in with all the other debris.

Around “Danger” are all kinds of other junk mixed among the driftwood.  Tires are ubiquitous as are all the plastic containers and playground balls.  Among the natural materials are wood (limb and lumber), nuts, dried reeds, and lots of shredded tree bark.

I’ve been busy cataloguing with photographs all the small items I found and collected from the Falls over the years.  I have posts to come of that material. I also have several other figures and adventures to relate to you.  With this project you have no choice, but to work with the river and I have been trying to play catch up where and when I can.  The next expedition takes place in the western section of the park.  There I will attempt to capture images of an unusual animal rumored to have been seen there recently.  Wish me luck!

Read Full Post »

Double Turtle Day

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2011| 6 Comments »

This is a post from the western section of the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  The high waters from the recent flood have taken their sweet time abating.  I slogged through a lot of mud, but have to admit I had a good time exploring.  Along the way, I could see odd items that had been snagged by the trees and here they will stay until they decay or another flood carries them away.  Here’s a wooden stand of some kind that found refuge in the branches of this tree.

And here is part of a hurricane fence that the river deposited high and dry onto another tree.  Nearly every where I go I can find (mostly plastic bags of all sizes) stuff caught by the tree branches.  Sometimes this items “decorate” their new homes for years to come.

I’m always on the look out for signs of life.  On this trip I came across a flock of American Coots, but they swam away before I could take one decent image of them.  In the soft mud all around me, were the tracks of the various small animals that call this place home.  I believe these are tracks made by raccoons next to this plastic baby toy that floated in with the river.

Investigating the other debris, I nearly missed seeing this Eastern box turtle.  He looked like an old-timer and because it was still a cool day…he was moving slowly.  This allowed me to take several pictures and I had a great opportunity to check him out.  Here is a series of images of it.

The weird part is that earlier in the day, I came across a completely different kind of turtle.  This one is usually found in close proximity to sand and has a penchant for children’s company.  While the previous turtle embodied substance and image…this one is all image.

I also came across my “Mud Duck” which was hanging out in an area that was much drier than before.

This duck and all the genuine birds and small animals better look out this spring and summer because the feral cat population keeps increasing.  On my way back to my vehicle, I came by this site near the Interpretive Center.  Frankly, this “blew me away”.  There were two picnic tables and each one had the equivalent of a large bag of dry cat food spread under each table.  I’m sure this person has a kind heart and means well, but I don’t see how this helps the other wildlife in the park.  Well fed cats still catch birds and hopefully they will also catch the rats that I’m sure this scene also attracts.  I’ll end with these two images, but will be posting more post-flood pictures very soon.  Until then…

Read Full Post »

Unidentified Floating Objects

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2011| 7 Comments »

The river has given ground, but just a sliver of it.  Although the waters have retreated, the Ohio River is still higher than usual.  On the immediate riverbank is a new wooden obstacle course of washed away trees and huge logs.  I find myself a walking stick and go exploring.  I cover ground I have visited hundreds of times before and yet  is made different with each episode of high water.  I began this trip descending the frail cut lumber staircase whose bottom steps were recently covered by the river.  I see a man and his children playing in the sand and pebbles and it looks like they are also building something.  I wait for them to wander off to gather fresh materials before sneaking a closer peak.

They have taken a recently washed up piece of Styrofoam and added some other found elements to improvise a toy raft.  Jutting from the foam are many spent cigarette lighters ( you can always find these).  There is also the red plastic flag from a mailbox…the kind you stand up to alert the postal carrier that you have outgoing mail.  I can also see a larger piece of blue plastic, perhaps a sail?  To me, it also resembles a shark fin.  As much as I like this family’s creativity, I am however, dismayed by the graffiti on the side of the log. This is something I’m starting to see more of on the bridge and through out the park.  It makes me wistful for the days when scrawling bad words and so and so loves so and so in the sand were sufficient means of expression.

The walking stick comes in handy when you are not sure how deep the mud is in a certain area.  You need to pick your path through by stepping on branches and broken planks.  You can see brightly colored plastic just about everywhere you go.  There are moderate to heavy waves along the river’s edge.  Today I have a paper sack with me to collect the small river treasures carried by the water.  This proves to be a mistake because the sack soon becomes water-logged and the bottom falls out.

I pick my way towards the railroad bridge because when the river was at its crest…this spot had the most incredible amount of wood and debris floating in the water.  I wanted to see the aftermath.  I came across this formation created when the water level left these logs high and dry.  A very fine coating of mud and dampness unifies the scene in neutral tones of brown and gray because the greening of spring is only just beginning.  I had hoped to see a bird or two, but they weren’t in this area.

It’s a cool and very overcast day and got progressively colder as the day wore on.  In fact, it would blow snow on this night.  Because the light was subdued, there were fewer harsh shadows and I felt that I could read the forms better.  Everywhere you looked there was the jumble of logs and branches twisted and interconnected together.  I recognized little from just a couple of weeks a go, with the exception of the UFO or Unidentified Floating Object which was miraculously still there.

This big circular platform first appeared here a couple of years a go.  It came with another flood that swept it loose from wherever it came from, washed it over the dam, and deposited it here.  My sons first thought it looked like a flying saucer, but I said it was an unidentified floating object instead.  We also speculated that this could be the plug found at the bottom of the river…and when it was pulled, the river drained like a bath tub.  It’s about a dozen feet across and we used to dance on it.  I’m really surprised that it’s still here and didn’t move along with the river on its way to the ocean.  Apparently, nobody has missed this thing since it’s been here for years.  When it began spitting rain I decided to turn back the way I came and headed for the staircase.

The people who made the “Styro-raft” were gone and now was a better time to sneak a peek at their creation.  I snapped a few photographs for my collection.  Before leaving I could see that they had attempted to launch their colorful craft into the river…but the Ohio was not in the mood.  I have had this experience before where the wind and waves on the river push back whatever you hope to have float away.  It probably disappointed the kids, but in their imaginations I’m sure they can see a little of themselves riding their unidentified floating object on its journey westward towards adventure and new lands.

Read Full Post »

Mud Duck

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2011| 5 Comments »

I ventured out over the weekend to see what I could see.  The Ohio River is still very high, but receding.  All along the riverbank you can see how far the water rose because large logs and plastic trash reveal the high water marks.  Once all this water reaches its “normal” level…there will be a huge amount of trash left behind to challenge any clean-up attempts.  Today I wasn’t out looking for garbage, but other signs of life.  Perhaps it is a bit early to look for migrating birds although I can feel that is just a short time away and getting closer.  Already species like the Red-winged Blackbird are staking out nesting territories.  Species we see all the year round like the Northern Cardinal were singing at the tops of their lungs and I enjoyed standing under one bright red bird that was doing just that!

This particular bird has many rivals.  I could hear many other cardinals singing across the landscape.  I could almost imagine the spaces they were occupying by the volume of their singing…every hundred meters or so it seemed a different bird was calling out.  I wondered how the poor females went about the task of choosing which one to form a pair with?  I did see a few Yellow-rumped Warblers which are usually the first warblers to arrive and among the last to leave.  The other warblers will be winging their way here shortly…or at least I hope they stop here ever so briefly on their way northward.  Over the last two or three years it seems there are more changes to the environs around the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  I know that there are many other better choices all along the Ohio River than here. It seems we have decided to put people’s needs first over what birds might need.  During my wanderings, I did see my first butterfly and here it is…

…this is the Spring Azure butterfly.  Here it is mid March and this tiny ( no wider across than my thumb nail) bright blue-violet butterfly was visiting plants.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t obtain an image of that beautiful blue coloring, but with this species, the underside or ventral wings are more helpful in identifying it.  Since there were no dark marks on the dorsal wing tips, this helped me determine that this butterfly was the male of the species.  I was really excited to see this little wonder and thought that this could be a really uncommon species…but it wasn’t.  It’s fairly common, widespread, and has many morphs.  Formerly, this species was scientifically named Celastrina argiolus, but is now called Celastrina landon. With this species, there is still much taxonomic hair-splitting to do.  It’s just that variable over a large area of North America.

As I walked along the riverbank, I came across a few familiar signs now mostly underwater.  Here’s what happens when you throw “Caution” to the water…you get this view.  And here’s one that partly hides a “No Trespassing” sign near a storm sewer that feeds into the river.

As I moved along where the faint hearted fear to tread, I was hoping that my slogging through the mud and muck would be rewarded.  Earlier I had seen a few Blue-winged teal which is a small species of duck and so I was hoping to see another small, but rare duck that sometimes mixes in with these teal as they migrate.  Today was my lucky day and here are three images of the very unusual  Mud Duck.  This bird likes to really get into the underbrush particularly during floods to take advantage of feeding areas usually restricted to other ducks during normal river levels.  It is a very oily duck and highly buoyant on the water and as a consequence…it almost never dives beneath the surface of the river.

The price of observing this unusual fowl was foul boots.  I became so coated with mud from my knees down that I didn’t worry about my foot gear until I was ready to go home.  This mud is particularly sticky and each rise of the foot is accompanied by a sucking sound.  You definitely need to tie your laces tight, otherwise you risk stepping right out of your shoe or boot.  I stopped every so often to clean the bottoms of my boots because the weight of the mud made each step an additional burden.

So far, I haven’t seen any of the large pieces of Styrofoam that found temporary refuge in my plein air studio.  They are probably half way to the Mississippi River by now.  It may take another week for the water to fully retreat and then it will be even more time before the riverbank dries out some.  I’ll close for now with another flood view.  Over the years, these sycamore trees have been a good marker for high water.

Read Full Post »

The Choir

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2011| 3 Comments »

As I write this post the Ohio River is still high and lingering due to unexpected heavy rains.  I’m anxious to see what the new standard will be along the riverbanks.  Until my old haunts are once again accessible, I’m forced to dip into the old archives.  Here’s a selection of images made between October 2010 and February 2011 of a sculptural grouping I came to call “The Choir”.  Some of the members of this group made appearances in my last post and were in fact made from Styrofoam and other found objects I collected along the river and kept at the plein air studio.  Each began as a unique piece that was constructed and photographed on site at the Falls of the Ohio.  After each piece fell apart or was destroyed by other park visitors, I retrieved the parts and moved them back to the studio.  I didn’t try to repair them but instead chose to stand them back up to see what would happen.  Happily, people interacted with them by changing, rearranging, and adding new figures to the grouping.  On the down side, they were also attacked several times, smashed and eventually knocked down.  Now, who knows where they are, but it’s possible I may find parts of them in other places of the park.  In my imagination I see “The Choir” being lifted by the water and floating away piece by piece.  Here are the images which are in chronological order except for the very last picture.

Read Full Post »

Plein Air Studio

Posted in Art, art and environment, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 13, 2011| 6 Comments »

The Ohio River is even higher now than my last post.  I hope to venture out today and snap a few pictures to share later.  It’s sobering watching nature do what it can do.  I began the morning looking online at the damage the earthquake and tsunami have wreaked upon northern Japan.  Those folks need our help…please contribute however you can. 

Back in Kentuckiana, we are safe.  The flood gates are up and we are not expecting any heavy rain showers that would further swell the river.  Low-lying areas such as the aptly named River Road are under water.  Residents who live directly by the water have either evacuated or moved their possessions to higher ground which in some cases is the roof of their homes.  For these people, their love of the river is worth the periodic inconveniences it can pose.  The Ohio River is expected to crest today and begin falling back to normal pool which will take several days.

Until then, I have had the opportunity to look through images from the past year and put together a few “scrapbooks”  This one is of my plein air studio that I extensively used for ten months beginning in June 2010.  It’s now gone.  I’ll know more when I get the chance to visit.  I originally selected this site because it was relatively out of view, but close to where I was finding my materials.  Having a somewhat “fixed” location also gave the public who stumbled upon this spot, a chance to interact with the materials I was finding and provided more choices than finding the single figures I made throughout the park.  People could make their own sculptures…happily some were made.  So, here are a few pictures taken over the course of several seasons or about nine months worth.

Read Full Post »

Big Red

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2011| 8 Comments »

The informal trail to my plein air studio was marked by something different today.  Old tires that were cut apart to extract their metal wheels were hung upon a few select willows like perverse life preservers.  I saw few people out today and in fact a light drizzling rain probably contributed to that.  Approaching my “studio” I could see that it had been visited again.  The “Choir” group of sculptures that had been thrashed a few weeks ago were once again the targets of abuse.  All the figures that had once been standing were all broken and horizontal.

By now, I am somewhat accustomed to the destruction that happens to the works I regularly leave out here.  This time, however, there was something oddly different.  Why would anyone take the wooden plank that I like to sit on while I make these sculptures?  I checked all around the area and could not find it and so I assumed it was carried off.  My searching did uncover this scene involving a small found object sculpture that someone had previously made and left as a gift.  Here’s how it appeared this time.

Perhaps the same people who made a mess of my outdoor studio set this up.  A small doll that I had found months previously was decapitated and its head placed on this improvised “pike”.  I took a few photos and left it be.  Returning to my polystyrene cache, I decided to recycle some of the larger pieces that were now lying haphazardly on the ground and here are a few in process shots of the new sculpture I came to call “Big Red”.

Because this work was reminding me of something I had made before, I decided it needed something different to distinguish it.  While looking for my favorite plank, I also came across the unravelling rope snagged on a willow branch with its small figure I had posted a few weeks a go.  The rope was now lying in the sand…it had been pulled down from the tree.

I removed the little figure hiding among the fibers and put him in my collecting bag.  I will reassemble him once I get home and perhaps make a gift of him to somebody.  The shredded barge cable I also took along, but I had a different purpose for this…it would become a wig for Big Red.

I arranged the dishevelled rope upon the figure’s head and decided it needed a bit of styling.  Luckily, while walking the river I found the tools I needed.  First I found a brush…and I have found many of these over time.

And then, I located a blow dryer!

In no time I was able to coif my figure.  Here she is as a train passes over the railroad bridge.

I left the figure where I made her and frankly I don’t expect to see her intact again.  It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t last the day, but at least I have these pictures to record her existence by the riverbank.  Here is my parting image of her as she waves to the river that partially gave her “life”.

One final snapshot…I got a kick finding that little hair dryer and I do mean little!  To help judge its scale I placed a five cent piece from my pocket next to this artifact and recorded this image.

Read Full Post »

Faux Duck and Plastic Bread

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2011| 9 Comments »

The clock read ten minutes after four, otherwise, I wouldn’t have remembered what time it was when I began my last exploration of the river.  This is one of the world’s largest clocks and once was the pride of the Colgate toothpaste factory in Clarksville, Indiana which is just a quarter-mile at most from the entrance to the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  The company moved to Mexico and now the building is for sale.  The clock’s fate is uncertain as are all the jobs that were lost when the company relocated to another country.  The fire truck happened to be going by at the moment I took this image.

After parking my vehicle, I descended down the wooden staircase and into the driftwood field that was deposited last summer.  It has been a gray and melancholic winter.  I noticed that the river was higher now than during my last foray and my heart lifted a bit knowing that there would be fresh river booty to find!  I was correct and this post has a few of the objects and sights I came across during the hour and half I spent here.

I have observed that many people who visit here never venture far from these stairs.  They may go down to the water’s edge to take a look, skip a stone, or write their names in the shifting sands.  I came across the word “people” written in the sand and recorded the image before the advancing waves erased it. 

After so many years of walking this beach, I’m amazed at how much of the same kinds of stuff I find out here.  This was one of five basketballs I came across.  I wish I had a dollar for every one I’ve seen at the Falls.  The river was playing with this one and its waters would float it to a different location and then cast it back upon the shore before licking it back into the water again.  Here’s another ball I found.  It’s small and looks similar to a plastic representation of a ball of yarn?  I like the contrast between the ball and the willow rootlets that captured it.

I’m always finding dolls and doll parts.  On this expedition I found three dolls.  Here’s a picture of one of them as I found it.  I’m not certain if this is a Barbie doll or a knock off of one?  Doesn’t matter, what catches my eye here is the arrangement of doll and driftwood.  Because there isn’t a lot of color involved…it would be easy to overlook this while walking.

More flamboyant is this cloth and plastic artificial “plant” embedded in the sand.  Now this was easy to find because it’s winter and the eyes are starved for color.  I wonder what these plastic “nuts” are supposed to be?

Now comes the part where this post’s title originates.  For the last couple of weeks the Falls has been home to many Mallard ducks.  I was walking along the shoreline when from a distance I spotted this next to a large log.

My first reaction is why is this duck  just sitting there and not trying to get away?  Is it hurt or sick?  Did it narrowly escape the talons of one of the local Peregrine falcons?  It took me a moment before I realized that it wasn’t real!

This is the first decoy that I have come across out here and thought photographing it next to tracks left by webbed feet was appropriate.  The indigenous people of this country were the first (as far as we know) to make decoys to lure prey species closer to the hunter.  There is an aspect to some of my Styrofoam sculptures that takes a page from them.  I want people to come closer and check out what I’m doing and come away with a greater awareness of what’s happening to the environment around them.

My subconscious must be scanning this stuff as I move along, because I don’t know how I found this!  It’s a plastic slice of bread or toast and not much different in shape or color to the other forms that were around it.  Naturally, it went into the collecting bag and joins the other artificial food items I have found out here over the many years.

After hanging out at the water’s edge, I cut up the beach to my open air studio in the willows.  The so-called “Choir” grouping had been smashed to bits since my last visit.  All the figures have been beheaded, but things weren’t a total loss.  I did find this to cheer me up!

Some other creative soul left me this next to the plank I sit on when I make my Styrofoam sculptures.  This small figure looks surprised like it’s caught in mid slip.  Perhaps there was ice and one foot flew out from under it?  All the materials were on site and I’m glad that someone else took advantage of them to make something no matter how silly.  Whenever I’m out here it’s easy for me to lose track of time, but I knew it was time to go because I was cold and getting hungry.  On the walk back to my car I took this photograph.

I call it the “Staircase to Heaven” and yes it’s a wooden set of stairs that was snagged by this willow during a flood two years a go.  I once found a refrigerator stuck in the top of a tall tree and the river put it there during another bout of high water.  The river level can surprise you and with all the snow that has fallen this winter north of here.  It’s very possible we may see high water again and soon.  This weekend, (can it be true!) it’s supposed to be sunny and warmer.  I definitely will plan another trip and maybe make something of my own from all this river junk.  Until then…

Read Full Post »

Confession of an Obsessive “Potentialist”

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, Originality, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2011| 12 Comments »

I debated with myself about going down this road in this post and decided it would be okay.  I did solicit opinions from fellow artist friends on the topic of obsessive compulsions and hoarding in an attempt to come up with a self-diagnosis.  Opinions varied.  Since photographs do a good job of describing things… I will start with images from the basement of my house and my dilemma (and subject of this post) will become clearer.

I have been doing my Falls of the Ohio project since 2003.  During this time, I have made many sculptures from the materials I found deposited in the park by the Ohio River.  Most of those materials and sculptures were left on site, but not all.  I do have a desire to remove the trash I find from this environment even if I realize I can’t get it all.  The result is that I have brought a lot of it home with the notion of using it in my art, sometime in the near future.

I “maintain” a small studio space in my basement where I store materials with the aim of making something from them.  One issue I have is that I see “potential” in so many things and I’m reluctant to give up on materials that could become art.  I am plagued by seeing all the possibilities which on occasion out strips my ability to realize all this “potential”.  Part of this is economic in nature.  I have never ever had any money and as many of you know, art materials can be very costly.  With this Falls project, I have spent the bare minimum since what I’ve been picking up is free.

These are my “rainy day” materials from which I’ve made many birthday gifts, Christmas presents, and donations for not for profit fund-raising events.  Over the years all this material culture has built up and it’s getting hard to move around my basement!  So, I ask myself…am I a hoarder?

I have to admit looking at this image…things look bad!  It’s nearly the classic picture of the hoarder house that has paths of stacked newspapers and magazines with little paths running through the spaces.  I assure you that the rest of my house is quite normal…for the most part.  We have what seems like thousands of books and I have more art hanging around than the “average” home.  The men of my family have always been drawn to collecting things (coins, medals, old photographs, etc…), but I think I came down with a more serious case than most.  I will say the books are in their cases and the art is hung on the walls with some care.  I try to take care of the objects I seriously collect, but not with the art materials and their as yet unrealized potentials.

There has never been a time that I wasn’t making something.  That sense of thrift and trying to recycle and reuse I see as being virtues of my creative process.  Years a go,  I once found employment as a picture framer and I was disturbed by all the waste in that profession.  I couldn’t see throwing away perfectly good picture frames because they were old.  And, all those scraps of 100% cotton rag matboard…are too hard-won to be thrown in the dumpster with impunity.  So, naturally much of these materials also found their way into the basement.  In my defense, I will tell you that this stuff does eventually get used.  For many years, I supplied all the neighborhood kids with all the free matboard they could draw and paint upon.  Because the matboard in particular was quality material, there are many childhood drawings and artworks that might actually survive to say something about the ephemeral experiences of being children.  Although I have vivid recollections of the art I made as a kid…nothing from my childhood survives and that does bother me a bit.  I have saved most of my sons’ childhood art.  Perhaps that’s another sign of a hoarder!

So, what am I going to do with all this “river treasure”?  I have resolved to use it this year and get it out of the basement!  I have a few upcoming exhibition opportunities and may pursue more.  To help with this goal, I have rented an additional studio space in a local church where several other artists keep spaces.  The enigmatic image I began this post with is from that church and it’s from a small library/study area used by the congregation.  Here is a partial view of my new studio room in this church with the beginnings of me moving materials out of my basement.

The church (whose name I will keep private) dates from the turn of the 20th century.  The current congregation is small and aging and I wonder how long it will remain a viable church?  To help bring in income, the vacant spaces are rented out.  I’m sharing my space with two good friends of mine both of whom are primarily painters.

Although I do think of myself as a spiritual person, I wouldn’t describe myself as being traditionally religious.  My sacrament is my creativity.  I do, however, find the idea of redemption interesting.  With my project, I am trying to redeem these poor materials I find by our river and maybe point to something that is within all of us…a univeral creativity that I feel is the hope for our planet. 

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »