art process | Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Posts Tagged ‘art process’

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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And Theyr’e Off!…River Equine Finds

Posted in Art, Falls of the Ohio, First Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby, Louisville, material culture, Photograpy, plastic, toy horses, tagged Absurd, Art, art and nature, art and the environment, art process, artistatexit0, Beach combing, collection on May 1, 2015| 3 Comments »

It’s the last week of April, which means the first Saturday in May is a few days away. In Louisville, that signals the world’s most famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby, will be run. This edition is the 141st Kentucky Derby, which culminates in two weeks worth of Derby Festival parties and celebrations. Over the years, I have had occasion to find, photograph, and sometimes keep the horse related toys that I come across in the aftermath of flooding at the Falls of the Ohio. Following is a small album of river rejects. I start with this image and though it is not a Pegasus (The Pegasus Parade is the oldest Derby Festival event) it is somewhat horse-like. It appears to be a flying unicorn and has a mane and tail you could probably comb at one time.

I found this fragment in the western section of the park partially buried in the sand. At one time this was a riding toy that had a wooden handle going through the head and was kid powered.

I found this pink beauty tangled in the driftwood. These ponies that have hair that can be brushed must be popular…

…or not,…because here’s another one pulled out of the debris field! I believe this unfortunate pony also had cockle burrs tangled up in its mane.

This small yellow plastic horse was probably put out to “pasture” because it can’t run anymore. It looks like either some one or some thing chewed off its right hind leg.

This tiny horse was found upside down. It’s missing the green plastic base it once stood on. Fine droplets of rain begin to wet the sand on the day I came across this find. My friend, Bernie from Vermont, gave me the idea for this post. He needed a horse image for a story he had written and asked if I had any in my river archive. This was one of the ones I sent him. I have one last horse to show and it is a piece I photographed in place last weekend. I hope everyone out there has a great Kentucky Derby and may your horse win, place, or show…from the Falls of the Ohio.

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From the River’s Heart

Posted in Art, art and the environment, nature, Photograpy, tagged Absurd, Art, art and nature, art and the environment, art journey, art process, art studio, artist at exit 0, bottle of pebbles, Carnegie Center for Art and History, creative process, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, lost and found, plastic, plastic heart, railroad bridge, sense of place, Styrofoam on January 19, 2015| 20 Comments »

Happy 2015 to all from the Falls of the Ohio State Park! This is my first post of the new year which has started auspiciously for me. I am happy to report that I found a new day job! I am the new Coordinator of Public Programs and Engagement at the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana. About this time last year I was showing my own river art at this organization. It’s funny how things worked out…I had a feeling that my opportunities were leading me to the north bank of the Ohio River and that’s what happened. I found this plastic heart in the mud of the Indiana riverbank about a week before I was offered the job. I wonder if it has significance?

My relationship with the Carnegie Center for Art and History goes back to the early 1990’s when as a staff member at the Louisville Visual Art Association I helped to install the Indiana version of the Children’s Free Art Classes on the Carnegie Center’s gallery walls. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have exhibited my own work here with the latest being the Potential in Everything show with Michael Wimmer that was up this time last year! There has to be a lot of serendipity in play here for all the stars to line up as they did and so I am feeling it was meant to be. I will be creating new workshop opportunities and other programming to help the center with its community-minded mission. It’s a new challenge for a new year!

With the new job and a recent cold spell I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the river until this three-day weekend. I heard that 2014 was the warmest year ever recorded across the globe. Today our temps are in the low 50’s which is quite a change from the teens we just experienced. I grabbed my walking stick and collecting bag and made a day at the river. I have been doing various bottle projects and here is a new one. I found a plastic liquor bottle that still had its cap on it. It’s interesting to note that most bottles I find with screw-top bottle caps are discarded with their caps on. By a deposit of Ice Age gravel, I was able to fill the bottle with river-tumbled white and pale yellow quartz pebbles. Not sure how I will use this, but will probably factor into a new artwork soon. Being outside on such a fine day is something else I wish I could bottle for future use when the cold, damp, and gray returns. For now I place the bottle in my collecting bag and move on. There are other things to find and discover.

Next to the flattened top of an aluminum can I found this small, partial jaw bone. I think it’s from a skunk or some other small carnivore, but will need to check the dentition more carefully. After taking this picture, I picked the mandible up and placed it into my bag. This find will factor into something else I put together before day’s end.

The mud and melting ice made checking out the river’s edge problematical and so I headed up the riverbank and into the willow trees. I visited my outdoor atelier and decided to do a little “house cleaning”. I swept the leaves and dirt off of the circular metal platform that has been here for several years. If I could have figured out how to get this object home, I probably would have done so by now. As it is, I like using it as a work surface and place to sit. My other stashed materials are nearby. To me, the platform is still a “U.F.O.”…which stands for “Unknown Floating Object”. I think it has something to do with mooring barges, but could be wrong about that. I also like that it adds a stage-like presence and helps define one small area at the Falls.

Standing on the platform and facing the river, if I look to my left I see the old railroad bridge. There were several trains that went back and forth while I was occupied. The railroad is part of the atmosphere of the place. A large and partially burned log occupies the space between the platform and the bridge. I straightened out my stick and root collection and sorted them on the platform. I then rediscovered my Styrofoam collection. Every time I walk the river, I find new river-polished pieces and add them to this assemblage. There is simply more here than I can use at a time and so anyone is welcome to try making something from what has been gathered.

I grab a few rounded pieces from the collection and decide to construct a figure from what I have here and in the bag. I decide which shapes and forms would make good heads and bodies and set them aside. Once in a great while, some other creative souls find my larder and make something of their own from this junk. I like it when people see the opportunity here.

I usually like starting with the head first. It’s where the most information is focused and my Styro-figures share this with archaic works and folk art. In the case of this figure, I decided on another shape for the head. Collected bits of plastic and potential facial elements are placed into a found plastic bowl. I will decide the features of today’s figure from what I’ve gathered today. Here’s a sequence showing the progression of how the head evolved including what already looks like a found face in the bowl.

The found mandible has a new home on this piece. I split the bottom from an aluminum can to make the ears which does give this figure a monkey-like quality to it. The eyes are a white, plastic bottle cap and the green, plastic bead from a child’s toy. I found two expressive sticks for arms and set the figure up as though it were sitting down with crossed legs. Here are images of this piece finished on site.

I had the best time today. There is still lots of winter before us, but this weekend’s respite helped connect me to the river for the first time this year. I will be curious to see if we even have one decent snow fall this season? Whatever happens during 2015, I will take it all in stride. The year is already off to a positive start! I think I will leave it at that and sign off until next time from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Taylor’s Artist at Exit 0 Video Link

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, art and the environment, art process, artist at exit 0 video, culture and nature, Falls of the Ohio State Park, Indiana University Southeast, man and nature, nature, sense of place, Taylor Ferguson on May 16, 2014| 14 Comments »

Taylor’s Artist at Exit 0 Video Link

Here’s a short video interview conducted by Taylor Ferguson on my Artist at Exit 0 project at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Taylor is a journalism student at the Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana and was nice enough to be interested in filming my process. Our late March day at the river was a bit windy which the microphone picked up beautifully, however, it washed out the rest of the audio. What you hear me saying is a bit of stream of conscious narrative which was edited into the video at a later date. I previously published a post entitled “Touring with Taylor” that has some of my images and words made about the experience.

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A New Figure for a New Day

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged Art, art process, artist at exit 0, earth, environment, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, nature, photography, recycled art, river, sculpture, sense of place, Styrofoam on May 5, 2013| 5 Comments »

After watching the goldfinches in the willows and collecting the latest the river had to offer…I headed to my outdoor studio. I have the day off from my day job and it is also Kentucky Derby weekend. The weatherman is telling me that today will be the day to be outdoors because a cold, wet front is coming through the Ohio Valley. It has been a few weeks since I last visited as life has taken me in other directions. When I was last at this spot, I stashed the surviving and repaired “Flood Brother” next to a tree. In the interim, other people have come across my spot and looked through the junk I’ve assembled here. As for my Styro-figure…I found what was left of him nearby. Here’s a look at the remains.

I found his body first resting upon the older driftwood. He was missing his head and arms. Scouting around, I was able to find bits and pieces including his head staring at the world through his remaining cyclops eye.

Rather than reconstruct him for a third time, I decided to recycle him. I gathered the pieces and parts and hauled it back to my studio. For now, I will let these chunks of polystyrene rest.

The first step in creating some sense of order is to straighten out the mess my previous visitors have left me. I sort through my sticks that I will use for potential arms and legs. I gather up the smaller pieces of Styrofoam and put them in the river-chewed milk crate. I rummage through my collecting bag and select the elements that will make up the face of a new character. I take a few moments to watch robins chasing a young Cooper’s Hawk through the willow trees. Near me, I hear the first notes from a Northern or Baltimore Oriole. It’s reassuring to know that they have returned. Also, there is a noticeable increase in insect life and I’ve observed bumble bees, hornets, and small butterflies going about their business. The sound of running water is always in the background. Picking up a head-shaped piece of Styrofoam I begin to form a new figure.

So far, it’s a smiling figure with a segment of pliable found plastic for a mouth. The ears and nose are also plastic toy pieces. The eyes are river-tumbled pebbles of coal. I use my pocket knife to do this work. The next step is to add a body.

I chose a hunk of Styrofoam from my larder that seemed torso-like. Feeling that it required additional detail, I added two walnuts to reinforce the chest idea. I further added a third piece of Styrofoam that simulates a pelvis and gives the figure added length. Some internal sense for proportion told me I needed to do this even though the entire idea and the resulting figure strikes me as being absurd and who else would notice or even care about this? Beaver-gnawed willow rods connect the head and hips to the torso. Over the years, my working methods have evolved and I definitely have material and form preferences where none existed at the start of this project in 2003. Through trial and error I selected wooden driftwood arms and legs to give my static figure some life, energy, and a suggestion of movement. Here is the first photograph of this spring figure made in the place it was created. Later, the two of us would go out to explore the landscape around the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

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The Sun is Up and the River is Down

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, art process, birds, creative process, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, nature, outdoor art studio, photography, recycled materials, sense of place, Styrofoam on February 9, 2013| 11 Comments »

The sun is up and this is supposed to be the pick of the weekend. So, a quick breakfast and cup of coffee and I’m out the door as soon as I can manage it. I arrive at the Falls and there is still frost on the driftwood which vanishes except where the deep shadows shade the tiny ice crystals from the warmth of the light. The Ohio River is noticeably down and I find a way to access the narrow sliver of land that is now high and dry…well nearly. An occasional patch of sticky mud remains where a pool of water lingered longer than the rest of the river did.

I brought a large and empty collecting bag. I’m anticipating finding some river treasures to fill it… which I do by day’s end. As expected, the landscape is different, but the same. Meaning there is lots of driftwood in a wide variety of sizes with plenty of other junk mixed in. What is different is the exact context that had existed before is now rearranged. Big logs have floated to new positions and have been added to by wood originating upstream from Louisville and southern Indiana. I feel slightly guilty enjoying such a sunny day when I have friends on the east coast that are covered by the deep snow that fell yesterday.

During bouts of high water, stuff gets snagged in tree branches. I do a little promenade through this frayed rope archway formed by the river. It’s muddier under the railroad bridge, but the biggest tangle of catch-all driftwood is also here. My site is just over this wooden mound and I wonder how it has fared?

Along the way, I keep an eye out for birds like this female Downy Woodpecker investigating the furrows in tree bark. I see a Belted Kingfisher, a Red-winged Blackbird, flocks of Canada Geese which are year round residents, Carolina Chickadees, and a Peregrine Falcon flying parallel with the river. Usually, nature’s colors are subtle this time of year, but I also find this silly bird. It’s bright non-naturalistic color is a quick tip-off that it is probably made from plastic.

I find lots of other plastic items particularly toys, but I will wait until later in the week to post those finds. I did pick up this lucky duck to add to my expanding collection. I like the two walnuts next to the duck. How often have I used walnuts as a gauge for scale?

We are nearly there…just under the willow trees. Be careful of stepping on milled boards for they are the ones harboring bent and rusty nails. The sun has climbed higher in the sky and I’m getting warmer. This bear hat of mine is getting hotter, but I am glad I had it with me earlier in the day.

We have arrived…this is my old spot. I guess I was partly right. The river did reach my outdoor studio, but the water didn’t spread last year’s Styrofoam too widely. The riverbank is slightly higher here and that makes a difference. Walking carefully over the driftwood, I search over and under the wood. Before too long, I am able to corral my wayward polystyrene. I do a little “house keeping” and try to create a semblance of order under the willow trees.

I find not only much of last year’s Styrofoam, but some new pieces as well. I empty out my collecting bag and add to the pile. Interestingly, I did not find any really big sections and hopefully that bodes well for the river at large. Some of the pieces I have here I have recycled many times before to make new figures. I will try to embed these bright white shapes into my subconscious with the hope of creating new and interesting combinations with them. I’m going to leave it here for now. My next post will be a show and tell featuring some of the other items I picked up along the way and put into the old collecting bag. See you then?

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Snow Tested, Squirrel Approved

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, art process, Falls of the Ohio, magic wand, squirrel, Styrofoam on February 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

On a very chilly day and after a snow storm, I was able to visit the Falls and take stock of the happenings. The snow came quickly and from an eastern direction. You can see that from the trees where snow built up on one side leaving the opposite side clean. As I had suspected, the rising river from the previous week had played havoc on my trusty studio site. It took me awhile to recognize where that spot had been. I will have to wait until after the snow leaves to determine if any of the materials I had stored there are still in the area. As for the sculptures I had left to weather in place…

… they are still there, but disarticulated. The rising water level with its floating logs and driftwood, knocked everything down, and carried parts of my work, back out into the river. The image above is what remains of Pot Belly, a large work from several posts ago. I found his head, but he was missing all of his features. His partner, Lorraine, was near him, but had suffered the same fate. Further down the park, I came across Penguin Boy (sans life-jacket and head) and what was left of the uncle figure. By now, I am over any sense of loss. I will miss coming to that particular spot under the willows, but I know I will make other make-shift studios and they too will wash away. As for the large pieces of Styrofoam that are still around, I probably will recycle those into other sculptures provided they stay. This time of year and early spring are usually when we get the high waters. With all the snow that has fallen (even more is scheduled in a couple of days) the resulting melt water will overwhelm this part of the park again. Perhaps it will flood several more times, who knows? This is all just a part of the process.

Making things is the best antidote in a situation like this. I might be temporarily rootless, but my need to make images from objects remains strong. I tell myself that coming out here, especially on such an inhospitable day is a sure sign of dedication and commitment to my art. Perhaps it is, but who really cares except me? When you strip it down, it has more to do with my own needs than anything else. I muse about this blog being a vicarious way for me to recall some of my work. Anyway, laid out on a snowy log are the materials I found to make that day’s figure. By this time, my finger tips are numb which makes handling small objects more difficult. While I am fumbling away, this squirrel is watching me as I work and I’m having a regular conversation with it. I ask how the winter is going and apologize for not bringing any food with me among other topics of mutual interest.

With the added distraction from the squirrel, here’s what I came up with on this day. Finding the star wand was my big find along the riverbank and I incorporated it with the figure. I’ll let that object add to any sense of a narrative that an observer might care to construct. I was too cold to care about matters like that!

I left the figure near the Interpretive Center, but kept the wand. Believe it or not, I have a collection going of found and mostly bubble wands and this adds some depth to that collection! I should assemble that for a photograph and post it. As I left the park, I did take one more image from the Indiana side of the Ohio River. Past the railroad bridge, a portion of Louisville’s modest skyline can be seen. Stay warm and dry everybody!

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Posts Tagged ‘art process’

Green Bottles and Flip-Flops

The Disquieting Rainbow

Petrochemical Playground…Falls Style

Plastic Color Concentrate

And Theyr’e Off!…River Equine Finds

From the River’s Heart

Taylor’s Artist at Exit 0 Video Link

A New Figure for a New Day

The Sun is Up and the River is Down

Snow Tested, Squirrel Approved

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