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Dancing Man

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , on October 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Downed tree at the Falls, 10/09

Another day of adventure at the Falls of the Ohio and made all the more memorable since I had company this time.  My good friend Jefferson, his son Holden, and my son Michael made the short trip across the Second Street Bridge to have fun and collect sticks.  Wood is something the Falls has in abundance and Jeff has a purpose in mind for his sticks.  He wants to support a net over his goldfish pond to keep out leaves and all the cleaning that results when they get in the water.  Jeff always seems to have a purpose or job to do.  The boys decided to collect wood and construct some kind of fort.  That has been their prefered activity at the Falls for as long as they have been coming out here.  I, on the other hand, prefer to play and I made a figure to accompany us.  I call him the Dancing Man and here are a few images from our day together.

Dancing Man, 10/09

Dancing Man, back view, 10/09

Here are front and back views of this figure.  He’s made from Styrofoam, sticks, plastic, and aluminum all found in the park.  Finding branches and roots that have the right gesture to them is what helps give this work some sense of motion.  I like it when I find a piece of foam that isn’t so static in form.  The body of Dancing Man has some torque to it that further enhances the implied motion and helps make it a more interesting sculpture in the round.  The limbs also help animate the figure and lead your eye to the head which has the most detail invested in it.  This guy looks surprised like he wasn’t expecting to get his feet wet!

Dancing Man with Tire, 10/09

Looking through the day’s images, this one is my favorite of the Dancing Man series.  There was enough moisture in the sand that it reflected the back light in this interesting way.  At the moment, it seems that there are more washed up tires along the shoreline than is usual.  One can always find a tire or two, but after the last bout of high water, it’s like sea turtles that have come along way across the river just to find this certain stretch of beach to haul themselves out on to land again.

Michael, Dancing Man, and Holden, 10/09

Dancing Man ventured too close to Michael and Holden’s fort and was captured.  This image does a good job of giving you some idea of the scale of my Styrofoam figure.  Michael’s in the 8th grade now and Holden is a year behind him.  I’m glad they are good friends and I know it pleases Jeff as well.  I first met him when we were undergraduate art students at Murray State University.  Our families have remained close.  Jeff is a wonderful artist in his own right and has become a middle school art teacher in a neighboring county.  I am going to use Dancing Man for an exhibit I’m participating in this weekend.  I’m also looking forward to my Bluegrass Bioneers talk the same day.  Two separate events both involving my art.  It must be serendipity because it sure wasn’t planned out that way!  Final image is of the guys by their improvised fort.  I’ll catch up with everyone later in what will prove to be a noteworthy week for me.

Michael, Holden, Jeff, and Dancing Man, 10/09

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Yellow Boat

Posted in Absurd, Art, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, Originality, recycled art, watershed, tagged , , , , on October 11, 2009| 2 Comments »

willow trees and water, 10/09

Last week’s rain means that the river is high.  The once exposed fossil beds are now covered by swiftly flowing water.  Along the shoreline, new layers of driftwood have been mixed up, added to, and then deposited on the Indiana side of the Ohio River.  This is usually a good time to see if anything new has washed up.

Yellow Boat, 10/09

I found many of the objects that comprise this blog such as bottles, shoes, balls, Styrofoam, driftwood and more.  Among the more fun discoveries was this toy yellow boat.  I came across it adrift in a puddle and judging from how dinged-up it looks…must have survived a fierce storm.  The boat’s occupant looks like he has a case of sea sickness.

toy boat in puddle, 10/09

Here’s how it looked at the moment of discovery.  After a few snapshots, I pocketed the boat and set out on a quest to find more waters for it to float on.  It was nice taking this break from the last few days.  I have about a dozen Styrofoam sculptures opening in an exhibit at Galerie Hertz next Sunday.  I’m also giving a talk the same day on my art for the Bluegrass Bioneers event.  More on both events later in the week.

Yellow Boat in fallen tree, 10/09

In a fallen tree I found a water-filled hole and a safe harbor for the yellow boat.  So far, it’s still a bit hard to gauge how small the boat is.  That’s what I like about photography…you can’t always judge scale.  To settle it in your mind, I offer this last image that will give its size away!

Yellow Boat in hand, 10/09

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Alien Ballet

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Willow habitat at the Falls, 10/09

The slightest hint of yellow is tinting the willow leaves at the Falls of the Ohio.  Picking my way through the driftwood, my legs brush against the occasional clump of ripening Cocklebur.  This time the bur’s tiny hooks stay fast on the parent plant, but in a few weeks my shoes’  laces will collect all they touch. 

Black-and-white Warbler, 10/09

As far as birds go, I’m in luck today.  Small groups of mixed warbler species are passing by the Falls on their way south.  I saw Magnolia Warblers, American Redstarts, and Black-and-white Warblers moving through the willows.  I watched the Black-and-white Warbler pictured above harvesting drab-colored moths from the fissures in the tree bark.  It seemed that everything happened at once.  The warblers would appear along with Eastern Wood-Peewees, Blue Jays, and a Northern Flicker made the scene.  There would be a brief flurry of activity and then the birds would be gone.  Is there security in the numbers or does the sound and motion confuse the small insects they flush out?  If allowed, I could spend all my time just trying to figure that out.  Here’s a picture of the flicker with his yellow tail.Northern Flicker, 10/09 

 

I’ve walked these same driftwood piles for months, but I still find river-polished Styrofoam and odd bits of plastic that I can use for my sculptures.  I have removed a lot of artificial junk from this place and made art out of most of this stuff.  As far as sculptural processes go, I use both additive and subtracted methods.  The additive parts are apparent in the sticks and such I attach to the polystyrene chunks.  The subtractive part is less obvious and is represented in my mind by the unwanted materials that I remove from the natural beauty of the park.  I rarely do any other carving to the foam chunks themselves.  This needs to be something anyone can do and not be some brilliant example of technical hand skill if I want others to try.

Alien Ballet, 10/09

Here’s what I came up with on this early autumn day along the Ohio River.  I call it the Alien Ballet and I amused myself by making it and the digital images that resulted from the experience!  Recently, I read that the estimated number of potential planets that could harbor life just increased greatly because our ability to see into the universe’s deep places keeps getting better.  This is also based on life as we know it and needing just the right conditions (water, distance from the right type of star, etc…) in other words, other Earth-like planets.  It is interesting to speculate that in the vastness of creation, those conditions that result in life may not be as rare as we currently think.

Alien Ballet, 10/09

My aliens have traveled from that other dimension that is my imagination.  They are revelling in their individuality and dancing together with the light and shadow on the edge of three different states of matter.

Alien Ballet, 10/09

There is value in being in the present moment, right here and now.  Despite the chance of there being other similar worlds in the cosmos, I can’t imagine they would be as conducive to life as we live it than right here on Earth.  We need to celebrate this place while we can.

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The Amateur Archeaologists

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Strolling Couple, 9/09

With summer drawing to a close and the weather being so moderate, our Styro-couple has decided to visit the fossil beds.  The water is low and there are always unusual and interesting things that have been left behind by the previous inhabitants of this land.  On occasion you can find some museum worthy artifacts.  Let’s take a look at what today has to offer.

Rusting Wheel, 9/09

Find # 1 didn’t take very long to come across.  With the river receding very tough and hard-weathering objects start to poke their “heads” above the water line.  This circular metal artifact must have taken great cunning to fashion.  It is now believed that these circular objects ( and they are made of different materials too) were associated with a religious cult and may reference the sun and moon or the changing of the seasons.  This area obviously held great significance for them.

Strolling Couple, 9/09

There is always life to be found near the water.  The Styro-couple moves closer to the beach.  Small flocks of shorebirds scatter before them.  Holes carved into the limestone by the rushing currents are good catch-alls for objects that have been washed out of the mud.  If we get lucky, maybe we will find something of interest?  The fun is in discovering the unexpected!

Muddy bottle, 9/09

It was about the fourth hole we poked our noses into when we came across this mud-washed object.  It’s made from a hard, brittle material and the beach is covered with hundreds of similar fragments.  When you hold some of these fragments up, light will pass through them in various colors.  It’s rare to find one of these objects intact!  So, you can imagine our excitement.  In the literature, it is believed these objects may be musical instruments because a scientist observed that when you direct a flow of air over the hole at just the correct angle…an audible tone is created.  By adding water inside the instrument, different tones can be produced.  The many fragments on the beach suggests these instruments may have been ritually destroyed after use.

Styro-couple, 9/09

Moving from the water’s edge towards a stand of trees near the eastern end of the site, we hope to find artifacts that have been long buried in the soil.  The periodic floods that can cover this area stir up the dirt and bring more fragile materials to the surface.  Earlier in this year, we experienced just such a flood.  It’s been a good day…are we greedy to expect more?

plastic jug and doll, 9/09

Rain-washed and sitting upon the rocks and driftwood are these two artifacts sitting side by side!  It’s every archaeologists dream to find an effigy figure like the one on the right.  Both objects are made from an unknown material whose exact chemistry is a mystery.  It has been observed that this is also a fragile material that breaks apart if exposed to the sun for very long periods of time.  The effigy, it is believed, is made in the likeness of the previous inhabitants.  Some are found complete with heads and limbs and others are not.  What exactly happened to this race is a matter of speculation.  The current theory is that some great climate changing event altered the world to a degree that doomed their civilization.  It will take many, many years of further research by our scientists before a consensus develops.  In the meantime, we will continue to collect their artifacts and be thankful that we were ready to inherit this beautiful world.

Styro-couple being made, 9/09

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The Sandman

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2009| 1 Comment »

The Sandman and Adam, 9/09

The day my son Adam made his dragon, this is what I came up with.  I call him the Sandman and I based him upon the nocturnal visitor familiar in children’s stories.  As Adam and I walked along the river, I found the blue plastic sand shovel and the idea for this piece fell into place.

Cicada, 9/09

While my son and I worked under the willow trees we were serenaded by the cicadas.  The rising and falling buzzing courtship song of the males is a familiar sound of summer.  This year I’ve noticed them more at the Falls than ever before.  Now I understand why the cicada killer wasps are also more common.  I wonder if the wasps detect their prey by sight or do they zero in on the cicada’s sound?

The Sandman, 9/09

This figure is made from the found materials that have become my vocabulary for my Falls works.   Polystyrene foam form the head and body.  Each piece of foam has traveled down the Ohio River from who knows where?  I only use materials that I find in the park and over the years I have been able to keep to this personal rule because so much stuff shows up here through periodic flooding.  The Styrofoam is shaped by natural processes and I add other natural and artificial materials as I see fit and come across them in the debris of the park.

The Sandman, 9/09

The Sandman comes to the Falls of the Ohio because of the quality of the sand.  He wanders along the river’s shore and carefully selects the right sand which he stores in a small bottle.  A little bit of sand goes a long way.  The bottle is worn close to the body with the help of a little waste fishing line which is unfortunately plentiful at the moment.  The Sandman may appear a bit ghostly, but he’s harmless.  His appearance has more to do with the unseen and unknown quality of the night.  So, when you rub the sleep from your eyes in the morning…you will know where the sand comes from.  It’s a gift from the Ohio River formed over deep time.  Sweet dreams.

The Sandman, 9/09

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Ohio River Sea Life

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, unusual collection, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

plastic octopus, sand toy

The inspiration for this post comes from a couple newspaper articles that appeared in the Courier-Journal a few years ago.  Seems somebody found a dead, but genuine octopus at the Falls of the Ohio!  Since our fair area is over a thousand miles away from the ocean and its salty water this was quite a discovery.   How did it get here?  On occassion one hears about other unexpected sea life (I’m thinking of sharks) that have been recorded swimming up rivers.  The octopus, however, is another matter.  In the follow up article to this story the truth of the situation was learned.  A young film enthusiast was making his own monster movie and had procured a dead octopus to use as a prop.  When he was finished with it, he left it to the elements where it was discovered by a passer-by.  Mystery solved.

plastic marlin

In honor of that discovery I thought I would present a few of my own finds from the Falls that carry the sea life theme along.  I regularly collect and photograph in situ the objects the Ohio River washes up at the park.  Here are six plastic toys I have come across.  You have already seen my octopus.  The yellow fish in the above image I think represents a marlin?

green plastic seahorse

Over the years I have found two seahorses.  This green one was discovered just recently, while the orange seahorse is from three years ago.  The fact that millions of years ago this place was a thriving marine ecosystem isn’t lost on me.  Potentially, this will happen again perhaps several times before the earth itself becomes history.

orange plastic seahorse

I have come across a couple of crustaceans as well!  The plastic lobster is a toy sand mold and appeared brightly against the driftwood.

plastic lobster

One of my personal favorites is the realistic red crab I found and photographed around sunset.  It is somewhat by chance that these things would appear here and that I would find them.  Makes me wonder about the other plastic sea life that I know I missed and continued on a journey to the ocean.  After several years of drifting with the currents, these items would find a new home in the ever growing plastic dead spots that are now a fact of today’s oceans. 

red plastic crab

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Adam’s Dragon

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 8, 2009| 3 Comments »

Adam's self-portrait, 9/09

You can tell by looking at this photo that Adam is the life of the party!  I hand my son the camera and the first picture he takes is of himself!  The two of us went to the Falls the other day.  We hiked around and then made some art together.  Here are a few words and images recording our adventure.

Adam crossing over, 9/09

The river is in its summer pool meaning that it’s low this time of year.  The water in this photo is barely ankle to knee deep (and that’s if you step into a hole).  I usually wade over to get to the fossil beds on the Kentucky side.  Adam decided that he prefered the challenge of walking across this old telephone pole someone else had laid across the water and it was a good test of balance.  That’s what I like about walking over driftwood.  You need to pay attention to where you are going.  As we were exploring, Adam came across a piece of wood that reminded him of a dragon’s head and he decided to see if he could make the rest of it from other found materials.  I wonder where he got that idea?

Adam's Dragon head, 9/09

As you can see, Adam has a pretty good eye.  This old beat up piece of wood does resemble a dragon’s head or snapping turtle skull (that was my vote).  The eye socket is in about the right place and it does have a complete mouth with maxilla and mandible.  The other side looks just as good too!  Adam carried his driftwood from the river’s edge to the site that has served as my outdoor studio for months now.  Recently, I did a little “house” cleaning by rearranging  all my found materials.  While I worked on my piece, Adam was busy working on his.  Little Styrofoam people watched from a safe distance and from behind a tree.

Adam working on his dragon, 9/09

Finding material for the body and limbs was on hand, but there was the challenge of what to use for the wings.  Adam did a little scouting around and found this blue, foam-like mat that he cut in half with my knife.  The wings are pegged to the body to hold them in place.  I did help him when he asked for it…which was when we hammered the legs into the body with another piece of wood.  As we worked, I asked him how third grade was going and other topics of conversation, but there were also periods of silence as we focused on our projects.  I heard that’s how you can tell when men are comfortable with one another….when time goes by and neither utters a word to each other.  They don’t need to.

Adam's Dragon, facing right, 9/09

At last the dragon is finished and the beast seems to be roaring its approval.   Adam seemed happy with his efforts.  I’m pleased that for now, he still thinks its fun to come out with Dad to explore, make things, and use our imaginations.  I can’t conceive of  how a person can develop a love for nature unless you have some experience in it?  The outdoors can help nourish the body and spirit in ways that are hard to replicate in school.  We had some fun playing with the dragon which is a dangerous thing to do because they are proud and fickle beasts and one can never completely relax around them.  If you do… than this can happen!

Adam bitten by the dragon, 9/09

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Starry-Eyed and Golden

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

View with Interpretive Center, 8/09

Now this feels more like summer.  The Ohio Valley heat and humidity just grabs your breath and makes it heavy.  After the flash flooding and torrential rains, I thought the park would look a lot different than it does.  You can see that the river did get high because piles of driftwood form a meandering line where the water stopped and receded.  I checked out the new arrangements, but the object that stands out as the find of the day was a plastic, crinkled, French fry!  Something new for the “Fake Food Collection”. dragonfly, 8/09

 

All manner of insect life is present today.  Various dragonfly species patrol the air space just above my head.  I watched a small thread-waisted wasp carry a caterpillar across the sand.  Ants follow their chemical trails through the driftwood.  Some of the willow trees are exuding a sap that’s attractive to dark-bodied flies and an occasional monarch butterfly floats by.  With all this buggy activity, I can feel the energy of life all around me.

Head of Starry-eyed figure, 8/09

The river stopped just short of my studio site.  As I was walking towards it with today’s finds I could hear the voices of children coming from that direction.  For the first time, I actually came across people standing in my spot.  I know I surprised “Grandma” and her two grand children, a boy and a girl.  She explained very quickly that she lives in Clarksville and wanted to take the kids to the river and get exposure to nature.  The girl was holding a small doll I had found months ago and her brother was carrying the wooden ax I had fashioned for my Prince Madoc figure.  Grandma said that they just came across my site and thought some old drunk had hauled all this trash to this spot!  No I explained, it’s just me…some other kind of eccentric with artistic inclinations.  Grandma, however, wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation and the boy laid down the faux weapon.  I said he could have it and his eyes lit up in the way boy’s eyes shine when they get to hold sticks and guns and there is a suggestion of danger.  I told him that if he struck anything with the ax that it would just fall apart.  Grandma said that if they ran into trouble that she wasn’t too worried.  She dug her hand into one of her short’s pockets and pulled out a wicked looking black folding knife!

Starry-eyed figure w/ Gold Ornament, 8/09

Standing proudly by the river is today’s figure!  It’s all stuff I came across between the parking lot and my studio spot.  The plastic star is either a child’s cookie cutter or a clay tool of some sort.  In the center of the star is an acorn.  The other eye combines an orange foam fishing bobber with the cap from a milk jug.  The nose is a fake, plastic tube of lipstick.  The ears are made from the bottom of an aluminum can.  Can you guess what the mouth is?  It’s a hair barrette.  On the end of some old fishing line, the figure holds a plastic, gold ornament of some kind.  I like the way it shines in the light.  I attached the sole of a child’s sandal to the body to create another area of interest.  The rest is Styrofoam and driftwood sticks.

Starry-eyed figure by river, 8/09

I had forgotten how uncomfortable the heat can make things.  My t-shirt and jeans were sticking to my skin.  On such a warm day, why don’t I wear shorts…surely that would be cooler?  Yes, but over the years I have torn my legs up on sharp-bladed grasses, endured insect bites and poison ivy, scratched myself climbing over driftwood and bruised my knees slipping on wet fossil rocks.  You get tired continually healing from something.  I can live with a little perspiration every now and then.

By the wier dam, 8/09

This image was taken under the railroad bridge and next to the eastern tainter gates.  The parking lot is just beyond and up on the hill.  It’s hard to imagine that the level of the river is just about to the top of the wall on the right.  You can’t get any lower in the valley than being at the bottom of the Ohio River, but here at the Falls you can get a feeling for that.  I noticed that the leaves are starting to turn yellow and so summer’s days are numbered.  I did pass a stand of broad-leaved arrowhead plants with their white flowers and thought this a good way to end this post.

Broad-leaved Arrowhead in bloom, 8/09

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Rain Deer

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , on July 26, 2009| 2 Comments »

deer materials, 7/09

I got soaked to the bone on this day.  A realization I had in the middle of the downpour was that I couldn’t get any wetter than this and so I just relaxed.  I had the whole place to myself, since people smart enough to get out of the rain had done so!  The above image are the materials I laid out for the piece I wanted to make…although I did change this in mid process.

Rain Deer, 7/09

I put the finishing touches on this “Rain Deer” right as the wind picked up and the rain came down in earnest.  All day long I had been dodging small showers and the willow leaves and branches were a good enough umbrella…until then.  Once I located what would become the head, I realized that the Styrofoam “body” I had picked out for it was too small.  I instead used this larger piece of “blue foam”…I’m not sure what exactly it is, but I find enough of it.  It doesn’t seem like polystyrene and has a stiffer texture.  I think I have seen this material used for bow-hunting targets before.  It’s dense enough to stop an arrow.  While I was making this sculpture, a Cooper’s Hawk glided through the trees doing some silent hunting of its own.  I saw the barred-tail fan out as it took a left turn out of view.

Running Rain Deer, 7/09

I guess I have been thinking of deer lately.  More and more, I come across their tracks in the sand and mud.  I haven’t seen a live one within the park’s limits, but over the years, I have found plenty of dead ones.  The most memorable experience occurred early on…really years before I started this project in earnest.  A friend and I were hiking around the willow habitat and we could smell something dead nearby.  Searching around we couldn’t locate the source.  For whatever reason, I remember looking up and seeing a dead deer about 10 or 12 feet up lodged in the tree branches.  A  recent flood had deposited the deer there and receded.  At the time, it was a good ground eyes’ view of how high the river could get.

Rain Deer at water hole, 7/09

The passing shower left lots of opportunities to play with reflections and the idea of wildlife coming down to waterholes…which is a staple shot in nature films.  The way this piece is standing, it appears like it has three front legs or is in motion!  I made the head so that the Rain Deer can either look  forward or over its shoulder.  The nose is a split butternut and the eyes are old buckeyes.

Rain Deer at waterhole, 7/09

Rain Deer looking back, 7/09

Our white-tailed deer population is exploding with dramatic consequences.  The number of human injuries from deer collisions with  motorists is up.  More and more deer are appearing in the outlying neighborhoods were they feast on the various gardens and make nuisances of themselves.  Deer are literally eating themselves out of their habitat and damaging the ecosystems other animals rely upon.  For the first time, I’m coming across ticks and I’m attributing their appearance here with the deer they parasitize.

Rain Deer at Waterhole, 7/09

Deer are a good indicator species for the health of the ecosystem.  As we open up the forests we create the kind of habitat deer thrive in.  Deer have taken advantage of this…deer population is much higher now than when the Pilgrims first arrived here.  Although I couldn’t do it, I can see why hunting  them is necessary to control their populations.  Too many deer in one place degrades the habitat also needed by other ground dwelling animals.  But then again, why should we hold the deer accountable for the conditions we created and promoted? The deer is just being true to its nature…can the same be said of us?

Rain Deer head, 7/09

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Day Lilies at the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Art, art and environment, collections, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, sculpture, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , on July 16, 2009| 3 Comments »

Day Lilies blooming,7/09

For many years I have admired the gardening efforts by the staff and park volunteers to beautify the area around the Interpretive Center.  I don’t know if these fine folks get the credit they deserve, but I thought I could devote a post to sing their praises and say thank you.  I would be remiss if I didn’t also notice the man-made loveliness to go with all the man-made rubbish deposited by the river and frequently cited by me in my art.

Day lilies, 7/09

The Day Lily Collection at the Interpretive Center is particularly nice and I have been enjoying the blooms for the past couple of weeks.  Dozens of varieties are represented and each is labelled.  Our area has a very active day lily society and their plant sales are avidly attended.  I have heard people refer to gardening as an “art”, but what about the flowers themselves.  Can a real flower be a work of art?

Yellow spider-lilies, 7/09

Many years ago, (the early 1990’s) I organized an art exhibition entitled “Green” for the Louisville Visual Art Association.  I chose the show’s title before the whole “green” consciousness became so prevalent.  In that show, I had a selective representation of artists  that expressed a concern for the environment.  By far, the artist whose work and ideas I found the most interesting belonged to George Gessert of Eugene, Oregon. 

Day lily, 7/09

red and yellow daylilies, 7/09

pink and yellow, daylilies, 7/09

Gessert considers himself to be a “genetic artist” and his medium are the wild iris varieties he finds in the Pacific northwest.  His basic idea is that the plants and animals we surround ourselves with would not exist in nature without our selectively choosing which characteristics of a given species we find attractive or useful.  He believes what we find attractive in flower blooms is a kind of cultural preference and conditioning and in his own iris works, likes to show what other forms are possible.

deep red daylilies, 7/09

Gessert’s ideas and work raises many possibilities which he has made clear in several articles in the Science/Art journal “Leonardo”.  If we think artists are people who create beauty by manipulating inert materials what do you call it when living materials are used?  Could a dog or horse be considered a living sculpture because they wouldn’t exist in their present forms without our intervention?  Just as interesting is the observation that we are surrounding ourselves with plants and animals that are hybrids or cultivars.  Look around you, how many of the plants do you see in your yard that are wild and native?  It’s fewer than you think.

Falls view with daylilies, 7/09

With genetics, the intersection of art and life is about to get really blurry.  As we learn more about the molecular codes that program life, the more tempted we are to experiment.  There is always the specter of eugenics as well and the quest to make people not just better, but superior.  Another possibility is that we may make new varieties of food plants that could feed an overcrowded and starving planet.  As for the question about the flower being a work of art in itself…I’m going to say yes.  I like that art can push the boundaries of what is considered the norm and in the process alert us to  and prepare us for the future.  After Gessert, I can’t look at a typical garden in the same way as I once did without thinking about the issues he raises.

daylilies at the Falls, 7/09

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