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Posts Tagged ‘nature’

Finding the Spirit of the Season

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, Clarksville, creativity, Found objects, material culture, Photograpy, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, children's story, decorating a Christmas tree, Ekostory, Falls of the Ohio State Park, found materials, material culture, nature, nature story, Snowman, spirit of a place, Spirit of the Season, star power, Styrofoam on December 25, 2015| 7 Comments »

Here’s a little story set at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana that will help carry us into the new year. This tale is from a few weeks back, but I have been saving it. I have, however, been using many of the images I created on this day for use with my Christmas cards. Making ornaments, setting up holiday lights, and coming up with a new batch of cards to give away are my ways of getting into the spirit of the season. I also enjoy attempting to put into words something about my Falls experiences and the following is this year’s gift from the river. Today, we are in the western section of the park. I know of four special trees with exposed roots (three sycamores and one cottonwood) that hang out together and have survived a very tough year and were due a visit from me. With the daylight fading, this would be a good place to watch the sun set as the Ohio River turns left on its journey westward.

Getting into the right spirit of the season can be difficult for some folks. Especially, when the weather is abnormally warm and you were hoping for snow to get winter kick started in the right direction. The Falls of the Ohio, like much of the eastern portion of our country, is currently in the grips of El Nino. Our area has set several all-time records for heat for this time of year. What a contrast from last year’s polar vortex! As luck would have it, the Styro-Snowman happened to be around when I was visiting the river. I stuck around to see what would happen next.

Although this snowman wore a fixed expression, his odd movements communicated befuddlement? Something was missing or just not right. I could see him looking around for something…perhaps a reminder of the season, but nothing appeared obvious? After roaming the fossil cliffs for several minutes he stopped and looked towards the sky. That’s when an amazing thing happened and if I didn’t have these pictures to prove it…I am sure you would not believe me. As the sun, our star, was setting…another star much smaller and shaped like a snowflake descended from the sky. I wondered if my friend here had willed it to him or did the star appear spontaneously? As the star drifted by the Styro-being reached up and gently brought the star down to earth. I could sense a feeling of joy coming over the snowman.

Along with the snowflake star…a small white sack appeared on the ground. Inside the sack were five, slightly beat up plastic tree ornaments like the kind you can sometimes find at the Falls after the flooding has subsided. The snowman looked into the sack a pulled out a roughed up, but still functional, deep red ornament. His expression widened and I almost felt like I was reading his mind. The snowman walked over to one of the four trees with the great roots and began decorating its branches.

The first tree the snowman embellished had a more open arrangement with ornaments hung on several branches. For whatever reason, the snowman didn’t find this to be satisfactory and he took his five ornaments off and moved to another nearby tree.

On a low hanging limb of another rugged sycamore, the snowman hung up his ornaments with care. He saved his bright red bauble for last and placed it upon the branch which was accomplished precariously by standing on a large tree root. The snowman looked content when he was finished and paused a moment or two to soak up his handiwork.

Oddly, the snowman had hung up his ornaments in a straight line that ascended the tree branch. Wordlessly, I could tell that he was moved by this alignment, but why? The tree, after all, could have been decorated any number of ways. Something about this configuration made me think of celestial models and how we rank planets based by size or their proximity to the sun. The now extraordinary branch seemingly had this cosmic link going for it. The snowman stood behind his decorations and peered up the line which seemed to be sighted to a particular spot in the night sky that seemed a little darker than the surrounding space.

Without saying a single word, the Styro-Snowman elevated the star that had come to him from high above. He had borrowed some of its magic and now it was his time to pass it on. It floated off until it reached that now dark spot in the firmament that it normally occupied. A bright flash of light signaled that the snow star was back in position. It is said that all life contains a little star power within it and I think I just witnessed that in action. With his spirit lifted, the snowman looked over his shoulders at me and with his fixed acorn smile disappeared into the river.

I dedicate this little story to all who seek some personal connection to the spirit of the season or who simply are following magic stars of their own. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season’s Greetings from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Rare Sandpiper at the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, birding, creativity, environmental art, found materials, Found objects, material culture, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, photography, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged accidental bird, Art, artist at exit 0, birds, Devonian fossil beds, Falls of the Ohio State Park, found art, material culture, Monarch butterfly, nature, photography, rare sandpiper, sense of place, site specific artwork, Styrofoam, the natural and the artificial on August 25, 2015| 4 Comments »

Once a year, usually in mid to late summer, the dam is closed and the water retreats off of and exposes the ancient Devonian fossil beds. It is an other worldly landscape of blonde-colored rocks that preserves in limestone the proof that life existed over 400 million years ago. This exact place during that time too ancient to imagine was in the latitude of the present day Bahama Islands. Then it is was a marine reef supporting early salt water animals, most especially a large variety of corals. Today, this is a fresh water environment defined by the Ohio River. My goal is to cross over to the Kentucky side (where the majority of the fossil beds are located) by wading through the shallower areas near the tainter gates. Unfortunately, and unforseen by me, all the recent high water has made the riverbank a slippery muddy mess and the current that is allowed to flow through a channel by the dam is still too strong to wade through. I got almost half way across and found the footing treacherous. I didn’t fear for my personal safety, but I didn’t want to risk dunking my camera and phone in the water. Thwarted today, I will need to make better provisions for that the next time I attempt this.

So, I did the next best thing which was to explore the riverbank and nearby Willow Habitat. The resident colony of Black Vultures was hanging out under what shade some of these willow trees could provide. The bird in the above image is a sentry maintaining its post outside of where the main group of birds were resting under the nearby trees. The vulture flock doesn’t seem as large as it has been in the recent past. Perhaps the prolonged conditions of having a high river forced some of these large birds of prey to seek greener pastures? The vultures would allow me to only get so close before jumping into the air in search of thermals to lift them even higher. I continued my modified trip by walking towards the fossil cliffs below the Interpretive Center.

It was a very hot day and in places you would come across areas that were once very wet and had dried revealing a wonderful network of cracks.

I’m proud of myself. In addition to wearing a cap…I made sure to bring along plenty of drinking water on this very hot and humid day. Here my bottle is wrapped in a heavy mil plastic bagel bag. I used this to keep the other items in my pack dry just in case this bottle leaked. I continued my hike to the fossil cliffs when I could see something snow-white in color moving along the ground. At first I thought this was a piece of paper disturbed by the breeze, but soon noticed it was moving in bird-like fashion. I continued approaching very carefully yet deliberately and had my cameras at the ready. Here is my first image of what would soon be many.

Switching over to higher magnification, I could see my new bird was a species I had never encountered out here before. In the comfort of my own home I was able to identify this little guy as the Yellow-collared Sandpiper (Caladris fascinati). This is a tiny shorebird more at home in the Pacific Northwest and has rarely been recorded east of the Mississippi River. This is the first recorded instance of this bird at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. So, what was it doing here so far away from home?

It is not unusual for this park to record rarities during the migration seasons in early spring and autumn. To see this bird here outside the normal times shorebirds would be migrating through our area makes me think this bird is here by accident. Perhaps one of the monster storms we have experienced this year blew this little one way off course? Looking at my reference guides, I identified this as being a juvenile of the species. You can tell that by the pink bill. Once fully mature, the bill turns dark, nearly black in color. I have recorded other juvenile shorebirds migrating through the park on other Falls of the Ohio adventures. In particular, I remember seeing juvenile Golden Plovers and once…even saw a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher. What makes these sightings all the more incredible for me is knowing that a few short weeks ago…these birds were beginning life as eggs in shallow nests located in the high Arctic tundra. Normally, the Yellow-collared Sandpiper migrates down the Pacific coastline of the United States, crosses into Mexico, and winters in Central America. This is a journey of several thousand miles.

I observed this bird for about a half hour or so. I watched it feeding around the margins of small pools of water that had puddled on the fossil beds. It used its pink bill to probe the soft mud in search of the tiny invertebrates that make up the bulk of its diet. The bird seemed not to be concerned about me and I took many photographs to document its presence in the park.

The mouse-like bird moved like a wind-up toy on the fossil rocks. When it moved, its tiny legs seemed to be going as quickly as they could. The sandpiper had a curiosity for the world and checked out every clump of vegetation and crack upon the limestone surface as potential sources for food. Perhaps it was the hawk that flew high over our heads casting a fast shadow upon these ancient reefs that scared it away or perhaps it just grew tired of my company…regardless, the Yellow-collared Sandpiper flew away in a blur of brown wings. I thought I could detect a high “peep” call note as it went skyward. Heading back to my vehicle, I had one more pleasant surprise in store for me. While this is not on par for rarity, seeing the beginning of the Monarch butterfly migration going through our small piece of the planet is still an awesome occasion. Like the Yellow-collared Sandpiper, the Monarch butterfly has a very impressive migration of its own as it moves from Canada to Mexico and back again. On my way home, I said a little prayer asking for the continued safety of all the small things moving through the world. I guess that’s it for this time at the Falls of the Ohio.

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Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Super Wet July

Posted in Absurd, animals, art and environment, Art and Nature, Artist at Exit 0, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, flip-flops, found materials, lost sandals, material culture, nature photography, Ohio River, Ohio River flooding, Originality, Photograpy, public art, recycled art, repurposed materials, sense of place, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, Asian carp, day lilies, Falls of the Ohio, Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center, flooding along the Ohio River, mud flower, nature, photography, sense of place, snapping turtle, story telling on July 19, 2015| 2 Comments »

I’ve been to the river three times this month, but this is my first post for July! Where to begin? It’s been eventful in so many ways. First, the hard drive of my computer crashed which put me out of business for a few weeks. All the while this was being dealt with…the river has been high due to what seems like at times, monsoon-intensity rains. Not light, gentle rains, but strong storms that dump inches of rain at one time and are often accompanied by high winds. I suspect that this year’s June and July will be among the wettest combos recorded around here. There has been tragedy too. Five people lost their lives in a boating accident while watching the 4th of July fireworks display in front of downtown Louisville. The river was especially high and fast flowing when their pontoon boat struck a parked barge sending people into the water. It took several days to recover the bodies. We may think that we can manage the river through levies and dams, but nature often has other ideas. Where is all this water coming from and can be this be further evidence of the planet’s changing climate? When I see before and after pictures of what were former glaciers or images of huge ice shelves breaking off of Antarctica…that fresh water goes somewhere right? Seems there is a lot of moisture being drawn up into the atmosphere which then precipitates out over the land. Too bad it doesn’t seem to be going where it is needed the most.

For the moment, all my usual haunts at the Falls of the Ohio are under water. Usually during this time of year, the fossil beds are at their most extensively exposed. I love being able to walk over the fossil beds which makes me feel like I’m on another planet. Once the water recedes, there will be a newly rearranged landscape to explore along with its attendant material culture that gets left behind. This is how I obtain my art supplies.

This is a view along the Fixed Wier Dam and Upper Tainter Gates in the eastern section of the park. The water level had been higher and is in the process of going down a bit. I noticed fish activity and was surprised to see Asian carp congregating in the swirling, muddy water.

About midway down you can see a carp that is doing its own impression of a salmon going upstream. Let’s zoom in for a closer look.

Here are a few more details of fish jumping. I was surprised that my cellphone camera was able to catch this action. Some of the fish I observed were very large. I would estimate the largest ones I saw were plus 50 pounds.

And here is one more image catching a fish in mid air.

There are a couple of species of Asian carp and they are all highly invasive and non-native. To see these fish jumping to overcome obstacles on their way upriver shows how determined they can be. These fish feed on algae and other tiny water organisms. They out compete native species and are highly prolific. Extensive campaigns have been launched to control or eradicate these fish with limited results. The big fear is that they will make their way into the Great Lakes were they pose a huge issue for that fishery. In Western Kentucky, at Land Between the Lakes, a commercial fishery has been created to harvest these carp by netting them. Because they eat tiny micro organisms, they can not be taken by rod and reel unless you happen to snag one by accident. The goal is to create a commercial demand for its flesh and apparently they are a coveted food item in China. Although a demand for these carp may be created…they are also in our waters for good now. The fish I photographed are on their way to Cincinnati and points northward along the Ohio River and all its tributaries and streams that feed this great river. Carp were not the only creatures around on this day. Check out this guy!

Walking along the edge of the flooding, I came across this large, Common Snapping Turtle that was bulldozing its way to the river. It emerged from underneath some high weeds and was unaware of me at first. As I came closer, it started to pull its head underneath its shell as much as it could while raising up on its legs to appear even more menacing and large. This big turtle did hiss and lunge for me a few times and after a couple snapshots…I left it alone. This turtle was large enough to remove a finger if that unfortunate person should offer it. Although it moved slowly for the most part, it did have the ability to strike quickly and its neck could reach out further than you may have anticipated! I have found dead snappers at the Falls before that were washed into here by flooding or were caught and killed by fisherman. This is the first live one I have seen here and it was a beauty! Being confined to the margins of the swollen river did have some benefits. I came across two remarkable flowers that I would like to present. Here is the first one I discovered on the Fourth of July.

This is the first of two Giant Mud Flowers (from the genus Siltana) that I have discovered at the Falls of the Ohio. They are large perennials that appear only when the conditions are just right. Apparently, all the flooding we have experienced along the river has proven ideal for this rare bloom. This flower sports large, fleshy “petals” that are organized around a central core that emerges first from the soil. No leaves are visible and much is unknown about this rare plant. It is believed that after blooming, the Mud Flower puts its remaining energies into producing a single, round seed about the size of a golf ball. Attempts to grow this plant under controlled conditions have thus far proven to be unsuccessful. Here is a different flower which may or may not be a related species?

This specimen was found during mid month in a different section of the park. On the surface, it compares well with the preceding example. Noticeably, the thick petals are of different colors and the central core is a different structure. Botanists may eventually determine that these two Giant Mud Flowers are related, but different species too. Much is needing to unlock the key to how this species survives and whether there are any pollinating agents involved at all? I am going to end today’s trip with one more flower photograph. This was taken in front of the still renovating Interpretive Center. There is a wonderful day lily garden here with many different varieties. The center is hoping to be back open to the public come this fall. I want to thank park director, Kelley Morgan for inviting me to talk during their volunteer appreciation dinner. I loved being in a room full of left brained people who must have thought where did this “odd duck” came from? Everyone was very nice and interested in what I do which admittedly, deviates from the norm! What I like is that however we view and use the park…we all have a passion for this very special place. Here’s hoping my next post will occur under dryer circumstances!

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Big Jug Rainbow and Stump Flower

Posted in Absurd, animals, art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, collections, creativity, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, flip-flops, Found objects, Installation, lost and found, lost sandals, material culture, nature photography, photography, public art, recycled art, repurposed art, sense of place, Site specific art, tagged Art, art and the environment, artificial rainbow, artist at exit 0, Big Eyed Click Beetle, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, lost and found, nature, photography, plastic containers, rainbow colors, sense of place, tree stump, willow trees on June 18, 2015| 11 Comments »

Life in a bucket. I’ve seen this before and written about it in an older blog post. Regardless, whenever I encounter something like this I remain amazed at life’s ability to thrive in less than optimum circumstances. A little river mud in an old broken plastic bucket gets colonized by a few windblown grass seeds, add a little rainfall and sunshine and life does the rest. Well, some life can do this and some can’t. The future will be determined by the life that can adapt and be resilient in the face of adversity. Walking on the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio I wonder about our chances for success living on a planet that we have diminished to suit our own ends. I have no doubt that whatever the future holds, life will find a way. Whether or not that includes us remains to be seen.

On that jolly note I introduce my latest two projects! I got up fairly early in the morning and got a head start on the heat. By the early afternoon, I was whipped, exhausted, and wet from the humidity trapped in the local vegetation. Summer is officially upon us. It’s interesting how many conversations I’ve had this year with people similar in age to me who have remarked that as the years pass by their tolerance for the heat and humidity decreases. This was one of those days I could commiserate with them! As I was walking along the Falls landscape, I noticed an area that seemed to have a good supply of plastic containers and decided on the spot to do another petroleum rainbow piece. This is how I started out, literally beating the bushes for containers of different sizes, colors, and shapes. The material lying on the driftwood was easy to access, but in other places the vines were beginning to cover and camouflage what was under their urgent greenness.

I started out collecting various plastic jugs that originally held contents of one gallon or greater…hence “big jug”. I soon expanded that as the need for particular shades of colors became a priority. I would have liked to use more “orange”, but couldn’t find enough plastic containers in this area that day that were that color. Still, I managed a small sliver of “orange” to mark the transition from “red” to “yellow”.

“Big Jug Rainbow” is situated under a stressed willow tree that is bent over from the weight of lots of driftwood that was deposited in its canopy by flood waters. A nice verdant cave was formed and it felt like a good framing element for this piece. Here is what it looked like from the other side of the tree.

The willow trees in this habitat are twisted up and have lots of character. They remind me of the forms you find in bonsai trees, except their size is obviously much larger. In a past post, I’ve mentioned how this area’s beavers like to prune off small branches and eat the bark. This helps shape the trees. This year, I can see in dramatic fashion another element that contributes to the trees’ overall forms. The weight of the deposited wood bends the branches down and the willow continues to grow under this burden. The driftwood will remain in the tree until the river rises or the wind knocks the deposited logs down.

Bleaching, exposed driftwood atop a willow tree with my “Big Jug Rainbow” under its influence. Happy with this piece, I collected my bag and walking stick and headed further under the trees seeking shade and relief from the sun. Along the way, I was delighted to run into one of my favorite insects found at the Falls of the Ohio.

This is the Eastern Eyed Click Beetle or Big Eyed Click Beetle, (Alaus oculatus). This is one of the larger beetles you will find in our area and this is the largest of our click beetles. The biggest specimens are nearly two inches long or roughly 45mm in length. They have this wonderful, cryptic bird-dropping coloring. The eyespots on the pronatum or thorax are dramatic and large. The females lay their eggs in or near rotting wood (in abundance here) and I’m sure to come across these slow flyers at least a couple of times per season. Last year, I was startled when one landed on the back of my head and got tangled in my hair. It gave me a momentary fright to have some then unknown large insect crawling on my head. Fortunately, they don’t bite. The larvae on the other hand will eat other insects they encounter.

As has been my recent custom, as I walk along I collect any lost flip-flops that I find. At day’s end, I find a place to make something with the day’s finds. I came across this table-like tree stump that seemed like an invitation to do something with. I emptied the contents of my collecting bag and created “Stump Flower”.

The circular form in the center I believe is a sand toy? I found it laying nearby and thought it helped suggest a flower head. I think as I return to many of the places where I’ve made these flip-flop projects…I will re-gather them and perhaps recycle them into a more complex form. At day’s end, the walk back to my vehicle took a lot of effort. I did go by my “Big Jug Rainbow” piece and took one last image of it from some distance. You can barely see it through all the leafage, but it is there in all its artificial glory. That bottle of warm water I had stashed under the car seat sure tasted good! Thanks to everybody for stopping by…until next time from the Falls of the Ohio.

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Making New Friends

Posted in art and environment, Art and Nature, art and the environment, Artist at Exit 0, assemblage art, creativity, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, Found objects, nature photography, photography, public art, recycled art, repurposed materials, sculpture, sense of place, Site specific art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, creativity, driftwood mound, Falls of the Ohio, materiality, meeting new friends, nature, photography, plastic bottles, polystyrene, public art, railroad bridge, sense of place, site specific art, Styrofoam on June 10, 2015| 2 Comments »

So easy to get behind on creating new posts! As it often happens out here at the Falls of the Ohio…more stuff goes on than most people care to read in a single post. This will be a relatively short, but hopefully sweet story. A few weeks a go on a lovely sunny and warm weekend morning I decided to visit the Falls and see how my green bottle piece was surviving. I had positioned it on the other side of a washed out boat dock that was peaking out of a huge pile of driftwood and debris that had washed into here a few months a go. The above photo is how it would first appear to anyone venturing onto this driftwood mound. And, this is how it would appear from the other side looking towards the parking lot and fixed wier dam.

My segregating all the green glass and plastic bottles into the exposed structure of the boat dock was holding up fairly well. I just had a little bit of straightening up to do. The fact I went back to something I had made before was somewhat unusual since I prefer moving forward by making something new. I guess this piece was holding up a little better than some of my other projects by virtue of it being somewhat hidden and few folks want to venture onto this shifting mound of materiality. You can get hurt here if you are not careful and it’s easy to have a foot go through a weak spot on the mound. This has happened to me many times, but knock on wood, I have never been injured by my carelessness. I was admiring my handiwork and whistling to the Baltimore Orioles that were in the nearby cottonwood trees when I saw two people approaching my position.

Here are a couple of pictures of my new friends in action. It’s the mother and daughter team of Marjie and Anika and they were here at the Falls collecting flat, weathered boards for a shed they were making back at their home. When they saw me they came right over to see what I was doing and they saw the bottle piece which they enjoyed. Of course, one thing led to another and we had a great conversation about conservation, recycling, and the value of being outdoors. We even discovered that we have a good friend in common in Claude Stephens who works at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. They were once neighbors. Marjie is a very practical and inventive person and I was particularly struck by how she has been able to eliminate all the soap products from her home save one. I don’t want to mention that product by name, but you are familiar with it. It’s a dishwashing liquid that is especially good at cleaning oil soaked sea mammals and birds. Apparently, by adjusting the strength of the soap by diluting it with water you can have an all-purpose cleanser that’s good for the laundry and can be used for shampoo too! Standing on this debris mound, it would be very easy to show you examples of all the many plastic containers that are used by all the myriad kinds of soap products. Cutting them out of our waste chain would be a dream come true! I showed them images of other projects I had made and stored on my cell phone and they became inspired by some of the figurative pieces I’ve made from Styrofoam. That got this dynamic duo going and they were off to make a Styrofoam sculpture of their very own!

They are an ambitious pair and decided to use the biggest polystyrene chunks they could find on this mound. I helped them set the body upright since it was still a bit heavy with retained water. The figure soon became a robot with found toy balls for eyes and a light bulb stuck on top of its head like a cherry on a sundae! It was a bit tricky keeping one’s balance standing on the driftwood. I find it helps to stand on the bigger logs which are less likely to shift or break. After sticking on a pair of arms, Marjie and Anika left their creation in place. We said our goodbyes and they collected the boards they had chosen for their shed and went home. I stuck around a little longer and took a few more images.

It’s rare when I meet folks out here who not only “get” what I do, but want to participate too. Creativity is a human birthright and can be expressed in so many ways. I especially enjoy it when I meet people who use their creativity to benefit the planet even in the smallest way. Those individuals inspire me. I exchanged email addresses with Marjie and she later sent me pictures of the shed she built at home. As it turns out, this was not the last time I would meet mother and daughter. They came out in support of a Public Art Walk event that was produced by the organization I now work for…the Carnegie Center for Art and History in historic New Albany, Indiana. Work there has been keeping me busy, but I manage to come and visit my beloved Falls and Ohio River whenever opportunity allows. I’ve made other projects lately and look forward to sharing them with you soon. Here’s to everyone having a great summer this year!

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A Different Kind of March Madness

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, art and the environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, Photograpy, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged 3 Stooges Ball, Art, art and the environment, artist at exit o, assemblage, driftwood, ecological art, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, March Madness, nature, Ohio River flooding, photography, plastic, sense of place, Styrofoam on April 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A view from last weekend when the water level was dropping and the sun was shining and welcoming. Curiosity overwhelmed me and I ventured forth over the driftwood piles and muddy riverbanks. Looks like most of the driftwood at the Interpretive Center has been washed away, however, under the railroad bridge, a sizeable mound of twisted matter has accumulated. To avoid sinking ankle-deep in mud…I gingerly walk on the backs of huge logs and pick my way through the debris field.

This most recent bit of flooding has deposited a large number of plastic drinking bottles onto this landscape. I am assuming that the river isn’t through rising for the moment because two days ago…we received about six inches of new rain overnight. Statistically, that was the most rain ever recorded on an April day in Kentucky’s history and the fourth biggest rainfall total for a day during any month in our state’s experience. We had a lot of localized flooding from that storm and coupled with the immense fire at the General Electric Appliance Park, put the national spotlight on Louisville…twice in one day. The GE fire and subsequent thick, nasty smoke with its fumes and particulate matter from incinerated plastic rose into the clouds and was a nearly apocalyptic vision. Many people mistook the immense column of smoke for a tornado and the weather services were peppered with false alarms. All this goes into saying that environmentally, it’s been a rough few weeks around here. Spring while lovely with the returning sunshine and greenery, also has this dark side which it is not afraid to show from time to time.

I can be sure to find novelties among all this brown materiality. Can’t say I have ever come across a Three Stooges ball before and there they were, Larry, Curley, and Moe looking up at me! There were other treasures as well. Here’s a snapshot of a toy I found that I dropped into the old collecting bag.

Discovered resting upon the wood and bark chips was this plastic fragment from a vintage toy. It is missing it’s backside. I have found similar old toys before and now suspect the river has cut into a landfill and liberated these older toys from the ground.

Came across this large carp which was one of three dead animals I found. Also located the remains of a Black Vulture and a Canvasback Duck that looked to be what was left from a bird of prey’s meal. Every now and then, you discern a sickly sweet smell emanating from the driftwood and you know some other unfortunate life form is buried under the debris.

This is the centerpiece of my former outdoor studio area where I had cached many of the materials I found in the park. All the Styrofoam pieces I had salvaged for artworks have washed away, but there is a fresh batch for the picking. This large, painted, metal disc is what I’ve been calling the “UFO” which is short for Unknown Floating Object. It washed into the park several years a go and subsequent floods have yet to move it out. It is now tilted and has all this driftwood around it. Formerly, it was laying flat on the ground and made a nice surface to work on. My time is limited today and I want to make something from all this “abundance” out here. I select a few large chunks of Styrofoam and begin constructing a figure.

Large, Styrofoam head in progress, March 2015

Some of the large pieces of Styrofoam I want to work with are water-logged and too heavy to move. I will wait a few weeks and see if the sun dries them out more? I select two pieces for what will be a large, absurd figure and get to work. I pick up junk around my feet and created this large head. I move a really large polystyrene block into place atop the driftwood pile next to a river buoy that says “Idle Zone” on it. For the next couple of hours, I will be anything but idle.

While I was constructing this figure, I decided to call it “March Madness”. According to the Walls Street Journal and ESPN, the Louisville area is the epicenter of interest in the college basketball game and its season ending national championship tournament. Our region usually has several teams competing for top honors. On the day I made this figure, the University of Louisville Cardinals were knocked out of contention. I attached an old basketball to the end of a very long arm. The slight breeze blowing at the time caused the figure’s arms and head to sway and vibrate in place.

I look forward to spending a bit more time out here…weather permitting. If everything remains in place, there is a chance to make several large figures this season. I will be curious to see if this figure is still standing or whether park visitors or the elements have toppled it? I just received a notification from WordPress that I have just reached my sixth anniversary of blogging with them! For today, I will end with a picture of a tree that recently was completely underwater. You can tell how high the water rose from the junk caught among the branches. Happy Easter everybody!

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Muddy Falls and Galerie Hertz

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and the environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, driftwood, exhibition, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, found objects, Galerie Hertz, material culture, nature, Ohio River flood, photography, plastic bottles, repurposed objects, sense of place, site specific, Styrofoam on March 28, 2015| 5 Comments »

The Ohio River remained higher than expected and was bolstered by a few days of rain. I visited the Falls of the Ohio last weekend during a moment when the water level had dropped just enough to reveal a muddy shoreline with its accompanying line of stranded debris. The places in the park I like to work and visit were still underwater.

I put on my “Falls shoes” which were already muddy and that I keep outside on the front porch of my house and headed for the river. As usual, I brought a collecting bag and camera with me and ventured forth to see what there was to see. In places, you could tell that the river with its water-born logs had acted as a battering ram and pretty much leveled the vegetation nearest to the water.

The silt and clay are both very fine and sticky when wet. I gingerly step on wood and other debris to keep from sinking ankle-deep in this quagmire. I enjoy looking at the rippling wave patterns that the water creates. I call this “river shivers” and imagine if the riverbank could display “goose-flesh” that it would look something like this. And speaking of geese…

…the flock of Canada geese I photographed the previous week, left their footprints everywhere in the mud. Their friend, the ex-patriot domestic goose, was still hanging out with them.

Of course, nearly every place you looked, you could see man-made trash and driftwood. Much of this material has originated far from here. When things finally dry out enough for a more thorough exploration, I’m expecting to find all kinds of examples of our material culture washed into the park.

Interspersed with the bottles are lots of other plastic items and various foam-based garbage including Styrofoam…my primary sculptural material. This is just a detail of one small area. Already I’m seeing hundreds of plastic drinking bottles. I’ve been asked on more than one occasion if I’m ever afraid that I might poison myself or get an infection from something that I’ve found out here by the river. My short answer is yes. One needs to be concerned, however, I don’t press my luck with anything that looks at all questionable. I guess I do place a lot of trust that the billions of gallons that constitutes the Ohio River does in effect “wash” the stuff that I use. So far, knock on wood, I’ve never had an adverse reaction after working out here for more than a decade. The Falls of the Ohio State Park is a public space and what I encounter is also what the public encounters.

Here’s the trunk of my car after this brief foray to the river. This may be hard for some of you to believe, but I’m actually very selective now. These days, I only carry back to my home work space, the “cream of the crop”. I prefer to make my artworks at the river, but will also take materials home to “hedge my bets” and for workshop purposes. The larder I had created at my “UFO” (Unknown Floating Object) outdoor studio is now long gone and I wonder if that circular metal platform is still around…or has it finally floated away too?

While temporally stymied by water and mud, I have the opportunity to interact with the local art world in a more usual way. Galerie Hertz which represents my art in Louisville opened a collage and assemblage group show. Billy and his partner Tom have been important players in our city’s cultural life. They have been rightly credited for creating an arts district on Market Street through the activities of their renovated galleries. Each new space the pair opened was an upgrade of a building that needed some help. This gentrification has attracted other galleries and dealers, bars, restaurants, and several home décor stores along Market Street. In typical Galerie Hertz fashion, Billy and Tom have moved on to a different location and their current gallery where I’m showing my works is now on South Preston Street. How often is it the case that creative folks move into formerly neglected areas and bring them to back to life?

Among the works I have in this group show is this piece entitled “Moon Star”. I made this piece at the river, but felt is could use a bit more embellishment. I added many found bicycle tire reflectors and some river-polished glass around the head. When the light hits it just right, the reflectors just glow.

Through the miracle of “Styro-dermy”, I saved the Polar Beaver I encountered recently. To get this piece to sit the way I want it to…I have embedded three, large, lead fishing weights into the tail to counterbalance the body.

This diminutive figure is called “The Harbinger of Spring” and I created him last year at this time. I also wrote an accompanying story that helped explain how winter transitions to spring. Although I like to think that many of my Styrofoam-bodied sculptures can hold their own as freestanding objects…they are also relics and artifacts of a site specific performance that happens out at the river and is additionally documented through photographs and stories. At the moment, the sun is shining, but it is also cold at the river. Tomorrow is another day, another day for the river to recede and the mud to dry. I think I will get up early and give it a go. I will let you know what I discover at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

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High Water High

Posted in Art, art and environment, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature photography, Ohio River, Photograpy, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, driftwood, Falls of the Ohio, flooding on the Ohio River, flotsam and jetsam, geese, nature, photography, plastic debris, skyline of Louisville Kentucky, the Humana Building on March 16, 2015| 1 Comment »

Following is a portfolio of images I made the first week of March during a bout of minor flooding that at the time of this writing has not yet subsided. After a late season rain and record-breaking snow storm, the Ohio River predictably has swelled its banks. During the past week, we received several more days of rain that kept the water level high. This is seasonal and normal flooding that we usually experience almost every year. I heard the other day that the river hasn’t been at this level since 2011. I published some images of this series on my newly minted Facebook page and will try to avoid duplicating those images here.

Many of these images are of the skyline of Louisville as seen from a soggy Falls of the Ohio State Park. Currently, in Louisville, low-lying sections of our roadways are underwater and a major downtown exit has been closed. River Road is truly in the river. The city is expecting an influx of visitors to arrive by Thursday for the start of the NCAA basketball tournament. Louisville is one of the host sites and our basketball arena is right on the river. As long as there isn’t anymore significant precipitation along the Ohio River Valley, the river should drop fairly quickly.

Light levels were dropping fast near day’s end and I used my camera phone to record these images. There was no wind and the only motion was created by a fast flowing river. I like the way the inundated trees along with their reflections create this frieze that was fun to use in framing a composition.

The Army Corps of Engineer Tainter Gates are under water. Usually, they hold the muddy Ohio River at bay exposing the world-famous fossil beds for exploration. This image captures a long train crossing over the old iron bridge. My outdoor studio where I stash my materials has long since floated away. I will need to start from scratch again, but I have done this many times before. Once the river subsides, I will be able to find new art materials to work with. Frankly, I like it when the park floods a bit. The Ohio River is so dynamic and along with the changing of the seasons provides a novel landscape every time I visit.

Now there is also a downside to all this activity. All the pent-up junk along both banks of the river is free once more to continue its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. In this image, there’s lots of plastic bottles for drinking and oil products plus the usual Styrofoam and driftwood all mixed together. The brightly colored plastic contrasts with the natural tones of the river.

This sign is up all year round, but frankly it makes the most sense to me during moments like this. Floating junk forms a line about where the dam’s wall would be.

Even though the river was high…there was also lots of signs of life. Soon it will be time for the Spring migration of birds moving north which is one of my favorite times of the year in the park. I took several images of this flock of geese. Most are Canada Geese, but the one guarding the rear is a domestic escapee. I have watched this bird with this particular flock of geese for several years now. Usually, the Canada Geese are very territorial especially towards others of their own kind. Perhaps that is the key to the domestic goose’s acceptance…he really isn’t one of them and so he’s tolerated.

Except for some selective cropping of a few images…I have done nothing else to them. In this image, I have made the geese more prominent by eliminating the water in the foreground that makes up most of the photograph. The other nice bird sighting of the day was seeing a juvenile Bald Eagle doing a fly over. Eagles are becoming more common sights along the Ohio River and several pairs have built nests fairly close to the city.

You can get a better sense for this “gentle flood” by showing a few inundated trees. Here larger pieces of driftwood have been blown or directed by currents to the Indiana side of the Ohio River. You can also see plastic junk interspersed among the wood.

The City of Louisville’s downtown section as seen from under the railroad bridge at the Falls of the Ohio. The pink rectangular building with the bluish-green highlights (second tallest building on the right) is the Humana Building. It’s architect, Michael Graves, passed away a few days a go. The Humana Building is considered one of Graves’ Post Modern masterpieces and one of the nicest buildings in our city. I remember when Humana’s founder, Wendell Cherry kept some of his art collection on view in the building that the public could tour on occasion. You might come across Roman statuary in one room and a tall Giacometti bronze in another. The art holdings were amazing. Cherry was mostly secretive about his purchases and once paid the world record for a painting at auction when he bought an early Blue period Picasso self-portrait entitled “Yo Picasso”. I believe the disclosed purchase price was just under 7 million dollars which seems like a bargain now that the record has been pushed recently to over 300 million dollars for a Gauguin painting. I could go on about that, but that is a topic for another time.

Like this guy in the foreground, I’m waiting for the river to recede before seeing what changes have been made. Many of my favorite willow trees are completely underwater. I know they get buffeted and damaged by the currents which carry lots of debris in their wake. Perhaps by this weekend it will be all right to venture out among the muddy driftwood piles? I will bring an empty collecting bag because I’m sure to find “stuff” to use for my creations. On March 22, I will be participating in a group assemblage and collage show at Galerie Hertz. I will have six different sculptures on view. I will give you a sneak peek in my next post. For now, keep your feet dry…Spring is on the way!

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Posts Tagged ‘nature’

Finding the Spirit of the Season

Rare Sandpiper at the Falls of the Ohio

Park West Petrochemical Rainbow

Eventually, the River Goes Back Down

Super Wet July

Big Jug Rainbow and Stump Flower

Making New Friends

A Different Kind of March Madness

Muddy Falls and Galerie Hertz

High Water High

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