The river is low and the fossil beds are exposed. I still can’t get over how this is the bedrock of the river. Bowls of water pockmark the scalloped surface as the retreating liquid pools where it can. It will take a good rain to wash the dirt away revealing details from Devonian times. Still, some people are disappointed because you can’t find dinosaurs here. The terrible lizards are still millions and millions of years into the future.
Today the fishing was good if you are a Black vulture. For us it’s a different story. Although there were lots of people trying, I didn’t see anyone catching anything. The weather has been odd for July. It’s so cool outside you would think you were in Michigan instead of Kentuckiana. The television says it has something to do with high pressure coming down from the north.
I took a longer walk today than usual before making something. Along the way I came across a decaying log with an old chain embedded in it. Wood and bark grew over this wound when the tree was alive. Now it’s at the Falls turning into humus as the fungi break down the wood. I’m keeping an eye out for how long it will take to free this chain from it’s matrix of cellulose.
Ever see a “treehog” before? Today I came across this guy sitting on top of a tree that snapped in two during a thunder storm. I’m looking downhill and the woodchuck is about eight or nine feet above the ground. On a number of occasions I’ve watched them climb trees to obtain tender leaves to eat. This one appeared to be just hanging out, watching life go by. Once it spotted me, it ran down the tree and into the brush.
In the driftwood zone are small rivulets where the water trickles over the sand and under the silvery wood. An iridescent sheen from minerals leached underground creates an oily rainbow slick. I’ve begun to pay attention to this prismatic effect by photographing it several times. The colors move with the water and contrast with the solidity of the driftwood.
I made this figure today. I call him “Abstract Man with Spray Bottle” which is not an imaginative title, but a descriptive one. Because of the profile view, this was the most different of the lot. This piece seemed to work in multiple environments. In my next post, I will show you images of this figure shot at various locations around the park. I waited for the sunshine to burn off the cloud cover before I went home, but that didn’t happen while I was there. I stopped by the lilies again and shot this view with the fossil beds in the distance. There is a lot of compressed time here.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 