photography | Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Posts Tagged ‘photography’

High Water Spring Day

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birding, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, art and the environment, artificial fruits and vegetables, artist at exit 0, birds, catbird, driftwood, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, man and nature, nature, nature and culture, ornithology, photography, plastic oil container, sense of place on May 25, 2014| 4 Comments »

We have seen a lot of water flowing over the dam at the Falls of the Ohio this season. The month of May has been punctuated by intense storms and ample sunshine. Rainfall across the Ohio River Valley has been plentiful. On this particular excursion, the river was high and many of the places that I like to sit and work were inaccessible.

There was plenty of wood and trash in the soupy brown water and despite the beautiful sunshine, I was thinking that I might need to go home early today. Instead, I decided to do a little exploring along the margins of the high water and see how far I might be able to go.

Skirting the margins of the high water, I was able to walk over logs and driftwood and reach small pockets of higher land that remained dry. After initially feeling that my day in the park would be a loss…I started to feel excited again! In part, this was due to the abundant bird life I was seeing and hearing. This particular area has always been good for me and finding birds. There is enough shelter here under the cottonwood trees and willows that provide relief from the wind and is close enough to the water. Among the species I was encountering included this colorful grouping of birds: Baltimore Orioles, Northern Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, Palm Warblers, Gray Catbirds, American Goldfinches, and a tiny Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Here’s an image I captured of a Gray Catbird singing.

These birds are very territorial and the males chase one another out of their areas when interlopers trespass. Catbirds have a wide variety of sounds they make including a “mewing” call that reminds people of cats. Usually, I hear catbirds before I see them. Thus far, this has also been a good year to observe some warbler species. Warblers are my favorite group of birds to see because they are diverse, beautiful, transient (they are famous for their long migrations) and challenging to photograph. Here’s a picture of a Palm Warbler that I recorded on this day.

This guy hung around for a while. The guidebooks say that this warbler species summers in the northern bog lands and really has nothing to do with palm trees. That was an unfortunate bit of naming. The Falls of the Ohio are just one stop among many that this bird will make and I was glad to see him. In addition to birds, I was also finding plastic junk and other bits and pieces including a miniature plastic banana…I’m sure you want to see that?

This banana (my second of the year) will enter my Fake Fruits and Vegetables Collection which now numbers hundreds of pieces found in this park. Here are other found objects, some of which I will use to create a new figure.

And…here is the figure I constructed on this day. He’s pretty outlandish looking and another in a long line of pieces that reflect how I feel about our species’ absurd handling of the environment. For the moment, he remains unnamed, but if one comes to you…please share!

He’s made mostly from insulating foam, plastic, and driftwood and sports one jaundiced eye and what appears to be a unique, pink moustache. The area I was working in had so many plastic bottles lying around that my latest Styro-figure decided to put some of the colorful ones to use. Every year, the park does its best to keep this special place clean and orderly. Unfortunately, most of the trash I use and show originates elsewhere…mostly along the Ohio River flowing north of here and is carried to this down river location during flooding and high water.

Looking around the immediate area I was able to locate various colorful plastic oil containers and my Styro-figure decided to line them up for a photo opportunity. Here’s the results.

It’s an oily color spectrum of sorts. The Styro-figure seemed happy with it and for this day…left it at that. I have used this similar idea for other plastic found objects discovered in the park.

Soon it was time to go home. The day turned out to be a more creative and productive day than I originally thought it would be. I gathered up my collecting bag, camera, and walking stick and made the very short walk up to the parking lot. Looking back, I spied a Canada Goose taking advantage of the high water to feed from bushes it normally could not reach. This seemed as good an image as any to end this post with. Thanks as always for tagging along on another day at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

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Sand Rover

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Ohio River, recycled art, watershed, tagged absurd story, Art, art and the environment, artist at exit 0, ecostory, Falls of the Ohio, found objects, lucky finds, nature, nature and culture, Ohio River, photography, plastic, river story, sand rover, Styrofoam, the river on May 13, 2014| 9 Comments »

A gorgeous morning at the Falls of the Ohio and the urge to explore is strong. Our current spring pattern is holding. We will have a few days of steady rain resulting in localized flooding which is then followed by the river rising as all that water seeks the lowest level and here we are after all at the bottom of the Ohio River Valley! The latest reports on the potential effects of climate change for our area have been predicting this. In the years to come, we can expect more fierce storms with heavier than usual rainfall causing periodic flooding. Actually, that’s just one prediction among many. There is also the specter of hotter summers and invasive, non-native species among other scenarios. We will each do what we feel compelled to do to cope with it all. For now the sky is mostly clear and the river has retreated and it’s time to break out the old sand rover and see what there is to see and find what there is to find on the banks of the Ohio River.

We don’t need to travel very far to stumble upon unusual objects and startling sights. The flotsam and jetsam that can’t evade the stronger currents and navigate that hard left turn westward towards the Mississippi River get deposited in the park. Something flesh-colored has been spotted lying on the surface of the sand and our intrepid driver moves in closer for a better look.

Upon inspection it turns out to be a headless, knock-off copy of a Barbie-style doll. It’s made from cheap, hollow plastic instead of the more rubberized material that the better Barbies are made from. Thus far, this has been a good year for finding dolls at the Falls of the Ohio. I seem to find one or two new ones each time I come out here. Of the common objects that I routinely find…all these dolls still strike me as being especially odd and sad. Taking a picture, it’s back aboard the sand rover and on to our next stop.

We don’t need to travel very far for our next discovery. With the sun up, there is a strong glare emanating from something shiny half buried in the sand. Pulling up to the object, our driver is startled and bemused to find a glass jar of spaghetti sauce!

Would you believe me if I told you this is not the first jar of pasta sauce found out here? Because it is relatively easy to prepare…I’m assuming that spaghetti is among the more popular dishes among folks who like to recreate around the river? Over the years, I have also found jars of pickles, condiments, soup, and one very large, memorable jar of bologna.

The sand rover crosses over the sand easily, but it’s a different story near the edge of the river where sticky, thick mud cakes the ground. As the sun dries the water out of the fine silty mud, deep cracks appear and widen with the heat.

The driver decides that caution is the proper way to navigate around this mud. This surface can be deceptive and it’s easy to step ankle to shin deep in this sticky quagmire. You could lose a shoe in this stuff and I’m speaking from experience! Once your shoes are coated with this mud…it’s hard to get them clean again. You can tell where I live by my front porch…it’s the house with the muddy shoes lined up in a row.

Carefully maneuvering around the pitfalls, the sand rover is once again safely on the shifting, but surprisingly secure sand. There are other river treasures within view worthy of investigation.

A water destroyed baseball lies nearby. This is more of an old-style ball because its core is still made with string wrapped tightly around a hard rubber core. The covers, however, are not leather and so this isn’t an official baseball of any sort. Just a little further down the beach is another toy that was immersed in the former liquid sand and now lies trapped in a fine granular matrix.

Once upon a time, this may have been a remotely controlled vehicle? The style of this truck looks like military vehicles I have seen. Having explored the sand, it’s time to cruise by the driftwood.

Having initially spotted something lying on the driftwood, the driver decided that he would check out the mystery object more thoroughly upon his trip home. The closer the driver approached the stranger the object became. In fact, he felt it was looking right back at him. Parking the sand rover nearby, the driver climbed upon the driftwood to get a better look and this is what he found.

It was heavily weathered, but there was enough present to suggest that this was the hard foam head of a deer. The driver thought that this was perhaps part of a taxidermy trophy or maybe the head of a figurative archery target? The object’s single dark eye was piercing and made the driver uncomfortable. Satisfied for now, the driver climbed back aboard the sand rover and headed towards home.

Well, there you have it, another interesting day at the river. The driver was glad he came since each excursion promised new sights and mysteries to solve. Already the next trip was being anticipated and all that was now required was for nature to cooperate. It’s still spring and we shall see how it goes at the Falls of the Ohio this year.

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The Orange-collared Piper Among Others

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, birding, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature photography, recycled art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, art and the environment, artist at exit 0, birding, birds, Black Vulture, ecostory, Falls of the Ohio, nature, nature and culture, nature photography, ornithology, osprey, photography, unusual shorebird on April 29, 2014| 5 Comments »

It’s springtime at the Falls of the Ohio and life is less shy about revealing itself. Wasn’t too long ago that finding even the most common bird could be a challenge due to the harshness and length of our winter. Now the spring migrants are winging their way northward and even the indigenous species are easier to locate. This is the time of year when the pair bonds are strongest. The resident Canada Goose population appears to have overwintered in fine fashion and it won’t be too long before the first goslings are in the water. As you may have ascertained, this post will be about one of my favorite Falls subjects…birds.

This is a composite image of three different Osprey that were simultaneously circling my position at the river recently. The trio were flying in ever-widening circles and taking advantage of the wind currents and thermals. It’s a thrilling site to observe these fish hawks diving into the water and being rewarded for their efforts with a freshly caught fish in their talons. I’ve heard about, but not yet seen, the Bald Eagle nest that is just west of the Falls area. On occasion, I have seen eagles, but considering how near they are to this area I would have thought that sightings would be more common. I’ve recently seen other birds of prey including Peregrine Falcons, Cooper’s Hawks, and our next featured bird, the Black Vulture is beginning to return to the Falls of the Ohio in numbers.

To my eye, it appears that the Black Vulture population has been increasing while our other vulture…the Turkey Vulture presents itself less frequently. The Black Vultures are more gregarious and aggressive which probably keeps the Turkey Vulture from showing its featherless, naked, red-head more? Recently, I came across this individual Black Vulture feeding upon a dead fish. It let me get quite close, but there was also a minimum distance that it would tolerate me. Whenever I would get closer to its comfort zone, the vulture would grab the fish with its sharp beak and drag it to where that minimum distance was re-established before it resumed feeding. We did this dance for a few minutes before the vulture decided it had enough and flew away. My next bird is one that I have never observed in the park before. Some of my most memorable sightings have come from species seen just once and maybe for a few seconds at that. Hardcore birders (they wear black leather jackets with chains hanging off them) are familiar with this phenomenon. Friends have asked me why I don’t indulge my avian passion in a more organized fashion, but frankly I don’t like the sense of competition that can exist in some of these groups and clubs. I appreciate that birds are fellow life forms that are inhabiting the same time and space with me and are more than feathered abstractions to cross off on some list. If you pay attention, birds can tell you much about the state of nature and this planet.

The new bird I recently came across is the Orange-collared Piper. It’s a shorebird that undertakes a tremendous journey starting at the tip of South America and it won’t stop moving northwards until it reaches its breeding grounds in the Arctic Circle. Landing at the Falls, it is a little more than half way to where it needs to be. This piper is a rather small bird and easily overlooked in this particular environment. Its white body and head look remarkably like the polystyrene that litters these shores.

The bird is so named because it sports an orange ring around its neck. Other field marks include diminutive size, brown wings, and a sharp yellow bill it uses to probe sand and mud for the tiny invertebrates it eats. Also true to its name, this bird makes a high-pitched “piping” call it uses while it feeds. To he honest, I did not hear this call with this particular individual.

Both the male and female Orange-collared Piper look about the same. At its breeding grounds, the pair incubates about five or six tiny, black speckled eggs in a rather shallow gravel depression. No fancy nest for this bird…it lays its eggs directly on the ground where cryptic coloration helps protect them from the numerous Arctic predators. This bird is considered threatened due in large measure to habitat loss and other environmental degradation. Its amazingly long migration probably also puts this bird at risk since so many things can go wrong on such a long trip. I watched this particular individual for about forty minutes or so. It moved among the driftwood in very careful fashion stopping here and there to probe the sand with its sharp yellow bill. When the bird decided to move on…there was a flash of wings too quick to see and it was gone. I hope that it reaches its destination and resurfaces at this park again. I have one final “bird” that I recorded the same day I saw the Orange-collared Piper. Perhaps you will recognize this one? It’s most distinctive field mark is the sunglasses it wears while floating on the river. Happy birding!!

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Touring with Taylor

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, camp fire, culture and nature, Falls of the Ohio, found materials, found objects, nature, Ohio River watershed, photography, recycled art, Styrofoam on April 27, 2014| 12 Comments »

I’ll bet some of you out there might have wondered what’s happened to the old riverblog? Here it is near April’s end and there is nothing to show for what occurred during this month. Let me reassure you that the Artist at Exit 0 has been as active as the river has allowed him to be. Exploring the line between culture and nature is personally important. Between periodic high water, the exhibit at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, the Kentucky Derby Festival, and life in general…posting stories has needed to take a back seat. The process, however, is ongoing. I have been to the river on multiple occasions and observed the transition from winter to spring at the Falls of the Ohio. Making art remains a priority and I realize that I just feel better if I have the opportunity to make something of my own. Don’t be surprised if I end this month with a flurry of posts in an attempt to catch up. Let’s start at the beginning of April and see how far I get. Here’s a story featuring Mr. Mosquito Nose who had an experience with a young journalism student interested in what the Artist at Exit 0 does on an ordinary trip to the Falls.

This day began with a rendezvous at the river. I arrived early and was scouting out the situation. The Ohio River had just been up and I knew the riverbank was reconfigured with different driftwood and new junk waiting to be picked up. I had been contacted previously by Taylor Ferguson who is a journalism student at the nearby Indiana University Southeast in New Albany who requested to tag along with me on one of my Falls of the Ohio adventures. Taylor has a creative project of her own…to create a short, documentary video and she wanted the Artist at Exit 0 to be the subject. This was the first time anyone has requested this and so I agreed to do it. With a cool and sunny day before us we left the still leafless willows and walked out onto the riverbank.

Taylor turned out to be a super friendly and very interested in my projects. I will admit that it was odd being tethered to a microphone and I felt a little self-conscience talking to myself so openly with a video camera pointing in my direction. I usually have some dialogue running through my head as I explore this environment, but to hear it in such an audible fashion was different. I brought Taylor to my U.F.O. (Unidentified Floating Object) art site where I keep my river materials and demonstrated how I went about making an absurd figure from the poor stuff of the world. With Mr. Mosquito Nose in hand, the three of us left my outdoor studio and explored the environs near the railroad bridge. Along the way, Taylor would ask me questions about when and why I started this project. By now, those are familiar questions. I enjoy looking for what is interesting about each day. So, now it was time to walk the riverbank with Mr. Mosquito Nose and be present in this moment.

The lack of footprints in the sand told me that few others had recently passed this way. As we walked along, I kept an eye out for those little micro-contexts that I could pose this latest Styro-figure in. After making an object…I’m interested in using it to create an image. With luck, the images might then be used to tell a story. Here we have come across an old, frayed barge cable that the river washed into the park. It seemed a good location to take a few photos.

Near the cable, we came across the remains of a camp fire. Brick and rock define a shallow pit that still had some ashes in it. For a few years now, I have also photographed old camp fire sites with the intention of publishing them here as a collection. I’m always struck by the elemental nature of this activity and what its importance has meant for our species’ survival. We set up Mr. Mosquito Nose by the fire pit and now those photos are a part of this record.

Among the other objects we came across was this old sprayer. The figure’s arms are raised in warning because this might have potentially been used to spray herbicide or worse. Caution is required whenever you come across something that could possibly harm you. Knock on wood, I’ve been doing this project for more than a decade without any physical reactions or incidents from the stuff I’ve encountered out here. I place a lot of faith in the diluting power of millions of gallons of fresh water.

Moving on to another location, I collected a few glass and plastic bottles along the way and made this composition. Some of these containers have mystery contents of their own.

Later we came across this pet food bowl that was half full with water. The water in this bowl could have collected here as the river level dropped or been filled up by rainfall? It is another example of an incongruous object making an appearance at the Falls.

Taylor and I came across another barge cable that had been snagged by a low hanging willow branch and created this final photograph with Mr. Mosquito Nose. The day was moving along and both of us were needed elsewhere. About a week later, Taylor called me up to say that most of the audio the microphone picked up had interfering sounds of wind and water. This seemed perfect to me because that’s what I usually hear out here as well with the occasional bird call thrown in for good measure. Taylor had three hours of footage that needed to be edited down to three minutes which sounded like a daunting challenge in its own right without the audio difficulties. I later caught up with Taylor in Louisville and did a quick voice over recording that I hope will do the trick for her project. At the time of this writing…I haven’t seen the finished video, but hope it turns out for Taylor and that she gets a good grade for it. Okay, that’s it for now from the Falls of the Ohio State Park…one last image then I’m calling it a post.

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Big Spool and Tiny Willow Island

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged absurd art, Art, art and the environment, artist at exit 0, Carnegie Center for Art and History, culture and nature, driftwood, ecological art, Falls of the Ohio, figurative art, flotsam and jetsam, found materials, found objects, material culture, nature, photography, repurposed art, Styrofoam sculpture, willow on March 31, 2014| 13 Comments »

It’s a sunny Saturday and warm for this time of year. One of those days I can’t wait to get to the river. Spring is still slow in developing, but it can’t be much longer now. I spent a good part of the day just filling up my canvas collecting bag with all types of odds and ends both man-made and natural that have washed up on these fabled shores. I’m finding so much stuff that for practical reasons I decide to see if I can find a spot up the bank and under the willows that might make a good location for a temporary outdoor art studio. I can offload some of my larder for future use while continuing to walk the edge of the river. I’m enjoying the sunshine and taking deep breaths of the fresh air.

I chose a spot bordered by a large log that keeps most of the driftwood at bay and what I call the U.F.O. or Unidentified Floating Object which is circular metal platform that was once painted white with blue trim. It’s starting to show some rust now. This large object washed over the dam during a high water moment three or four years a go. Since then it’s changed positions with the rising and falling river levels and was once completely buried under driftwood. The U.F.O. is a platform that normally would be anchored out on the river. Barges and other water craft can tie on to it if necessary. Some how this one got loose and relocated to the park. When I first discovered it here I also imagined that it was a giant bathtub plug that helped keep the water in the river. I was lucky that I had the same outdoor studio for many years before this winter’s high water rearranged the landscape again and floated all my collected materials away. I spent a few hours walking the river collecting Styrofoam and sticks and can’t wait to make something new.

The first figure I make here is from the largest chunks of polystyrene I had found on this excursion. I used two fishing floats (one larger than the other for expressive effect) for the eyes. The nose is a plastic piece from a fooseball table. The mouth is a red reflector. My figure has ears, arms, and legs that are pieces of driftwood. The figure has a benevolent feeling to it and I can’t wait to photograph it by the river. I did run into a young sculptor attending the Kentucky School of Art who was collecting driftwood for her own project. Her name is Jenn and she approached me asking if I was the person with the show at the Carnegie Center for Art and History? She and her classmates had seen the exhibition. Jenn is building an installation at the school and promised to let me know when she completed it. It will be fun to see art made by someone else from materials collected within the park.

When I first meet the river, I spend a little time looking around and scouting out potential locations to create the photographs that will represent this day in my project. I decide that I like this tiny “willow island” which consists of clay and sand bound together by the living roots of this tree. Waves and water wash all around it and at times it does look like an island. As the river recedes to its normal pool, this tree will be high and dry at last. It’s amazing what it takes to keep this tree in place with such a dynamic river always testing its resolve to survive. During the highest river levels, this tree would be completely submerged underwater. Many of the willows along this stretch of the river bear scars and wounds from large logs battering them, breaking branches, and grinding bark away. I pose the figure on the root mass and move to the next shot which isn’t too far away.

Near tiny willow island is a large wooden “spool” for wire line or cable. I’m amazed by this object’s heavy-duty construction. This spool floated into here and is now partially sunk into the sand. Small waves lap the shoreline and you can also see black coal dust swirling around the water’s edge. Later when I see my pictures I’m struck by how similar this spool is to the circular platform that now forms part of my latest outdoor studio. This new area to cache my materials is very visible and hence ultra public, however, if we have heavy spring rains…it’s very possible that all this will be washed away and rearranged again. I often wonder what might go through people’s minds when they stumble upon my outdoor atelier? It’s an odd archeological site of Styrofoam boulders, small piles of plastic toys, and a tangle of found roots and driftwood. All the stuff you need to make an absurd figure! I left my latest Styro-creation next to the spool. I will go a head and tell you…I returned a week later and all I could find of him was his body and legs. There must be headhunters out here? I searched the area, but found no further trace of my figure. As with most of my Falls projects, they continue to “exist” as images. The exhibition that Michael Wimmer and I are participating in at the Carnegie Center of Art and History is entering its last week. I’m so appreciative of the positive response I’ve received for my work. The show will end with a tea and cookies closing. If you are in the area, please stop by.

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The Harbinger of Spring

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, Green, nature, nature photography, recycled art, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, ecostory, Falls of the Ohio, groundhog, material culture, nature, photography, plastic, recycled art, spring, story telling, Styrofoam on March 23, 2014| 12 Comments »

Here’s an adventure from March 15 which was a beautiful Saturday in the Kentuckiana area with temperatures in the low 70’s! I spent so much time at the Falls of the Ohio on this day that I even managed a very slight sunburn. Like much of the country (particularly east of the Mississippi River) we are so ready for winter to be over. This particular day turned out to be a tease, because less than 24 hours later, temperatures plummeted and we had an accumulation of snow! Most of the people I know are tired of their winter wardrobes, which also means triple the laundry load. We are ready for the greening and warming of the earth. On this particular foray to the river, I was on the look out for any signs of spring. I came across this young groundhog basking in the sun near his hole. He turned out not to be very social.

He need not worry about me. I wasn’t going to blame him for the extra long winter. Here’s the back story. February 2 is Groundhog’s Day and the myth goes if the “official” groundhog that resides in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania sees his shadow on this particular day…winter will be extended another six weeks. Well this year, that captive groundhog which was yanked from his burrow by human hands did see his shadow and surprise…spring was predicted to be late in coming. I did a little back checking on the Groundhog’s Day tradition and here’s what I found from the official website. The idea is based on the Candlemas Day observance that Pennsylvania’s early German settlers brought with them in the 19th century. This passage was quoted as the rationale for Groundhog’s Day…”For as the sun shines on Candlemas day, so far will the snow swirl in May.” I’m not sure what the source for this quote is…but snow in May? What is this some kind of ice age legacy handed over through deep time and what’s with the groundhog? The official Groundhog’s Day observance was established in 1887 and groundhogs and woodchucks the country over have been stigmatized by it. This particular groundhog was having nothing to do with people and retreated down his burrow.

On this trip to the Falls…I visited the far western section of the park and wanted to see if I could find any signs of spring there. I did find lots of river-carried junk, but will save some of that for another time. I did stop by my favorite cottonwood tree that has been for many years, a popular place to hang out. I saw a sign saying that it is now being called the “Hobo Hut”. I came across a nice group of young people with theater and writing backgrounds who were going to party there. This seemed to me to be as good a sign of spring as anything that can be learned from a large rodent. After exchanging pleasantries for a few minutes I moved on. Before long, I ran into this character and he educated me about spring.

This is the Harbinger of Spring and I chanced to come across him on my walk. He told me he had “heard” my thoughts and musing about spring and decided to introduce himself to me. It was a warm day and once again I was out here without drinking water and if this were indeed a hallucination…at least it was a friendly and pleasant one. He had a reassuring smile on his face to go along with the glowing yellow flower on his chest and shock of leaves sprouting from his head. I decided to just go with whatever would happen next and here is that story.

Contrary to popular belief, the official arrival of spring has nothing to do with groundhogs or even the vernal equinox. Spring arrived by boat to the Falls of the Ohio and I just happened to stumble across him as he prepared to do his work. The Harbinger allowed me to tag along to see the preparations and ground work needed for winter to transition to spring.

According to the Harbinger, the first thing that needs to happen is an increase in the intensity and duration of sun light. While I stood quietly nearby, the Harbinger willed the sun into the correct position in the sky. This was manifested by my magic friend’s ever lengthening shadow and the warmth I felt on the back of my neck. Not much can occur if the sun doesn’t cooperate.

The next step is to awaken the plants and begin the “greening” process. I watched the Harbinger sit on a dormant clump of loosestrife and open his arms. I heard a barely audible melody that I could not identify and heard it more through my mind than my ears. According to the Harbinger, the “greening” begins by warming up the simplest plants that are connected to the water. In this case, mats of algae were turning bright green before my eyes.

The land plants came next. I observed the Harbinger walking over to a clump of grass and green blades began to grow out of the gravel. This process would continue through all the flowers, shrubs, bushes, and would culminate with the appearance of the first tree leaves. The familiar animals would then return. My friend told me that this process took great effort and patience and could not be accomplished in a single day. For now…he was through, but over the next week or so he promised dramatic results. I parted with the Harbinger as he settled into a cavity formed in a living tree. For now, the sun tiring of its efforts was setting and evening was fast approaching. The Harbinger would spend the night here and resume his work when he felt the conditions were right to do so. I had one more surprise coming. As I turned and walked away…a red flower appeared at the Harbinger’s hole and the sun began to sink in the west. See you next time from a greening Falls of the Ohio.

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River Roller

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, collections, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, Ohio River, recycled art, unusual collection, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, birds, collecting bag, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, material culture, nature, photography, plastic, story telling, Styrofoam on March 16, 2014| 10 Comments »

The Ohio River water level has been bouncing up and down these last few weeks. On this excursion, I caught up with it while the river was receding. The shoreline that I am accustomed to seeing is still underwater, however, if you walk carefully between the wet and the dry, there are areas you can explore. I brought a fairly empty canvas collecting bag along in anticipation of river treasure. After a couple of hours, I took a break and dumped the bag out and here is what caught my eye.

Literally, a mixed bag of junk including many familiar items that I have long-standing collections formed. The Styrofoam is for a small sculpture I have in mind. The flip-flop sandals, well…I have been collecting them for a while and I have a vague notion of an artwork that I want to make with them. I have ideas, but I’m waiting for the river muse to send me more signals. The same holds true for the small, plastic wheels. I have about two hundred of them stacked in a pile on my basement floor. I thought I could finish the wheel piece for the exhibition at the Carnegie, but it remains unresolved. I have also gathered several found combs and the variety of forms a simple object can take always interests me. Recently, I gave my comb collection to my friend Jeff for his birthday. He is probably one of the few people I know who would like receiving such a gift. Jeff was once a middle school art teacher and he keeps a cigar box filled with the smallest pencils in the world. Each pencil had been sharpened to within an inch of its existence by his former students. Here’s an example of an interesting comb followed by other images of objects found on this day.

Later, it was determined that this combination comb and brush is from some kind of vacuum cleaner. Now whenever I go out the river, my friend asks me if I have any other combs for his collection.

My Fake Food Collection keeps expanding. I found several new pieces on this excursion with this one being the most memorable. Plastic corn on the cob with a little pat of butter melting into the kernels. In the background, you can see how much junk is intermixed with the wood debris.

Here’s the latest addition to my hand-formed ball collection. This one is made from duct tape.

I’m starting to develop a large collection of sand toys of all kinds. Here’s a pink plastic octopus sand mold. I think I will photograph this collection soon.

I found two plastic dinosaur toys on this trip. I believe these are intended to be the same species…Dimetrodon which was an early reptile with mammal-like characteristics. Dimetrodon hails from North America and the early Permian period. When the Falls of the Ohio was an active marine ecosystem (about 370 million years a go)…Dimetrodon would still be about another 200 million years into the future. The vast stretches of time and the ebb and flow of life forms is mind-boggling. I am in the here and now and what I have noticed on this trip to the river is how few other life forms I’ve seen. The spring migration of neotropical birds is not too far off and I always have my eyes open for early arrivals. Today…I get lucky.

I was poking around the shifting shoreline when I spotted this heavy bodied bird in a willow tree. With its blue head, yellow ocher body, and light green tail…I knew I was looking at my first River Roller. Rollers are a family of old world birds and this is the only representative on this continent. This species has a rather large and heavy bill that serves it well when it feeds on the nuts of hardwood trees. At the Falls of the Ohio, you can always find walnuts, hickory nuts, and acorns. I believe that this was what this bird was doing…looking for food.

I think this is a female roller because the colors are not as bright as the pictures I’ve seen of the males. In size, this bird is comparable to the American Robin. I observed this bird checking out the holes and hollows in the willow trees which is pre-nesting behavior. The females are the ones that choose which sites are suitable to raise their chicks. This bird will eventually move on to the northern portions of the Ohio River Valley. The River Roller has never been documented nesting in this park.

The River Roller hung around for about five minutes before flying off for parts unknown. During the time I watched it, the roller demonstrated a strong curiosity for the environment at the river’s edge. It seemed especially interested in the willow trees themselves.

I wish this bird well and hope it reaches its intended destination. I feel this way about every bird that migrates through this area. After seeing this once in a life-time rarity I felt that my day like my collecting bag was full and it was time to go home. That wraps it up for another river adventure. See you next time.

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Skyliner

Posted in Art, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, public art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged Art, birds, decoys, driftwood, ducks, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, found objects, lost toys, Louisville, nature, Ohio River valley, photography, plastic, sense of place, Styrofoam, the passing of the seasons on March 1, 2014| 19 Comments »

We are all getting antsy for spring to arrive…winter has been hanging on and on for dear life. It’s been hard to access the river because the water level has been high. Most of the places I visit at the Falls of the Ohio State Park are currently under muddy water. We have had just a handful of nicer, warmer days, but that has accelerated the melting of the snow and ice throughout the more than 800 hundred mile long Ohio River Valley. I don’t mind the cold so much, but it’s harder to do what I like to do on a swollen waterway. Here’s how one of my spots under the railroad bridge looked during my last visit.

Not a pretty picture seeing a river as brown as gravy. Lots of logs and wood floating on top and when you look more closely…there is also plenty of plastic and polystyrene in the mix too. Another view this time with me standing on the wall that separates one side of the river from the other.

All those white spots are pieces of Styrofoam. With my usual haunts inaccessible I moved further east…just outside the park’s entrance. There has been a lot of activity in this area that has caught my notice.

There has been a campaign on the Indiana side to make the river more accessible particularly in areas that afford a good view of Louisville’s skyline. To do this the vegetation has been bulldozed away. I came across an elderly person walking her dog and she said to me quite unsolicited..”Bout time they did something to clean up this mess!” as she pointed a thin finger in the general direction of the river. In this case, one person’s mess is another creature’s habitat. The true “mess” comes from all the plastic bottles and chunks of man-made junk that make it into the water. No amount of removing trees and creating views will help with this and it seems what we prefer looking at is a very selective process. I brought my collecting bag along. I’m hoping to pick up materials to use in an upcoming art workshop at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, but I find a few other interesting items as well and photograph them upon discovery.

I came across this smiling yellow cat toy that I think came from a fast food establishment.

Finding these paint containers made me realize how hungry I’ve become for color. I’m looking forward to the world turning green again with color notes supplied by wild flowers.

This plastic man with his bright, radioactive orange color was hard to miss. He was a skydiver or paratrooper in a former life and probably fell to earth using a plastic parachute.

There were other signs from life that the season’s are about to change over. I’m ever alert to what the birds are doing. I spotted my first Red-winged Blackbirds of the year and they are among the first migratory species to arrive. Male Northern Cardinals are singing their courtship songs and scouting out the best spots to build a nest. On the river, however, I spied what I consider a bird sign of winter. A nice sized flock of Lesser Scaup ducks were mostly sleeping and relaxing on the surface of the water. In this area, it seems we see more duck varieties in late fall and early winter. Here’s a peek at the scaups.

Before I move away from the ducks…I found one other to add to my growing collection. This is a Mallard decoy made from plastic. Not too long a go, I found another plastic decoy representing the Pintail Duck.

One other bird note…I heard them before I could see them, but I knew what they were instantly. The familiar calls of migrating Sandhill Cranes winging their way back north. Like geese, they fly in V-shaped formations to avoid the air turbulence created by other cranes flapping their wings. These birds are high flyers and this was the best I could do in taking their picture with the camera I have.

As February becomes March…the forecast for the Kentuckiana area is calling for freezing rain and snow. It appears that Old Man Winter will be hanging out for another week. Spring will eventually get here and already you can tell that it stays light outside longer with each passing day. I am, however, really eager to see how the river has rearranged this familiar landscape.

Once the Ohio River recedes there will be a new landscape to explore and who knows what I will find? I like that each year is different from the last. Well this post is drawing to a close. Thanks for visiting and see you soon…from the skyline of Louisville and the Falls of the Ohio.

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Gallery Talk at the Carnegie Center

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, collecting art, creativity, Ohio River, recycled art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, art exhibition, artist at exit 0, Carnegie Center for Art and History, Falls of the Ohio, gallery talk, homemade balls, New Albany, photography, R. Michael Wimmer, sculpture, softball cores, Styrofoam, The Potential in Everything on February 9, 2014| 9 Comments »

Our first gallery talk about the”Potential in Everything” exhibition happened yesterday. Through a light dusting of falling snow, about 20 people braved the elements to hear R. Michael Wimmer and myself talk about our respective projects. I was delighted by the turnout and had a great time too. I am glad to have had this gallery opportunity because the river has been so high of late that getting to my usual spots at the Falls of the Ohio has been a challenge. Perhaps this is nature’s way of redirecting me?

It was a nice mixed ages group and a few local artists attended as well. People were very respectful and asked some interesting questions. Michael and I have very different processes, but the end results involve using something that has already functioned in the world and making something new from them. For me, that shift took many years of transition because my formal artistic training involved “staring down” a blank piece of paper or canvas and making something happen in a more traditional way. Although my old drawing professor might disagree with me about this…so much of the work I now do comes out of the conceptual concerns I first encountered through drawing.

When I get the chance to talk about art and creativity in general, I like to mention how important it is for all of us to cultivate that impulse to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Sadly, I hear far too often from too many people how they aren’t artistic or have any business being involved with creative acts and I know this to be untrue. I feel that part of my role is to get folks to expand their definitions of what is creative or aesthetically minded. Creativity is a precious, universal resource and available in everyone and may represent much of our hopes for a better future. We need to get people turned on to their own potentials instead of emphasizing the consumer in them. Too help illustrate this I brought my Homemade Ball Collection with me and placed it upon the pedestal that my “Flat-faced Cat with Bird” is sitting on. I found all these “balls” at the Falls and they are made from electrical tape, duct tape, cellophane tape, and aluminum foil. Rolling these waste materials into balls is not necessary for their disposal, however, I was struck by the artistic impulse I perceived in them by their anonymous makers to shape and form. There is obvious care in their making and rolling something into a cohesive ball has a satisfying side to it. After this sidebar and when the talk ended, I went outside to see how my “other” ball piece in the tulip poplar in front of the center was doing?

“La Belle Riviere” seemed to be in good shape. I was curious to see if any ice would be decorating it, but not this time. Ice can contribute a lot of weight which might take my nylon line beyond its limits. I look forward to spring’s arrival and how the appearance of this piece will change as the tree transforms. New Albany, Indiana is just a few miles downriver from Louisville. The town has an extensive riverfront and I took the opportunity to check it out in greater detail.

There is a large earthen berm that protects the New Albany from the adjacent Ohio River. A key feature of their riverfront is this structure used for concerts and special events.

One way to reach New Albany from Louisville is to cross the river over the Sherman Minton Bridge. Bridges in our area are a usual and often contentious topic of conversation. This one was closed down recently for much-needed repairs, but caused a headache for commuters while it was being fixed. Bridges are vital to river towns and a new one is currently being constructed near Louisville’s downtown. This new bridge was years in the planning and much of the controversy surrounding it involved where exactly would it cross the river and how would it tie into the existing interstate highway systems. The Ohio River has been high due to snow and rain in the upper part of the valley, but I walked down to the river’s edge and guess what I found?

Yes, it’s river polished Styrofoam. There’s goes my main art material floating towards the Gulf of Mexico. There are a couple other events associated with “The Potential of Everything” exhibit including a family workshop I will be leading on March 1. I have enough collected sticks and polystyrene that it will be fun making things with other people. I will also be giving a solo gallery talk on March 4. Michael will be doing a studio talk and welcoming people to visit his place on March 25. And, there will be a closing tea and cookies event at the Carnegie on the exhibit’s last day on April 5. So, if you are in the area and haven’t seen the show…there are other opportunities coming hopefully in beautiful weather! If you want to see my found homemade balls in more detail, I did a previous post about it entitled “The Need to Form: Handmade Balls from the Falls of the Ohio” and can be found in this blog’s search feature. Speaking of balls, I did find one other item by the river in New Albany and I’ll end this post with it. Stay warm out there!

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Into the New Year, 2014

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, collections, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, nature, Ohio River, recycled art, Styrofoam, tagged Art, artist at exit 0, duck decoy, Falls of the Ohio, flotsam and jetsam, found objects, fresh water, Mr. Potato Head, nature, photography, plastic, Styrofoam, the river on January 5, 2014| 12 Comments »

Happy New Year everybody out there in blog land! I want to thank everyone over the past year who have dropped by to check out the latest from the Artist at Exit 0 at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. This year is shaping up to be much like the previous one. Which means both man and nature are predictably unpredictable with a sense of timing not easily plotted. Since the holidays, the Ohio River has been up and much of the park that I access has been underwater. That in itself is not news, but the length of time the water has been high has been. It all points to heavy rains and snows in the northern part of the Ohio River Valley and water flowing downriver. The forecast at the time of this writing is not encouraging with showers turning to snow today followed by a precipitous drop to sub-zero degree temperatures. This cold could be historic for us and so far we have received more snow than in recent winters. I think I will stay indoors today! Since my last post, I have been to the river twice (including New Years Day itself) to see what there is to see and experience. Here’s a synopsis so far. Between rising and falling waters I have been able to skirt around the edges. One thing that unfortunately hasn’t changed is the junk in the river. I’m always interested in what gets stranded in the trees like this wooden pallet that has a corner delicately balanced on the surface of the river. It’s cold out here and despite being warmly dressed, my eyes and nose water from the bit of wind that is also present. At the water’s edge is a mix of debris. Most of it is natural with driftwood, wood bark and bits being the most prominent. Trees that have surrendered to the river are rolled against other logs by the waves and the grinding (which can be very audible as well) knocks the limbs off with a loud crack and chews the bark away from the trunks. Intermixed is various man-made and colorful junk that is mostly plastic in composition which also gets masticated by the river. The above photo is fairly typical with lots of polystyrene fragments which also make up the core of my art materials. Most artists have positive feelings for their materials, but I have a love /hate relationship with mine. Let’s move on and see what other sights are along the river in this new year. Floating tires always catch my eye. Their blackness and circular perfection contrasts sharply with the rest of the objects on the river’s surface. A short distance away from this wheel I find a dead steer at the water’s edge. I debated with myself whether to include this distasteful image in this post, but decided to do it since it represents some of the truth that is in the river. Pictures of man-made trash are one thing and have an almost benign aura to them by now, but something that was once alive registers in a different way. The gravity is far heavier. This poor cow is the largest dead animal I have encountered in the park. Dead deer and other smaller animals are not too unusual in the river. No telling how far this unfortunate animal has floated to arrive here? Rising high waters could once again carry it away. I take this picture and walk on. There are other objects that the river has delivered to the park like this plastic turtle sand mold. Having gone through my river collections recently I discovered that turtles are among the most common subjects for sand molds. Who knew? I have found six or seven of them and they are all different like the plastic hamburgers from a recent post of mine. Here’s something else to add to a growing collection. I have a Rubber Duck Collection as well and all found within the park. Truthfully, none of them are actually made from rubber and are of course composed from plastic. This is a hunter’s decoy of a pintail duck and would have been cooler had it been made out of wood…alas. I haven’t seen much of actual bird life in the park except for a few hardy species that are around all year round. I noticed that the ring-billed gulls that come here for the winter are not present. I wonder if the cold has them migrating further south this year? To mark how exceptional this winter has been, our area has seen a rare migration of snowy owls from the far north. The snowy owl is listed on the official Falls of the Ohio bird checklist as extremely rare and accidental. For me, this would be a good enough reason to journey here and this just might be the year to see one, but I haven’t heard if any were actually seen in the park? A short distance away from here, a snowy owl in a weakened condition was rescued by our local raptor rehab folks and is being nursed back to health.

Here’s a test for you. Do you know what this is? Time’s up…this is the plastic body of a Mr. Potato Head toy! I count Mr. Potato Head as one of my artistic influences for my Falls of the Ohio Styrofoam projects and this is the first one of these that I have found out here. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Potato Head has been in continuous production since 1952 (that’s a lot of plastic) and was the first toy advertised on television. I can remember as a kid…using actual potatoes to make funny faces and now I use Styrofoam.

I walked up the riverbank to access my outdoor atelier and discovered that the river has swept over it. All the materials that I had cached here over the last couple of years have floated away and the large logs that defined my space are rearranged. I will need to create a new studio if I continue here. I suspect, however, that the river is far from being done and would wager we will experience more flooding in the near future. I picked up a few small pieces of Styrofoam and willow sticks and made my first figure of the new year and posed him at the river’s edge as waves lapped the shoreline.

He is not a large figure and the expression on his face is one of amazement. I first posed him near the river in an old life-preserver that washed up. In addition to being expedient on a cold day it also seemed symbolic. For me, it always comes back to the river and its waters. The quality of our fresh water remains our number one vanishing resource and the river’s course is the journey we all take through life. I will continue to use my creativity at this one small spot on a large river and publish my results on this riverblog. Thanks for checking it out every now and then. As the year progresses, I hope to be like the river by being predictably unpredictable. May we all have a wonderful 2014!

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Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

Art and images from the Falls of the Ohio.

Posts Tagged ‘photography’

High Water Spring Day

Sand Rover

The Orange-collared Piper Among Others

Touring with Taylor

Big Spool and Tiny Willow Island

The Harbinger of Spring

River Roller

Skyliner

Gallery Talk at the Carnegie Center

Into the New Year, 2014

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