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Posts Tagged ‘public art’

Rabbit Man’s Report

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2011| 6 Comments »

As usual I’m a bit behind in my river reports.  I calculate I could write at least several more posts about the flooding we have experienced with the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio.  As I write, the river is still high, but all the attention has shifted to the Mississippi River which is experiencing an epic flood.  I’m sure some of the same water molecules that flowed past our location are contributing to the woes down along the Mississippi.  For those unfamiliar with our geography, the Ohio River flows directly into the Mississippi River in far western Kentucky.  The confluence of these two great rivers is an awesome sight.

Here at Louisville, the water has been receding and the amount of water-borne junk this flood has brought hasn’t fully hit home yet.  There are signs, however, everywhere I look that this will be a great challenge for any river loving clean-up crew.  I will try to do my part, but even if I were to try to be out here every waking hour…I wouldn’t  begin to scratch the surface.

Gas is over $4.15 cents a gallon for regular unleaded here.  I listened to the great oil company executives trying to explain to Congress today why they need a sweetheart deal from the American taxpayers when they already receive every tax break in the books and are suffering with their record, obscene profits.  When discussion turns to what can be done to reduce the amount of crude oil used the usual answer has something to do with increased engine efficiency resulting in more miles to the gallon.  Looking at the high water line I see another solution that doesn’t get as much play.  Why don’t we try to cut as much plastic out of our way of life as possible?  There would be more oil available for fuel and you wouldn’t have all these various compounds despoiling our water ways from the smallest streams to the largest ocean.  You can throw Styrofoam in this mix too since it is has petroleum pedigree as well.  We could just change the packaging we use and I bet that would make a huge difference.

You can look at the whole Riverblog as one long rant against pollution, but there is also more out here that is sweet and worth noting and enjoying.  I decided to walk along the Woodland Loop Trail and the air was fragrant with the perfume from what we call Honey Locust trees.  Some of these trees also sport large spines growing on the bark.  Their pea-like white flowers have the most wonderful scent.  Here is what a flower cluster looks like.

Along the trail, you can hear a variety of bird species singing.  Vireos, woodland warblers, orioles, chickadees, indigo buntings, various thrushes fill the air with their acoustic signatures.  The birds are here to feast on the many cutworms that plague the forest canopy.  There are also other larvae present…here is a small nest of tent caterpillars that will soon become moths.  Very few birds like these hairy caterpillars, but two that do ( the Yellow-billed cuckoo and the Blue and gray gnatcatcher) can be found in the forest now.

Ah, I also spot my namesake hopping along the trail!  This is a young Cottontail and he better be careful out here because there are so many predators both native and domesticated that would love to catch him!

Walking westward along the trail, you can’t help but notice the large grassy berm that flanks your right side.  It is additional flood control put in place after the disastrous 1937 flood which was our high water event on the Ohio River.  Up a head, I can see a network of large hoses with water gushing out and I decided to investigate.

I can see these large hoses coming down the berm and I wanted to see what’s on the other side of this earthen flood wall.  Here are a series of pictures of what I saw.  First looking up hill…

…now the view looking down towards the river.  What are these hoses for?

I came across a sign at the crest of this large hill that explains it.

On the other side of the berm is the small town of Clarksville, Indiana.  Rain water has pooled up in the lower lying sections of the city and are being pumped out and over the top where the water then flows into the park eventually finding release into the river.

It’s strange how I rarely think about the town that occupies the other side of this large grass and earthen mound.  The Ohio River is really at its front door all the time.  The little bit of woods I like spending time in is just a narrow sliver of ecosystem that exists between Clarksville and the river.

Well, that’s the story for now.  I have much more to present about the dominant environmental event of our Spring.  Already the temperatures are rising and I can feel the transition to Summer won’t be long in coming.  Thanks for hanging with me…until next time…the Rabbit Man.

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Recalling Opa

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, nature, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2010| 11 Comments »

It is late autumn at the Falls of the Ohio and soon all the leaves will be gone having succumbed to the wind, rain, and frost.  For now, there is still color and it is during this transitory moment within the season that the memories of past loved ones comes to my mind and heart.  I was walking along the riverbank recently and thinking about my grandfather and so I created this story for him out of thanks, sticks, and river-worn Styrofoam!

Perhaps it’s the shimmer and play of light upon the water that helps those who have gone before to communicate with the living?  I can picture him now, very tall and very thin and neatly dressed with his fancy bow-tie.  Because he took an interest in me as a boy, I in return have never forgotten him.  My grandfather was not a particular eloquent man, but as the saying goes and there is truth in this…actions do speak louder than words. 

Grandpa or Opa as I sometimes called him loved to tend his small flower garden.  In the heart of the old city this was how he kept his connection to the soil.  And because his garden was tiny it was also precious and everything that happened in it took on added significance.  When a new flower bloomed …that was a cause for celebration as were the times when some new never before seen bird would alight in the yard even for the briefest of moments.  All these little events were full of meaning  to my grandfather and now I see that I inherited this ability too.  Finding wonder when life is at its most mundane is a true gift.

When I was a very small boy my Opa would put me upon his shoulders and give me a unique perspective on the world.  He moved along the city’s canals so easily and I was able to take in all that was going on around me.  I would describe him as being a patient person, but there were some things he found difficult to tolerate.

Perhaps at the top of his list was injustice.  He had lived during the hard times of a world war when his city was occupied.  He had witnessed and experienced how his fellow human beings could be callous and cruel to each other.  When the war ended and prosperity returned, it bothered Grandpa to see how the very land itself was treated with little regard.  He knew about the magic that could happen even in the smallest plot of dirt.  To treat the ground as a garbage can is an injustice to the earth.

Our walks together were always learning opportunities and this was fun for me.  Grandpa seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the living things around him.  He said that life was so interesting that he needed to know about it, but that he was alright too when there were no answers.  He also found contentment in the mystery of it all and that somehow it fit together and worked.  His true position in life was balanced between the twin poles of knowing and not knowing.  It was important to remain open to recognize and receive wisdom when it did come his way.

If my Grandfather could see what is happening with our treatment of the environment…I know it would upset him.  Before the war (which was bad enough) there was also a world-wide depression.  To get by and make ends meet, everything that could be reused and repurposed was.  People even knew how to fix and repair things because they had to if they were going to have anything extra at all.  Creativity and thrift were virtues because they were survival skills.  Nothing was thrown away without careful consideration.  Now economies are based on mass consumption and disposability and something else has been lost in the process.

Grandpa told me that if we didn’t take care of all our precious resources, then we were in danger of losing ourselves.  The more we change the land, the more it changes us and that our ultimate fate is intertwined with what happens in the real world.  Here on the banks of the Ohio River my Grandfather’s concerns have come back to me.  Now I am a father and someday I too may become a grandparent.  During my lifetime, I would like to feel that we can be reawakened to the needs of the planet so that we could build towards the most positive and healthy future possible.

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Styro-Family Portrait, Augmented

Posted in Absurd, Art, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , , on November 14, 2010| 9 Comments »

It’s two weeks later now since I last added to the “family”.  I had planned a different post to follow the last, but changed my mind after visiting the Falls of the Ohio today.  Anticipating arriving on the scene…what would I find?  Would everything be knocked down again?  Would there be broken chunks and bits of Styrofoam mingled with the fresh fallen willow leaves?  Wonderfully, I discovered that the group was not only intact, but had been added to.  The first image in this post was the tableau as I found it.  The figure on the left was given an enormous phallus and a completely new figure holding a whiskey bottle was on the right.  I removed the polystyrene member on the left figure more because it upset my sense of proportion and seemed superfluous!  Shortly, after arriving, I had visitors and we had a nice conversation together and they let me take their picture next to my sculptures.

This family was visiting the Falls from Cincinnati and seemed to enjoy what I was doing.  It is because of them, that I changed the order of my posts…just in case they check in on the riverblog and want to see themselves in this context.  I don’t know their names and this really isn’t that important.  I did notice the lady with the sunglasses spoke with a Dutch accent and we had a short talk about the current state of the Netherlands.  I’m interested in this because my mom is Dutch and I was born in Amsterdam.  You just never know who you might run into at the Falls of the Ohio.  Before leaving, the eldest son improvised a quick figure of his own and added it to the group. 

Here’s a look at the happy family left on their own in the woods.  Because the branches are getting bare, it’s far easier to see the bright white of the Styrofoam and I wonder how many people walked past them this summer because they just didn’t see them through all the vegetation?

I did take a close-up of the whiskey drinking figure on the right and I think he is quite tipsy!  He has that glazed look in his eyes.

I just noticed he’s smoking a pipe too!  I made a few pieces of my own, but did not add them to the Styro-family today.  I constructed a bird (which I will show you later) and this figure that is wearing a crown or crest.  The eyes are small green plastic bottle caps that I put coal into for pupils.

It’s not the most memorable piece I ever made, but it does mark the season.  Today was slightly windy and the leaves were dropping all around me.  The sky was getting overcast and the first real promise of rain in weeks was in the air.  I eventually left this figure by a stand of young cottonwood trees whose leaves were turning yellow.  The smiling figure became a positive affirmation of the day and its arms are raised in tribute.

I came across one other creation made by another visitor by connecting driftwood in the sand and seemed a nice way to end this post.  Peace to you!

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Styro-Ambush

Posted in Absurd, Art, creativity, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2010| 9 Comments »

Oh woe is me!  It was starting out to be such a beautiful day.  There was a spicyness to the air that was intoxicating and the willows were alive with birds.  I saw several different warblers and managed a good photo or two!  As I approached what has been my outdoor studio spot for months,  I could tell something was different this time.  A feeling of foreboding began to fill me and my heart sank as I looked around my site.

They were all down and destroyed!  Figures that had been my friends since early summer were lying around my studio smashed and savaged to bits!  The figure I made with Ariana that wore the lacrosse helmet we found together was staring up at me like some ancient Egyptian mummy.  The eye sockets were hollow and I could not find either the helmet or the eyes.  Even the small bird piece that had alighted on this figure’s shoulder was just random bits of broken polystyrene.

Both the Styro-Odysseus figure and the dancing figure that greeted him back from the war were goners now.  It seemed that a particular kind of viciousness was reserved for the heads as they appeared to take the brunt of the attacks.  The violence was not restricted to the “art” and I saw that even the old milk crates I stored found objects in were also now cracked and battered.  There were two other works out here and how did they fare?  What about that Figure with the Long Arm?  Look for yourself.

It’s not an encouraging sight.  All these sculptures had been up here for weeks and many people have had the opportunity to see them and interact with them in positive ways.  Among the other options included taking them home, moving them to another location at the Falls, adding to them in some other creative way, leaving them be until the river eventually found them, etc…  Unhappily, the option exercised was just to smash them with sticks.  One other figure was also out here and unfortunately, she lasted only long enough for one good post until she too was discovered by the vandals.

This is all that remains of Minnie now…fragments of broken Styrofoam.  Minnie was an interesting character and people seemed to relate to her.  More than likely all this carnage is the handiwork of adolescent boys.  I have seen this before…many times over the years.  What is it in the human spirit that finds some strange satisfaction at tearing down what has been built by others?  I don’t understand the pleasure derived from this kind of destruction?  I will admit to feeling down after I encountered all this trauma and I haven’t been back to this site since then.  I did gather up what I could and I intend to make new works if I can lift my spirits up enough to do it.  For now, all that remains are photographs of these sculptures when they existed intact and in the contexts that helped to define them.  Here are a few previously unpublished images.

I know I shouldn’t be too upset since all this stuff is just river-born trash anyway.  I think I keep saying this to myself in part because it’s true and to insulate my feelings for when these black days occur.  These materials had already been abandoned. I can’t take it all home with me and I should just enjoy the ephemeral nature of it all.  Still…

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Styro-Odysseus

Posted in Absurd, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , on August 26, 2010| 12 Comments »

Battered and tired the old soldier looked wistfully to the west.  They said it would be an easy war as wars go.  And sure enough the enemy that wore a uniform was quickly overwhelmed.  Much, however, had changed since Styro-Odysseus began his career as a common soldier. 

Victories were no longer clear-cut and the peace was hard to recognize. Nobody could remember what they were fighting for?  After many years of trying to win the hearts and minds of the occupied people it was time for Styro-Odysseus to return to the muddy shores of his origin.

He had his country’s thanks, but all the old soldier wanted now was the comfort of his family and familiar surroundings.  His valor was now a thing of the past.  It would take all of Styro-Odysseus’ remaining energy to walk the distance towards the life he most desired.  His armor, shield, and standard that he once wore with pride grew heavier with each passing step.  He thought often of the innocence of childhood and green fields.

Along the way, Styro-Odysseus could not help noticing that the country he had risked his life for had fallen into neglect and ruin.  In places it looked as though the war had happened here.  He could not understand his countrymen’s apathy?  He wondered if people still cared?

Rounding a bend by a river, the returning veteran had the oddest sensation that the people had in fact been bewitched and turned into geese.  That would explain the poor condition of so much he observed around him.

Meeting fellow travelers along the way Styro-Odysseus learned that much of his beloved land was in a similar condition.  The ordinary man had become disillusioned by evil pundits who were masters of instilling fear and preyed upon the best intentions of the good.

Styro-Odysseus had much to think about.  It seemed to him that righting the course of his own country might prove to be a greater challenge than fighting a foreign enemy.  What force of arms could be used to fight the new enemy that resides within? What could inspire the people and renew the idea of a shared common purpose?  While Styro-Odysseus’ mind grew cloudy…his feet kept on walking and soon he reached a familiar path.

Styro-Odysseus was home and he forgot the great weight he carried upon seeing his family.  For now, he would set aside his armor and forget the duties of being a soldier for at least a little while.  He would try to allow what sweetness that remained in the world to begin the healing process.  The old soldier would rest and renew his energy for the next task at hand.

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Figure with Very Long Arm

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, Falls of the Ohio, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, tagged , , , , , , on August 22, 2010| 11 Comments »

The heat and humidity remain unabated.  I think this is the hottest summer I have spent at the Falls of the Ohio.  Yes, there were always super hot days in the past, but this year we have had many more of them.  I was excited about this weekend because I have three days off, few family obligations, and I planned to go out to the river to see and make what I could.  I have collected some large pieces of Styrofoam and it’s time to use it before the river eventually rises and carries it all away again.

On this day, I have made one of my tallest figures ever.  This one is a head taller than I am and when you add the extra long arm…it is even more so.  I can’t say that I worked up a story to go with this one…yet.  If, however, he hangs out long enough, I’m sure I will think of a narrative.  For now, this is what I made and in the process I drank all the water I brought with me and soaked through my shirt.  A mixture of sweat and sun block kept running into my eyes which led to a few choice words said by me.  Fortunately, there wasn’t anybody around to hear them!

After I made this figure, it seemed to me that it had some affinities with the Wallace and Gromit characters.  I think it’s because of the close-set eyes and large nose?  I like that this guy has a sense of humor which can’t be said about some of the figures I have made before.  He’s probably amused that anyone would choose to spend their day off engaged in this activity!

What prompted this sculpture was the long stick I eventually used for one of his arms.  The body is somewhat elongated and the extra long arm brings this out even more.  Perhaps the arm is an evolutionary adaptation for picking fruit from the higher branches of the tree?  In this way, it works similarly to a giraffe’s neck with its ability to reach the topmost leaves.

The brutal sun kept me close to the shade of the willows, but even this had its issues.  There are mosquitos in the shadows and the humidity is trapped by the vegetation and foliage.  Being uncomfortable made me less patient with myself.  Every once in a while I would get distracted by the song of a wren or the myriad insect life around me.  There are still many butterflies and wasps visiting the flowers and willow trees.

I had a few technical problems to work out. The main one being how will this sculpture stand upright?  Even though the sand and mud are soft, this figure is clumsy and comes down to a point.  My solution was to rest the figure on a tripod of sticks.  Two of them can be seen, the third “leg” lends support from behind the figure.  Once it cools down, I would like to move this sculpture around the different vignettes that the Falls offers and see if I can improve upon the photographs.  For the moment, I consider these evidence that I made something on a fairly uncompromising day cut short by the heat.  I decided to leave early and left this figure resting against the trunk of a tree.  I can’t wait for it to cool down a little.  I can tell Autumn is around the corner.  I detect a hint of yellow in the leaves around me that were a bright green not too long a go.

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River Sweep

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Ohio River, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , , on June 26, 2010| 4 Comments »

A group of volunteers did a river sweep clean-up last week at the Falls of the Ohio.  Our June has been brutally hot and I can see how trying to clean up the park would be a daunting task…there’s just so much that needs picking up.  I did document some of their efforts which I now present to you.  I suspect that most of this stuff is now landfill bound.

I know it may seem odd to present photographs of bags of trash in a blog that tries to concern itself with art, however, if we can view this act of cleaning up as an aesthetic act…than I think we can say we are making some progress.  I realize we are used to thinking of conventional art in aesthetic terms, but that life-enhancing quality that the term “aesthetic” embodies is often best seen in other actions.  Although I wasn’t part of this coordinated effort to clean this stretch of the river, I still show up regularly and try to do what I can using what I know how to do!  On this adventure, I had a friend who assisted me in picking up a few things.

Among the items we found this day included our second snowman of the year!  It’s a little container of some sort.  After taking its picture, I popped this beauty into my collecting bag.  It will probably show up again in one of my Christmas cards.

Among my more popular blog entries is my pages section where I feature my Found Fruits and Veggies Collection.  Currently, the physical collection is on display at Oldham County.  Soon I will need to update those photos featured in this blog because I keep finding more stuff all the time.  When I’m in the field, this material is presented by the river in a very causal way.  Here’s a picture of my latest plastic orange in situ.

The figure accompanying me isn’t very large, but he’s a hard worker.  I snapped this image as he was picking up plastic bottles.  It was just so darn hot that I was on the edge of what I can deal with in terms of humidity.  My clothes by this time are just plastered to my body making me feel that much warmer.  I have been better about carrying water with me when I come out here on particularly hot days.  My friend, however, had fewer complaints than I did.  He just worked at his own pace.

Despite everyone’s best efforts and intentions…the river clean-up just scratched the surface.  There is just so much garbage in the world which I suppose is also an indicator of material richness…from affluence to effluence!  That sounds like a good title for a future post.  Unfortunately, you just can’t get all the trash and if you could…the river would just deliver fresh debris the next time another flood happens. We need to be better at getting this stuff at its sources.  Still, we shouldn’t surrender and I know I won’t.  The planet is just too important a place to give up on!

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Bellowing Styro-stag

Posted in Absurd, animal art works, animals, Art, art and environment, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Green, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, sculpture, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , , , on June 21, 2010| 2 Comments »

Reading the old journals from the exploration period…you can hear the authors’ amazement in trying to describe the overwhelming abundance that once existed here.  If you came across a flock of passenger pigeons numbering in the billions and as you watched them cross the sky like rolling smoke until they collectively blotted out the sun’s light how would you record the event?  But it wasn’t just flocks, there were also forests of trees, immense herds of bison and schools of cod and salmon.  In some cases, this was here less than two hundred years a go.  Now this seems remote and out of our living memories.  You don’t miss what you never knew.  Forgetfulness is another type of erosion.

Over the sounds of the river smacking the shoreline, I could discern a few grunts among a high almost “metallic” bugling/whistling in the air.  Or so I imagined as I introduce my latest Styrofoam creation.  In the old days, (which according to my youngest son is anything over nine years a go) the American elk or Wapiti was plentiful in Kentucky and through out the United States.  Several sub-species existed and were classified by geographic region and habitat.  The bulls of this large deer with their immense antlered racks are an impressive sight and are symbolic of nature’s majesty.  Well, mine is not nearly as good…but for the purposes of this post…will do fine!

We are lucky they are still with us today!  As loss of habitat occurred as well as hunting pressures…our elk were driven westward until they were gone east of the Mississippi River.  Eventually, the elk were allowed some federal protections and our herds are rebounding.  Kentucky has led the way in elk conservation by experimentally transplanting a herd to the eastern section of the state where they have thrived!  Their reintroduction has been so successful that a limited hunting season on them has been established.

During the Lewis and Clark trek across the country, elk meat made up a large percentage of the meat consumed.  It remained the meat of choice until the native Americans introduced the explorers to dogs and then that was preferred!  As the country was “settled”, elk continued to disappear from all kinds of pressures.  There was even a brief fad where elk teeth were used for watch fobs!

The elk is a member of the megafauna that was once was a large part of the North American ecosystem.  While I’m taking pictures of my sculpture, a smaller member of this ecosystem came hopping by.  To be honest, I don’t see many frogs out here and I’m surprised this Leopard frog isn’t in a more boggy area.  I think many people by now are aware that amphibians aren’t doing as well as they use to for a variety of reasons that range from climate change to exotic fungi.  If a Great Blue Heron spots this guy, then our frog friend will become bird food.  It’s as if life weren’t already difficult enough without adding to it.

The frog is a reminder that even the most humble of species plays its part in the bigger scheme of things.  So often it seems that the smallest players have the out-sized roles that make the biggest differences to the smooth operation of life at large.  My stag is bellowing and issuing a protest and challenge to protect the environment that sustains us all!  There is far too much in the river that doesn’t belong there especially items dependent on crude oil.

Take this stag for instance, it is dependent on crude oil for its existence.  The body, head, and parts of the leg are made from polystyrene.  In this case it is all river-polished Styrofoam.  The lower jaw is the sole of a shoe and also made from petrochemicals.  The eyes and plastic collar are plastic and derived from petroleum extracts.  Only parts of the nose, legs, antlers, and tail are biodegradable.  The Styro-stag is an animal we can afford to lose and it will be interesting watching the river for signs that the exotic materials that comprise it are on the wane.

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Echostains Spotlight

Posted in Absurd, Art, collecting art, creativity, ecosytem, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, Ohio River, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, unusual collection, tagged , , , , , , on May 20, 2010| 3 Comments »

Guess what everybody!  An interview I did with one of my favorite blogs was recently published and I’m honored to be placed in the spotlight.  If you get the chance check out the interview and scroll through some of Lynda’s stories.  If you like art, poetry, popular culture and more…than you will find her blog worth the visit!

Here’s the link to the Echostains blog, http://echostains.wordpress.com/

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Spring at the Falls of the Ohio

Posted in Absurd, Art, art and environment, birds and birding, creativity, ecosytem, environmental art, Falls of the Ohio, fresh water, Louisville, Kentucky, nature, nature photography, Ohio River, Originality, public art, recycled art, Styrofoam, watershed, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Spring has officially succeeded Winter at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  The river is high. Its waters increased by the thawing in the northern Ohio River Valley.  The river crested yesterday just below flood stage.  All my familiar spots are under a few feet of water now.  My record here is being rearranged.  It is amazing, however, how quickly the water recedes.  Spring is renewing this place in an especially physical way.

Lots of logs missing limbs roll and churn in the shallows by the river’s edge.  Once in a while you can hear a loud crack as something wooden is shattered in the water.  The trees roll over one another grinding their bark off which forms large floating mats that collect debris.  The corky squeak of wood grating against wood can sound like the grinding of teeth.

In places you could easily see the ever shifting currents by the objects floating on the surface of the water.  I walked along the park’s western shoreline.  The sound of three dueling kingfishers played out in an aerial display above my heads.  Although it still early…I’m always keeping my eyes out for migratory birds.  I was able to add a new species to my park bird list…the Bufflehead duck.  I came across a male with four females resting with their bills tucked into their back feathers.  They seemed to be just floating along with the available current at the limits of my camera’s telephoto lens.  I came back the next day to see if they were still around but they were gone.  I would have liked some better photos.

As I walked along I noted the mats of rafting wood.  You could see where a mat would drift against a tree and create an island.  I could spot the bright white of Styrofoam chunks like polystyrene passengers.  If I run into them again…I’ll turn them into sculptures.

When these mats are pushed onto the shore, this image shows a good example of the material aggregate that composes them.  It’s mostly wood chips, but you can see a lot of plastic and Styrofoam pieces too.  I have more than a hand full of those plastic cowboys and soldiers that I have found out here over the years.

I walked by one of my favorite trees.  I love its exposed, developed root system and wanted to see it covered by water.  Usually, I can rest in the open, small room the roots create under the trunk of the tree…but not today.  It have used this place to get out of the hot sun or driving rain many times before.

I kept walking until I reached private property.  I small creek with dirty river backwash demarcated a border.  Unfortunately, whatever is in the river is also now in the creek.  On the opposite side from me is a pasture with three horses and a goat.  This is a new background for me and I decided to improvise a figure from found materials and record a few images.

I quickly find enough junk to construct a figure.  Walking along this soupy creek I pick up fishing bobbers, foam, plastic, and wood. Here’s the piece in progress.  I never did use that plastic dauber looking thing.  This is an especially sad photo for me because I lost my knife within minutes of this image.  I don’t know what happened.  I either dropped it or left it sticking in a log somewhere, but when I returned to look for it the following day, it was not to be found.  Jim Gottuso gave me this knife years a go.  It only has two blades, but the small, sharp saw was perfect for driftwood.

These pictures hardly seem like a fair trade, but at this point I will take what comes next.  Sometimes the river requires a sacrifice.  I’m also thinking that I may see it again.  I might see it in a day-dream and its exact location will be revealed to me.  Since Kentucky is hosting the World Equestrian Games this year…this will be a good way for me to work a horse picture into the blog.  I’ve heard that we are expecting more than a half a million horse lovers to come to the Bluegrass.

I moved this piece around the edges of the property and finally left it standing next to a tree on this side of the riverbank. Here are a couple more shots of this piece.  The red object being held came from a large fireworks rocket.  When the sun is shining, the small bicycle pedal reflector makes a nice belt buckle.

I made another piece and have lots of other images from this weekend at the river that I will share over the next few days.  It was a long, grey winter and I’m glad that it has passed.  Here’s another image of the flower beds by the Interpretive Center, but taken on my way home at the end of the day.

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