Living in central Iowa does not mean being isolated from larger art audiences. Online communities provide opportunities to connect and communicate.
These spontaneous works exist solely in this documentation. My purpose is to present a moment of landscape or human-scape intervention.
Though not intended to be too serious, they reflect my ongoing pleasure in thinking through making.
PLOT: Violets
August 29, 2015
24” X 24”, elapsed time 54 minutes.
Backstory: moved into my home over 20 years ago, yard was perfect, all grass no ‘weeds’. Over the years nothing has been done to the lawn except mowing. It’s mostly violets, viola riviniana, common dog-violet and is scentless. Decided to remove the violets to see how it would look. Rather subtle. More to come.
Comment: Lawns are contested territory in my neighborhood. Between fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, they are toxic, reflecting our all-too human notion and desire that we control nature. During a drought, my lawn is regularly the only one that stays green. Seeing beauty as an act of engagement is a radical position.
Living in central Iowa does not mean being isolated from larger art audiences. Online communities provide opportunities to connect and communicate.
These spontaneous works exist solely in this documentation. My purpose is to present a moment of landscape or human-scape intervention.
Though not intended to be too serious, they reflect my ongoing pleasure in thinking through making.
PLOT:14x14x14
October 13, 2015, elapsed time 37 minutes
The soft-needle pine in the back yard sheds each fall. Using a cardboard box as form, a 14” cube was constructed from raked needles. The next day 45 mph winds turned the cube into a version of Monet’s haystacks.....
Comment: As the tree has grown the coverage of dropped needles has increased. Raking them has become an annual task to prevent them from smothering all they cover.
Living in central Iowa does not mean being isolated from larger art audiences. Online communities provide opportunities to connect and communicate.
These spontaneous works exist solely in this documentation. My purpose is to present a moment of landscape or human-scape intervention.
Though not intended to be too serious, they reflect my ongoing pleasure in thinking through making.
PLOT 4.0
October 15, 2015
14” x 14” x 14”, elapsed time 40 minutes
Windy here, the soft-needle pine dropped enough to create PLOT 4.0
…the 14” cubes were ‘softened’ by 50 mph gusts the next day.
Comment: Beginning to wonder about the quantity of needles and thinking about measuring them annually to compare one year to another. . .
Living in central Iowa does not mean being isolated from larger art audiences. Online communities provide opportunities to connect and communicate.
These spontaneous works exist solely in this documentation. My purpose is to present a moment of landscape or human-scape intervention.
Though not intended to be too serious, they reflect my ongoing pleasure in thinking through making.
PLOT: Amelioration
Begun March 14, 2016
60 tiles made from scrap glazes, scrap clay, soil, seeds embedded under a layer of kaolin. Braille text offset onto the damp tiles, speaking to ways to recycle/reuse materials that would be thrown out and locate the efforts on ground in need of repair (amelioration?). Shades of seed bombing! Will document and post as this evolves.
March 15: Rained a bit early this morning.
March 15: ...and it rained more this afternoon, tiles are starting to dissolve as designed, hoping for germination, growth. Next post over the coming weekend.
March 25: Rain pummeled the tiles; most of the kaolin slip with Braille offset has disappeared, seeds showing. Saw juncos pecking at them the other day.
April 5: Earthworms are working beneath the tiles; one slid across leaving a tracery.
May 2, 2016: after torrents of rain. This may be a ‘failed’ art project as the birds have pretty well cleaned off all the seeds.... will wait and see if anything develops. Tiles are pretty well dissolved.
Living in central Iowa does not mean being isolated from larger art audiences. Online communities provide opportunities to connect and communicate.
These spontaneous works exist solely in this documentation. My purpose is to present a moment of landscape or human-scape intervention.
Though not intended to be too serious, they reflect my ongoing pleasure in thinking through making.
PLOT: Soft Needle, Drop, Rake
October 18, 2018, elasped time 34 minutes
White pine, pinus strobus, native to Iowa, grows fast. This one was about 10’ tall when I moved in 25 years ago and now it is 50 or more feet high. Needle drop occurs in fall. The accumulation is tantalizing and I may need to learn to make pine needle baskets.
Comment: A casual form, using a three-foot square for compositional structure.
