Walk through the park

I took a walk through the park yesterday evening.  I chose to navigate an area in the backlog the park where I used to play as a child. I had hoped to gather a large amount of leaves from the ground to work with, but they are still holding strong to the trees. I was able to gather a few fallen leaves in various stages of decomposition.  I found many sites with interesting structures formed by dead or dying trees as well as partially fallen trees that have been heaved out of the ground by erosion. The park showed a lot more erosion than I had remembered. Some areas have uncovered evidence of past land development: asphalt, brick, metal.  I remember encountering these in small quantities when I was young. There was a mysterious quality about their history, about our history, our making/developing of land and the decomposition of our efforts.

Tree Labeling

My children are always quite interested in what I am experimenting with.  At one point I was explaining that my can of dirt came from a wooded park on Purdue's campus where all the trees are labelled so you know what kind they are.  Intrigued by this concept, my older one decided to label our trees.  I think she did a fine job...enjoy!

It is certainly nice to have the graphic translation of what I see.  Maybe someday we will give them names.

Nature, Art, and Design

I am excited to begin work on a series of new projects this fall.  I am finding that I naturally fall into a process of creating site-specific installations.  Be sure to click on my Dirt page to see what I am up to now.