Public Sculpture

     This is a picture taken during my river drift. I recognized it from the assignment and chose it because I had caught it on the drift.  This piece called "River Trout Tree" is by Ellen Gay. I had a really hard time finding anything on her online, even when I added the words sculpture and artist to the search, all it kept giving me is Huge sale on gay sculptures on ebay or the like. I finally found it under the sculpture title.  http://eileensworld.com/
    I will admit at first I did not like the piece. I thought it garish, clumsy, and the fish were obviously too big to represent any of the ones that you could catch in Idewild Pond, where the sculpture is. I thought how dare they put this big ugly fish sculpture in the way of where people might cast their lines. I then proceeded to channel art160 and felt like smacking myself in the head and going duh!
     Remembering back 20 years to when my dad brought his little girl to Idewild with mom managing the picnic lunch and huge bags of stale bread in the truck to later feed to the evil geese.  I would go and ride the carnival rides they used to have there before eating my lunch.  We would go toss the bread to the waterfowl in that pond where the sculpture and fountains stand now (they werent there then) Thus diverting the geese from following us to our real mission. I would grab my tackle box won from a lure casting competition, my fishing pole, and the lucky worms for the day, and dad and I would fish at the other pond across the way, the one that faces the choo choo train. It remains one of the best childhood memories.

Here is a link with a really good picture.
http://renotahoe.about.com/od/publicparks/ig/Idlewild-Park-Pictures/idlewildpark17.htm
     Key word, Childhood. Even though they no longer have the carnival rides,  Idewild park is a place designed for children to enjoy, as well as adults. In the book, it tells of an artist, Richard Serra who had a piece Titled Arc that was removed and therefore he felt it was ruined because it was designed specifically for that space. That is how I feel these fish would be, out of place anywhere but Idewild. The huge fish are appealing to children and since they are not just sculptures of rainbow trout, they are actually rainbow colored, they are easy to identify as rainbow fish. A parent could easily use this as an educational tool. The fact that it is a native fish and not some fanciful image can be appreciated by adults. Its inspiring, a kid could ask if there are actually fishes waiting to be caught in the pond (there are, I have caught trout, some really pissed off catfish, crawdads, and what I think may have been a tiny bluegill) and a grown up can truthfully say yes. The kid can then dream of catching one that size, inspiring future trips. On a field trip, a teacher could have students draw it. It helps to make Idewild a fun place.

River Drift

For my drift, I wish I could have mounted a camera to my scooter, downtown on a scooter has a really interesting view. But in the interests of not breaking my neck, and the fact that I dont have a way to mount a camera, I just took a buttload of pictures. Like 200+. Here are 4. I did not notice the tiny "Abide" on the sign untill I got home and battled the "fatal error" my computer was having with my camera. I chose along the river to drift. Now its going to drive me nuts until I go back and get a really good look at it. I would have taken more today, but the battery died. I will probably go back and get some more shots once I sort through the details of these.

Drift

I am not quite sure what I am going to focus my drift project on as of yet.  There are a few ideas floating in my as of yet uncaffienated brain, but nothing concrete.  I may end up taking a bunch of photos that I won't use.  If anyone wants to use these xtra photos, sees something in them that applies to their prject, sees something that I didnt see in them, I will make them available. Just check with Candace to see if she is OK with it.  They will be 12.1 megapixel pictures.

Apple Polishing?

Ok hows this for apple polishing.. Thrift stores rock. Today as I braved the competitive market of Goodwill, I purchased a desk, and a dining set, and stumbled across something that screamed to me "Buy me for art160!!"
I purchased said item and will bring it tomorrow since I have to be on campus for advisement and registration.
A hint: It is not a pipe.
Mwahaaahaaa