We found our way back to the river again yesterday. This time, my 14-year-old son came along and he brought his iPod so that he could video some footage of the log with all of the found objects from the river that a neighbor has been creating (I wrote about this the other day although now there is a “guest box” where people can leave notes, so I left a poem).
Suddenly, my son got inspired. He stuck a large stick in the ground, took off his shoes and waded out to a little island to gather bricks. He then started to create his own art project.
We mostly watched him at work, although my wife and younger son helped him collect the red bricks (which are everywhere, remnants of the Great Flood decades ago that swept through the area, killing more than 50 people) and white stones and pottery and rocks. The little one kept asking “What are you building?” and the older one kept replying, “I don’t know yet.”
But build he did.
He then came home, downloaded a video editing app on his iPod, edited his footage and uploaded it into his YouTube account, connecting the video to his new Facebook account, too. (ahh, the modern childhood). I noticed this morning that his video invites others to come to the river, too, to add to the natural art installation now emerging. (His art is the last image of the bricks in a circle around the branch stuck in the ground)
If you are in our neck of the woods, feel free to pick up some river glass or brick shards and add it to the artwork. Imagination is the only thing required.
Peace (by the river),
Kevin
I teach art by introducing an artist, then having the children create something in a similar vein. It’s a method I learned from my own elementary art teacher, a woman I later taught alongside of for several years. Your son’s creation, in this same method, is wonderful! And he didn’t stop there but came home and shared it with even more people. Way to go, everyone!
I love the idea of taking someone else’s trash and turning it into art. Nice.
Nice addition to the collected art!
I am glad you keep coming back…love this kind of found art…how it grows and changes just like the river itself. Thank your son for his video and his addition to the project.
that is so cool. Where did the music come from?
Bonnie
Great! I love the idea of found art! Have you checked out River and Tides by the artist Andy Goldsworthy? If you haven’t – rent it and share it with the family. It is about found art in our world. Enjoy!
I was blown away by the size of the project. Quite a community endeavor!
Wow! Kid inspired, kid generated, public art. You will have to keep us updated every so often and see how the community adds to it.