Yellow Field

I used clay collected from the river which was rubbed on the trees in
bands, then attached yellow leaves collected from the field below

Earth- Art- Walk

I will be hosting a slide presentation and working with interpreters to offer a guided walk at the Helen Schuler Nature Center on Sunday the 20th from 2pm to 3 pm. There will be a 15 minute slide presentation and a 45 minute walk through the park to view the site specific works created for the Earth- Art- Walk project.

Earth- Art- Walk

Earth- Art- Walk is a self-guided walking tour through the Helen Schuler Nature Center of site-specific environmental sculptures by local artist Troy Nickle. The numbers on the map correspond to the numbered works listed below.

This exhibition is part of the centennial celebrations for the Highlevel Bridge, but was conceived as an alternative context for the bridge, it’s history and it’s landscape. “Earth- Art- Walk” celebrates the landscape from which the bridge rises, and was created with a philosophy of natural harmony and environmental sensitivity.
This project wouldn’t be possible without the assistance and consent of the Helen Schuler Nature Center.
-Bowman Arts Centre, August, 2009

Artist Statement

Through creating ephemeral and figurative site-specific interventions I hope to explore a relationship to the land that reflects balance, harmony and impermanence. I find wider social relationships can be explored in contexts beyond the gallery walls. For me the landscape is part of the work and provides a greater environment in which to interpret its meaning. Through my work I try to bring a new awareness and expression to a place. I consider each intervention as a marker, which can become a point of interest along a traveled path or simply embrace the site. Much of my work exists temporarily, overtime the work eventually decays, erodes and falls back into the site from which it came. This is part of the overall process of the work, reflecting the impermanence of all living things in a natural cycle both of creation and eventual destruction. Usually the destruction of the material is only a transformation where the material then takes on a new life, providing nourishment for the soil or a habitat for a small creature.

1. Seed

Fallen branches collected and stacked.

2. Populus

Soil collected from ground and mixed with water to create mud which was rubbed on tree and sculpted into face

3. Resonate (before and after)

4. Untitled

Drawing made from charcoal collected from a fire pit.

Populus 2

river clay on cottonwood

6.Untitled

7. Untitled