willow, twine, fabric, wood, i-pod, computer speakers

The red cylinder in the center holds speakers and an I-pod which plays the sound of the wind blowing through the trees in the Castle river valley.

Mountain Gate

Stacked stones and branch

Sweat Lodge

As I was leaving Waterton Lakes National Park, I stopped outside the park gates at the Maskinonge and found this sweat lodge. Maskinonge in Chippewa means, "big ugly fish," a name for pike which thrive in these waters. This area is north of Chief Mountain, a mountain considered sacred by the Blackfoot. The sweat lodge described by Jim Eagle is to "cleanse you of all the baggage you will be bringing with you. Once cleansed, you will find it difficult to stay this way. That is the reason you should attend as many sweat lodges as possible. It is for your benefit that I say this. In the sweat lodge you will learn specific songs, along with how to eliminate ego and judgment from your life. You will also learn how to welcome being humble into your life."

Inside / Outside

It has been a while since I have been out in the river valley to work with the materials available in such a place. This is an old reliable pile of driftwood that was previously made into the work, "Pod". I used the branches from what remained of "Pod", and transformed it into this new incarnation. I created Pod in the spring and this work was done this fall, on Oct 17, 2010 in Pavan Park, Lethbridge AB.

While shooting this panorama I captured my friend Jeff Milner shooting his own photo of the mountains to the south west.

This is a close up photo of some lichen on a rock at the summit where we were enjoying our view. This type of lichen is called Xanthoria which is a type of leaf lichen. Xanthoria gets its nitrogen by growing where small animals and birds regularly excrete. That is why one often sees orange lichens on high points where hawks and eagles perch, on cliff walls below ledges where ravens have nested or anywhere wood rats or chipmunks scurry about the rock.

Lake Cairn

This cairn was built at an alpine lake on a hike up Barnaby ridge near Castle Mountain in Southern Alberta. The group I was with hiked up to the summit while I stayed at the lake and worked on this cairn. Thomas and Jessie made it back down the mountain before the others and were seeking shelter from the wind among the stumpy pine trees in the background.

Reach

This piece was done at Pavan Park in Lethbridge Alberta. When I first came upon this fallen tree I immediately wanted to sculpt a face on the branch of the tree which took the form of a person reaching and looking toward the sky. I used mud from a nearby beaver pond to sculpt the nose and lips beside the knot which looks like an eye. I initially did this work on an overcast day while working on the Pod sculpture below. I wanted to try to recreate this work with better lighting conditions and during this day the sun was in the west and there was a beautiful blue sky to work with.

Pod

Natalie Vandenberg helped to finish this work by rolling grasses into spheres which were then placed inside the Pod.

Pod

A stack of branches were collected and piled into and upward slope on a debris pile from a 2005 flood. I came back the next day and then formed the branches into a pod.

Contemplative Landscapes

Tipi Bundle

I found a nice pile of loose branches that had been deposited near this fallen tree from a previous flood. I like to choose sites like this because of the available materials.

Sounds of Silence

Connecting with the natural world around us allows us time to stop for a moment to reflect and listen. The forest seems silent at first but then as we listen deeper we start to notice sounds of movement and life. We begin to hear the sound of flowing water, singing birds and the movement of bushes from a small critter. We become more aware of what is around us because our senses are not overloaded with noise. We learn to simply appreciate the world around us such as the beauty of the sky, the trees, the water and the animals that inhabit the ecosystem. Out of our experience we can understand the importance of protecting our environment in hopes that future generations can enjoy the same experience. I think by connecting with nature we are connecting to something deep within us, a direct and tactile experience that cannot be provided by technology, media or television.