The Ephemeralitude of Novembeachworks

November weather was spectacularly conducive to doing beachworks, but at the same time what it gave with one hand it took with the other. Every weekend that I went down the conditions were great and the materials supplied by the lake were varied and abundant. The end result was that I was able to play around with lots of interesting ideas. The problem was that although each weekend I could make something different, the lifespan of these works was often as short as a day or two. Each subsequent weekend when I returned, the previous work was washed away so I couldn't get any continuity in a project. I'm not going to complain, as never was the lake niggardly in any way shape or form, but the chance to build or spin off any previous project was frustrated by the "tide's" regular erasure of each work.

I liked working with the small boxes of colored stones of which that weekend there was an abundance. All kinds of beautiful stones/cobbles had washed up in a huge skirt along the beachfront. Colors in many variations. In the time I had, I managed to cage four different species and would have loved to continue, but the next week the cobbles were gone, along with the artwork, replaced by the grey stone discs, which led to some flower/lotus/artichoke shapes.

Along with the discs a nice carpet of sand was laid down, which is essential for embedding the discs and holding them in place. See how cooperative the lake can be when it wants to be? In exchange it removed the great raft of sticks that had washed up earlier, which I had my eyes on for the next project.

In a momnent of whimsey, the lake coughed up a yellow pumpkin as well which was bobbing and rolling down the surfline. It was just begging to be a part of something different and dryer. So I gave it a new home, which I thought worked out nicely.

I'll be curious to see if it is still there this weekend. It looked very comfortable . So conditions permitting I'll be down this weekend to see what this week's west winds have made available on the beach to work with.

Winds of November

The first half of November was as pleasant as October was hideous. The weekends were great for beachwork and I was able to completely rebuild the protective wall in front of the Stonewave. And in the breaks I made a couple of small pieces, taking advantage of the abundance of black and white stones that have washed up as of late.


I love the black and white stones. I suppose it has to do with my deprived childhood. All of my friends with small families had the 64-Box of Crayola crayons, while we could only afford the 6-Box, which by the time I got to use them consisted of only black, white and brown, the primary colors having been depleted by use. Since that age I have always been comfortable making do with what was available.

Since the first two weeks, the real November has shown up and wiped away my little circle sketches with waves that have swept over the rebuilt wall. And Monday there were tornadoes sighted in the area and some big lake storms. I have yet to see the effect on the beach. But I look forward to going down on Saturday to see what the waves have wrought.

The Skull of a Lake Monster and Other Assorted Things

Down at the beach on this cold, clean October weekend when I stumbled upon a marvel as rare as logic out of the mouth of a Republican candidate. There lying partially buried in the sands was the skull of a lake monster of the horned variety (horned in this case is pronounced with two syllables, as in hor-ned...sounds way cooler that way.) At least I think it was a lake monster skull. It was pretty far along in the petrification process, it kind of looked like wood, but the facial features were near unmistakeable. In the periods of time when I wasn't completely "astonied" by my find, I managed a small stick sculpture with a long tail of leaves. A comet, as it were, perhaps an omen related to the finding of the lake monster skull. The lake put the leaves there, I only did the stick part.

Now that the foliage is subject to biology and gravity the back of the sculpture is pretty visible and gives an interesting view in the early morning light breaking through the thinning screen of trees on the bluff.

On Sunday I went for a walk on the Peninsula out near Gull Point. The beach out there is where the scenes for "The Road" were shot and on this day it was just a sunnier version of desolation. I took some pictures of things that intrigued me. maybe I can use them later if I remember I put them here. Saw A Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, the first new bird I've seen on the peninsula in a long while.

Ancient writing in Sandskript....

A "tide pool" with some flotsam casting amoebic shadows on the sand....

Sugar coated vegetation, courtesy of sub-freezing temperatures....

Close Calls

Big storms and a lot of October rain passed through the area last week and on the beach so did the waves. The surf line went up the the base of the bluff in some places and where the sculpture is, it washed past its base. The wall that was built in front of the sculpture was subjected to two days of surf cresting over it and when things finally subsided the retaining wall was largely disassembled. As you can see from the following two photos, little remains intact. If the wall were not there, the sculpture most likely would have come down in areas as well.

The center section was probably the only part of the wall that maintained some coarses still aligned. Some big 100 lb. plus stones were washed thirty yards down the beach. Others were washed away completely and may turn up in the next big storm, but are lost for now. You have to be impressed with those forces.

I knew I was in trouble when I saw these two logs washed up to the brush-line. Both of them were 40 footers and about 30 inces in diameter. You don't throw those things around unless you are pushing some serious waves for an extended period of time. I did a little reconstruction work, but you know that the November storms will erase anything I can put up if they get the chance. Fortunately , my friend Sisyphus said he would help.

This is a little painting I had done a while back which like the wall was wiped clean inadvertantly by someone who thought it needed dusting. It was part of the college's collection. So they returned it to me and I thought I'd ressurect it by repainting parts of it and frankly it works just as well in its recycled form. Unfortunately I do not know the name of the person who originally wiped the paint off, so I can't credit him in this collaboration.
Nice mustache, Josh.

The Fallen Sun

When I was very young, three or four perhaps, my family loaded into the Country Squire station wagon with the faux paneling and headed west to visit an uncle who lived in Missouri. I remember as we got to the flatlands and this big bloated sun was setting I urged my father to make some haste so that we could get to the place where it landed. Needless to say he didn't make it and I distinctly remember being disappointed in my father for what I perceived to be his lack of effort. I wonder what an analyst would say in light of my current mental health situation...I think I'm fine. Anyways, this is a quick sketch with sumac leaves and a perfect October Sunday without a hint of a breeze. The sun has landed, I finally got there.

The King is Dead...Long Live the King

This weekend was one of those rare October weekends that make this part of the country a great place to be . Warm, mild, cloudless, and a light breeze in the finest of Indian Summer traditions. Ironically, Columbus deserves some kudos here as well, because without him it would not have been a three day weekend of this perfect weather. This gift came on the heels of some truly miserable October weather. Three days of cold gusting north winds that left migrating Monarch butterflies strewn along the beach like the wreckage of some maritime disaster. They didn't stand a chance. The cold and the wind crushed the life out of them and they expired in droves all along the water's edge. So when I went down on Saturday for a little peace and quiet, I was greeted by this carnage. And so I made a little shrine for the Monarchs

I tried a few different things before I settled on the final arrangement and not having experience in the medium of butterflies, I'm not sure if it works, but I suppose it was better than the alternative.

Some leaves were turning and I needed an excuse to stay down longer so I also did a few leaf sketches to go alongside the butterflies. It was a less depressing exercise. So that was Saturday.
I had some more fun on Sunday, but I'll save that for later.

The Equinox...or Thereabouts

This weekend was the usually annual Equinox gathering on the beach. Goats sacrificed, libations made, reckless dancing, the whole nine yards. The actual equinox falls midweek, making this premature equinoctial celebration necessary. Not the best weather, but just as sunset approached things warmed up and a break in the cloud cover made for a spectacular sunset. I did not record the event, but on Sunday I went down for a couple of hours to work in the fall weekend quiet and on this evening there was a pleasantly luminescent sunset...and one lonely wave rose up to watch it. Or is that the Loch Erie Monster. Now that I think of it I did hear a plaintive antediluvian wail just as the "wave" disappeared.


I made a couple of small sketches using white and black stones, of which there was an abundance lying about this week. It is my homage to Kasimir Malevich. I particularly like the black square.

I also made a quick stick circle as the sun was setting, but I didn't finish it in time to get a good picture. You can however just make it out at the bottom of this picture as the sun was setting.

So, that was the weekend at the Beachworks. Happy Equinox.

A Sketch

I have not been down to the beach for many sunsets this year, having instead usually gone down in the early afternoon, but on this occasion I was lucky enough to enjoy a nice blood red sun. These usually bring out a range of purples and indigos and blues and they also have a tendency to light up the things on shore with interesting effects. In this case a transluscent fish...

...or a section of wall gets gilded. It is always a pleasant evening light with which to experience the beach.

I did a little sketch on our expanding beach. As lake levels lower a bit and a three day blow from the east, probably thanks to the hurricanes rolling up the eastern seaboard, deposited a goodly new stretch of beach I have inherited a bigger area to play. So here is the first of the fall eforts. It turned out OK, but was just something to get me back into the addiction. Everytime I do one of these little stone ones I'm newly amazed at the range of colors these beach cobbles come in.

The End is Near

As August winds down and the nights start to have a bit of a chill, the lake becomes more volatile, prone to emotional outbursts. Wind gets windier, the sun gets cleaner and cooler, the clouds more insistent, the waves get pushier. On one such day I was down at the beach, working on wasting some time and the waves were beating up against my wall and trying to pull stones out of it while at the same time throwing other stones up on the beach elsewhere. Somewhere the waves were given the impression that raw materials were a fair trade for hand crafted finished work. I, however felt that I was getting the short end as I wasn't being compensated for the hours. Sure, it was nice to get some new stone, but when you are giving up the bottom row of stones on a wall, it seems a bit unfair.

These two pictures were taken from the platform on the wall. The waves were coming in with impressive force and regularity and while sitting there watching them it was easy to get the sense that you were on the edge of everything or nothing.

Twice during August I was visited by a Bald Eagle. A sight more common these last years. It perches in a dead tree just down the beach and scans the shoreline. The last time he visited, I was out in the water and I decided to go get my camera and see if I could get a picture. As I got the camera he took off over my head so I took this picture. He headed past me out over the lake about 30 yards past where I had just been in the water and then he took a dive. It was a very picturesquely eagle-like kind of maneuver on his part and I tried to capture it camerically, but when I hit the button I was informed that my camera card was full. While I was busy swearing, it pulled a pretty good sized fish out of the lake and then flew back over my head about 20 feet off the ground and then up over the bluff to partake of his catch. As it passed I swear I heard it chuckling at my failure as a paparazzi.
I am more fit to take pictures of things that move in a more patient and deliberate manner, like these subjects below. On this day the water was very clear and there was a good sun. On the littoral there was a swath of pebbles of a good size and varied color and as they were regularly being washed by gentle waves their colors were being brought out by the glaze of the wetness. I just walked up and down the beach like a shorebird, bent over and looking for little bits of edible shorebird repast, but in my case it was some out of the ordinarily colored stones. And this was the resulting little eye-feast.

The Work Continues...

This is my fourth attempt to get something to post. I have written lengthy and brilliant essays of the kind usually associated with the great thinkers of the past, only to see them vanish into thin air when I hit the post button. The loss to humankind is immeasurable. Rather than risk it again, I will just try this little paragraph in the hopes that I can get a post to go through unscathed. It seems I am being censored by some greater power that wishes to keep the people who occasionally read this blog from reaching enlightenment, or it could be related to the fact that my computer has had some new software added to it that screws with the posting process, I'm not sure which. Here we go....

Here's what it looks like at the end of July...


Resetting the retaining wall...




Adding the central platform...

Somebody left an offering in the window. This is the first one in the new sculpture. It use to happen all of the time in the old one. It lasted about a week before somebody knocked it down and replaced it with three empty beer cans.