The Great Devouring Maw of Winter

The new year came in on a mild note, but soon turned to its usual tricks. North winds came sweeping down the lake and it didn't take long before it had eaten the beach. I went down today to see what the night-long howling havoc wreaked. And I gotta say...it was impressive. With the beach gone for the most part the surf spent the night pounding my latest retaining wall to pieces and then for sport it began to chew into the sculpture. It took down both ends of the sculpture and it is only a matter of time before it finishes the job as there is nothing between it and a hungry surf.

So the efforts of 2011 are now a thing of the past. I hesitate to predict what if anything will be left when this current storm blows itself out, but it will be at best, an impressive pile of rubble. Such is life on the littoral.

It is not just my sculpture that is getting a face lift. Our whole stretch of beach is in for some serious reconfiguring this winter as the lake levels are really high, because of all of the rain. You add the fact that the lake is not likely to freeze any time soon, so any big winter storm in the next month is likely to pack a destructive punch.

The following two pictures show what the state of things was before this storm decided to erase some of the previous destruction. These waves toss 100lb. stones around like leaves on the wind. And when it is over it's a sorry sight to see. The whole stretch of wall seen below and the ground it sat on is now a thing of the past. But there is always a light...

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.