These past few months, I’ve had to get into a whole new category of tools in order to do the color on the bronze work.  A hand cart and a blow torch have been essential.  Color on bronze is an alchemic process called “patina” which combines natural elements, air, rain, chemicals plus heat. There are some ancient recipes that involve burying the bronzes in dirt or peeing on them- all natural – and then you let the air do the oxidizing. The pee recipe would work better for male sculptors, the French sculptor August Rodin  instructed assistants at his studio to urinate over bronzes stored in the outside yard.

I’ve done my patinas with  common chemicals, liver of sulphur, vinegar, salt, lemon juice and ammonia. I’ve applied heat with a propane flame thrower. To get the flame you have to use an old fashioned sparker and pray the spark and the propane like each other. If they do the flame sprays out forcefully and if you don’t think ahead it can ignite paper, your work pants, or melt plastic containers. I’ve done all of the above and survived. The ultimate goal is to heat up the section of bronze you’re putting patina on to about 200 degrees, then you apply whatever chemicals needed. I’ve had a palette of blacks, browns, reds and greens.

I’ve also discovered that moving bronze sculptures is  an athletic effort, steel toed boots and a hand truck are required. Where are those assistants when I need them?

Recent News and Journal entries , September 7th 2011 –

• Women Embodied/ Cuban Women’s Art from Diaspora at Sangre de Cristo Art Center, Pueblo, CO. ends Oct. 15th, panel Oct.2nd read more

• RI Council on the Humanities funds A Natural History Continuum at the Hale House, Matunuck, Ri. Ana Flores to serve as scholar/artist in residence  read more 

• Poetry of the Wild boxes installed in Mystic at the Mystic Arts Center read more 

• Ana Flores featured speaker and visiting artist for Goddard College, MFA Multi disciplinary studies, Port Townsend,  WA read more 

 and the last journal page from Nova Scotia, Aug.22/2011:

What the Bear Knows

It’s the end of August and I’m searching for gooseberries the color of red wine. For a few hours I have uni focus like a bear might have as I forage in the fragmented light and shadow of the underbrush. Hoping not to meet my competitor I trample clumsily over dead branches making enough noise to scare away all wild neighbors on this mountain bigger than me including the mountain lion whose scat I’ve recently detected. When I do glance up from my work I see a sea of broken diamonds and charade of clouds on the horizon. The fluid form and light imprint my soul more profoundly than any snapshot. 

I’ve learned a few simple truths while foraging: gooseberries hide better than raspberries. They suspend down below a row of leaves and disappear into shadow. Once found a few good gooseberry bushes will reward you with a quick harvest. Raspberries, on the other hand,  hang like rare jewels on display and proclaim, “I’m here”. They demand you chase them across long distances to collect enough for one paltry jar. I’ve pursued both this summer and I’m pleased to have several bottles brimming with the essence of this mountian, sealed and waxed . These will be packed into the car tomorrow along with clothes, books, and my beach treaures for my long road trip from Nova Scotia to Rhode Island. During the winter months back in Rhode Island when I run rather than walk, hustle rather than forage, I’ll slather this liquid poetry on toast and savor the knowledge that the bear and mountain lion walk with and we try to forget. 

Barbizon Oak, Todd Jokl, Vision boxes, opening of the eyes, Sara Drought Nabel,, Uncategorized

On July 19th we had our official ceremony to celebrate the Vision Box project installed in Old Lyme Connecticut. The boxes had been up or a good month and getting plenty of public use but this was the official reception, I like to think of it as the “opening of the eye” ritual. In Ancient figurative sculptures the eyes were the last thing to get added by the sculptor. It was believed that when the eyes were added the sculpture was finally filled with life and spirit.  Though our boxes were not at all figurative they were about vision–of the kind that has a long view– and all of the boxes do feature the abstracted casting of a large eye.

The evening of the reception was exceptional, the temperature was in the  70’s and the sky was clear, not at all like the steamy weather earlier in the week.  An audience of about 40-50 people gathered at the Lyme Art Academy.   At the reception hosted by Dean Todd Jokl, we acknowledged all the people and groups who had made this project possible, made the necessary toasts and libations, and then announced that we would be taking a short walk to see two of the boxes located nearby. Thankfully all agreed to the idea and the group began to snake down Lyme street in the direction of Lyme Art Association, our first stop. The artist, Sara Nabel Drought, spoke about her painting featured on the box outside the Association and the history of the gallery and its founding by the American Impressionist painters.

We then crossed Lyme street to walk into the Champlain North refuge where the Barbizon oak is located. The group carefully made its way along the trail of high grass taking us past stone walls and foundations and then turned the wooded corner. In the clearing before us stood the grand Barbizon Oak dramatically spot lit by the setting sun.

We were spellbound by the spectacle. The Oak which had been muse to many artists and visitors for centuries looked like it had been expecting us.  For those few magical moments  the constant rumble of the  highway running past the preserve disappeared.  The wood thrush sang out and we were filled with the spirit of the place– the Oak had opened our eyes. And thanks to the vision of the Old Lyme Open Space commission the Oak was still there to work its magic in us.

This Body of Land and Other News

Upcoming events and notes on revising This Body of Land

May 2- August 2nd Poetry of the Wild/St Louis Fusion

Poetry boxes will be installed in the Central West End and Grand Center Art district as well as the University of Missouri/St Louis campus. Twenty artists and poets from St Louis have been busy collaborating as well as numerous high school students from art charter schools for the latest Poetry of the Wild project, for more click here.

May 20th  Cuban Independence Day celebration /Book presentation     South Providence Community Library. 

I’ll be reading and presenting from my new book, The Island Draws Me, based on my ongoing Cuba exploration as part of a program honoring Cuban Independence Day sponsored by Nuestro Raices. 5 pm,441 Prarie Ave., Providence, RI

July 28- August 1st, Schumacher College, Devon, UK                              This Body of Land/ An Introduction to Ecological Art with Ana Flores, Peter Randall -Page and Susan Derges

This month I’ve been revising a course I created called, This Body Of Land/ an Introduction to Ecological Art. I first taught the course at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004 and have taught it at numerous institutions since then. This summer it will be offered as a week-long intensive at Schumacher College in the U.K, a unique hub for sustainable living and education. Their  short courses for professionals offer the practical skills and strategic thinking required to face the ecological, economic and social challenges of our times.

In spring cleaning, I happily rediscovered this German woodcut from the 15th century  that I had used on the front page of my first syllabus for This Body of Land. For me, “Arteries” says everything about our bodies being a continuum of the natural world. Despite the disengagement many people feel today, I know some people I could metaphorically depict in this way. These friends and colleagues are naturalists, writers, farmers, master gardeners, conservationists, artists, and citizens who are deeply in tune with the natural world around them and stewards of their local geography. I’m sure you know some. I call them earth voices but they are all too rare.

My goal for this Body of Land’s is to reactivate and nourish this magnificent neural network we are born with- like that of the woodcut–it needs no electricity but does need fuller engagement with the natural world. The tools of art and ecological thinking can be instrumental in this re-awakening, I’ve seen it happen. This Body Of Land will be enhanced by the visits of two renown artists who are deeply engaged with the Devon ecology: Peter Randall- Page and Susan Derges. My week long course can be complimented with a dynamic course on creative community engagement  the Art of Invitation.  Each course can be taken solo and neither course requires participants to have any art background.  If you share my interest in ecology and sustainable living I strongly recommend Schumacher, their innovative short courses are taught by leading international thinkers, activists and practitioners. After many years of reading the books of James Lovelock, David Orr,and  Fritjof Capra I discovered that they taught periodically at Schumacher. One could take a two or three week intensive with them. In 2008 I had the opportunity to attend a course on sustainable design at Schumacher which was seminal for me.  I’m honored to be going back to this inspiring community filled with many earth voices.