3 Colour Tear Drop

3 Colour Tear Drop, originally uploaded by e s c h e r.

I was going to call this "Traffic Lights for Dog Owners Who Don't Clear Up Their Dog's ****" but I didn't think it was a very snappy title.

There is a cut through next to a stream where I have been doing bits and pieces of land art recently and there is new dog **** right in the middle of the path every day. I am amazed at the laziness of some people especially when they must walk their dog through there themselves and therefore probably don't want to walk in it either. The other national sport that is also a local speciality is picking your dog's mess up in a plastic bag then throwing that bag in a hedge/tree/river/pond. How exceptionally dim is that? I expect they think they are doing the right thing by picking it up but then sealing it in a plastic bag and throwing it in a tree is really going to get rid of it isn't it? It would be better off left on the ground to rot away. Still people as dim as that make the rest of us look good right?

This sculpture then was a land artists investigation into the meaning of dog ****. It was placed right above a pile of white dog poo and set exactly between two more piles several yards along the path in either direction. I did this to try and draw the viewers attention to how we interact with nature, how dog poo interacts with our environment and how we interact with the dog poo when you stand in it. Art really is such a deep and meaningful subject don't you think? What amazing revelations it can bring to you and with this "study of dog ****" I hope I have left you enlightened like only a good artist can! ;-) I think I'll probably deserve the Tuner Prize for such insight but I'll settle for the Nobel Prize for Art. I'm not fussy.

The redness of the copper beech is starting to fade now but yellows and greens are still prevalent everywhere. I was amazed how the tall grasses next to this spot have grown in a week and what I did actually learn today (I already knew about inconsiderate dog owners) is that the shrub that I get the sticks from to make the circles produces very long leafless branches right in the centre. When the lower branches are not near the sun the new growth grows long and straight so that it can reach the sunlight. These are what I used to make the arch and the teardrop as they lent themselves to that shape perfectly. I am tempted now to make some really big circles and hang them up somewhere.

Each new progression leads you on to more ideas along the same theme. It is interesting for me to see how the ideas evolve and how they culminate eventually into something new. All the while learning more about nature and the materials she provides. Finding the long branch growth was just such a discovery and that revelation meant it shaped what I made and how I made it. How the materials themselves help make the finished sculpture by constraining what you can do, how much of a certain colour there is, what shapes you can make from pliable material and so on is a big part of the interest to be found when doing land art.