building bridges- a bridge installation

Here in Crested Butte, Co., the Festival of the Arts will be celebrating its 40th anniversary during this year's  arts fair, Friday, August 3 through Sunday, August 5th. Newly added to the festival is the exciting bridges project! Six artists [including me] have been selected to do temporary public art pieces to transform 5 town bridges over Coal Creek, the creek that flows through town & for an entrance to the festival. The Crested Butte Festival of the Arts requests that the theme of 40 is incorporated into the installations & that they be "whimsical, thoughtful, surprising & fun." In addition, the Coal Creek. Coalition is supporting the project, to address awareness of water, local water issues & environmental aspects pertaining to the creek. Other criterion to be met is recycleability  of materials used.

So. As I played with ideas for the entry, I wanted to use natural objects whose shapes are intriguing,  found in abundance near local waterways, easy to install onto a bridge, fairly lightweight, sturdy when combined & could be constructed near my studio in sections, then transported in my truck on installation day. Aha! Cottonwood branches, found fallen & scattered upon the ground, in patterns created by wind & gravity, felt just right. Here are several of the first portions, also the new background for this blog. Parts of discarded furniture will be included, as well as used electric fencing tape & wire, the white stuff wrapped around limbs & branches, below. Also, baling twine. After all, it takes water to make hay. { For anyone reading not familiar, baling twine holds baled hay together. It is the plastic orange stuff, looped & braided here.}

More to come...