The Avant Garden

We have animals in our back yard other than yellow jackets now. We see the otters more, and check out this video of a fox across the River as the Avant Spouse and I sipped coffee in the Meditation Garden:

On July 6 I went over to Rob's and was visited by this turkey: Kinda makes ya hungry, doesn't it?

The turkey would later come over to where I was playing with some rocks and stand on the Stone that Robs calls "Nike." I took a pic from the other side of the Fairy Candles:

Nike fell and the Turkey flew way up into a pine tree. I fixed Nike back up and gave him a buddy:

I have also taken a job to do a mailbox post for a woman in Maggie Valley. It is to look like just another 42" high stack of rocks, but will have a mailbox atop it, like the last stone. I have about 21" of the Postal-Service-regulation 42" minimum height drilled and hollowed out large enough for a 5/8" threaded rod to fit through the middle of the stack. Of course, it has to be a balanced stack first, with the threaded rod just for security, so I have to stack 'em and make sure they have nice relationships and then drill 'em. This is where we are so far:

I have a "later" deadline on that one, but am pleased with it so far.

My biggest concern right now is this thing coming up at the Bascom.

They wrote a bio thing about me that says something like this:

August 6-October 30
Avant Gardener: Stacked Stone Sculpture | Outdoors
The Avant Gardener, sculptor, says that Western North Carolina is blessed with good rocks; granite is one example of a plentiful material. He is drawn to rocks that have the edges, irregularities and "grippiness" that he needs for making his signature stacked stone sculptures. The Gardener collects stones from farms, dumps, riverbeds and many other locations (with permission from owners) and makes stacked assemblages from these found rocks. The parts of his works are held together with gravity and friction. His pieces form arches or sometimes pedestals or totem shapes and make moments in time that would not ordinarily occur. Watch for his stone installations along The Bascom's nature trail and around the campus. These stacked stone works of art celebrate the unblemished green spaces that form the landscape west and north of The Bascom's new headquarters building; signal the art center's commitment to ecology and "green" practices; and celebrate the wealth of regional and national artists who produce works that compliment the landscape.

Wow, that really makes me feel like Somebody instead of a guy so lonely he has to make rockstacks to have someone to talk to.

I have three concerns about the Bascom project right now, though ... one, that I do not have enough pedestal pieces to do the five Arches-on-Pedestals I have planned. I am grasping at straws on that one, and hampered by concern two -- my health. I have some kind of food poisoning bug that is making we weak, tired and grouchy. I hope it all goes away soon. And three, I worry that my work is too ephemeral to install so far away. It's about ... 90 miles there, on some curvaceous mountain roads. Some things I stack stand for years and only fall when pushed. Others stand less than 30 seconds. Many fall with no provocation from wind or living being atall, and certainly no warning. OK, make it four concerns about the Bascom. I am worried about one of them falling and hurting someone, especially a child. Worst nightmare, no doubt. But Nerf-stacking is not as intriguing, and I am counting on the folks at the bascom to know what they are doing in inviting me out there to play.

I just hope I can get some things up that will last, because as the great stackers of the 1950s would say: A failed rockstack is just a pile of rocks, and anyone can make rubble.

He is the guard on the left: 

He paraded down the streets of Salvador, Brazil in that costume ... that's at least a 500ml-of-water-per-km costume.

Fish are jumpin'

and the stackin' is high.

Sorry. Back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

The stacks I did last week had a visitor from the Ardeidae family: The Heron appears perched on the arch, but no ...

Sorry about the horrendous photograph, but it was taken out the passenger window of a rolling Subaru while I drove by.

Just outside the frame of that pic is this cool rust-man that Rob created with things from the River:

It's actually much cooler than the photo.

Rob is in Michigan visiting fambly. Hope he is having fun.

I went to Bent Creek Sunday and immediately noted that visitors to the Unphotographable Herd of Arches had left a stack on my little bench:

To that stack, in my best Archie Bunker voice, I demanded, "Get your butt outta my chair." It refused to move, so I helped it and sat down to read the new entry in the logbook I left for people to sign: 

I am happy my creations added to someone's spiritual experience. I hope the story is one they tell for years to come.

A member of the group added some stones to the Unphotographable Herd, which was OK. But I did remove them, because the Herd is there and if you change the energy by adding pieces, it's no longer the Herd ... or at least, no longer my Herd, and realizing that Bent Creek Experimental Forest is public property and everyone has a right to arrange the Stones there as they please, I removed them with neither malice nor ill will. Likesay ... I am just glad the Stones and I could help.

For the past two days, I have stood in the River and bent wire:

I even made an aluminum wire cell phone holder so I could talk to my friend D-U-G while bending tonight. He found it annoying, but my hands just wouldn't stop. You know how it is in the Summertime.

The otter family -- at least the 4 kids -- swam across the River in front of me. I was caught so unawares I could not get my cell phone camera to work. But I saw four small ones. So cuuuuute. Even their poop is cute.

And then there is the new Rob's Arch ... number 25, I believe.

Remember a while back I mentioned having a party to mark the construction of Rob's Arch #25? Well, that never happened. I was so glad the rain stopped and the River level fell and I could get back to work, I hopped in Friday without fanfare, ha-ha.

I did this thing, also:

on the rock that started it all.

And I made this hairy guy:

on the same day. Rob serves as the photo backdrop on that one. He is multi-talented.

Today I went out to Bent Creek to find one of the herders of the Unphotographable Herd of Arches down, so I began repairing him. It started to rain, so I took off my clothes and put them in a dry place (the little red bucket turned on its side) and stacked naked. It was pouring and unlikely that Girl Scout Troop 456 from Bugfuzz, S.C. was going to hike through. I was nervous though, because were I hiking in the nice peaceful woods and came across the Avant Gardener naked and bent over a stack of rocks, I would toss up my trail mix. And I don't want to do that to anybody.

Anyway, this is the largest thing I have ever stacked naked:

And one of the few. It's not something I do often.

But it was good energy today, and it felt nice to put on semi-dry clothes when the rain stopped, too.

With my clothes on, I drove down to the Roadside Serpent and the rain stopped and it got steamy out:

I wasn't quite ready to leave, so I tossed up a quick Arch-on-Pedestal:

I was trying to think of some cool name I could give it to point out the halo thing, which reminds me of my Swedish friend Åsa, who is actually coming to visit the Avant Garden sometime this year. All the way from Sweden -- that's the longest distance anyone has traveled to see the AG. Maybe she will bring me one of those cuckoo clocks Sweden is famous for (haha- just kidding, Åsa, if you are reading this).

This afternoon I came home from work to find that the Avant Harp:

had fallen to time and gravity and now flashed a sorta car-sticker Jesus-fish to all who walked the paths of the Avant Garden:

No worries on my part. We certainly have a freedom of speech in the Avant Garden. It's written into the the Prime Directive, which is a lot like the U.S. Constitution except it is written only on tablets in my head. Anyway, a few minutes later, I looked and the symbol had changed to the Darwin-Fish:

We haven't had that much ideological activism in the whole history of the Avant Garden. What's next?

The Avant Son, the eldest one, graduated from high school this past weekend. Which, in and of itself, is not a big deal. Almost anyone (even I!) can graduate high school. But he did it with honors, both academically and as a musician and leader in the band. He was awarded the John Phillips Sousa Award, which "... recognizes superior musicianship, dependability, loyalty, and cooperation." I did what all proud dads do: I took off for the woods and stacked some rocks, in this case, the Congraduatalations Matt Stack:

The sky's the limit for that kid. He's a big, happy loving kid ... would make a good pediatrician or guidance counselor or therapist ... but I don't really care, as long as he is happy. He is surprisingly level-headed given his parentage. I'm very proud.

Anyway, remember that yucca plant that the River brot us in the Floods of '04? Here is a rather close-up of one of its blossoms:

That's the first of its blossoms ever to open.

I still have not gotten totally serious about the quilting. I need rain to help me stay indoors enough to get started on the quilting.

OK ... I have to go cook some dinner for the Avant Children. More madness later ....