Gift to the Streams – Dreams in the Park

“Water Bound” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – I feel a strong connection to this stream… It has been to the very edge of life and death… Just like me… I feel the energy created as this stream heals… I not only feel it… I feed off of it… When I work in this stream… I am the stream…

Prints available here – http://www.society6.com/chriscondello

“Earth Bleeds Orange” – © chriscondello 2013 – Mulberry Street – Wilkinsburg, PA – On my walk to the park I pass this AMD discharge… This drains to Nine Mile Run… I was going to attempt to remediate this spot myself two years ago… But last Summer someone excavated this and attempted to remediate it… Possibly the borough… They failed… Now it’s my turn… Guerrilla gardener style…

“Fern Hollow Bee Balm” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Another photo from the walk to the park… This wildflower… And all the others like it… Are a huge part of the reason I am interested in Frick Park… The idea of an urban wildflower reserve tickles my soul… I create art in Frick Park to draw awareness to this urban landscape… My sculptures… Are gifts to the stream… The flowers… And the earth… I am essentially declaring peace with the earth…

“Photo Bomb” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – These stacks are built along the banks of Nine Mile Run… I placed these two trailside in an attempt to draw peoples eyes into the creek… I have realized not many people pay attention to the landscape… They are only paying attention to the ground immediately in front of them… I needed a way to get people to look at the creek…

“Close Up” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – I am not creating these stacks to stand forever… I have stacks in the woods around Frick Park that are still standing tall… These stacks are meant to eventually fall… This is an ongoing project… The floods and destruction are simply one part of this…

“Surrounded” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – I have wanted to create a stack in the creek as opposed to on the banks… Thanks to all of the floods this creek has experienced this summer… My canvas has changed on a weekly basis… Recent floods removed a massive sand and stone berm… Placing the load in my favorite spot to work… The parks conservancy is probably pissed… But I am one happy artist…

“Perched” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – At one time the Army Core of Engineers placed massive impervious limestone blocks along the banks to help with erosion control… Some of these blocks have been lifted and moved… Or undercut and much lower than intended… This particular block has been lifted and placed on top of another block…

“Twin Peaks” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – I built all of these stacks yesterday… Immediately afterwards we received over an inch of rain… And the creek surely flooded… That is why I am calling this series of sculptures a gift… What took me hours to create… Was destroyed in minutes…

“The Rain Begins” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – This was taken as the rain began… As it got harder… I realized I was in a dangerous place given the flood swept garbage five feet above my head in a maple tree… I switched from art mode to photograph mode…

“Waiting for the Flood” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – A full morning of work simply waiting… Waiting for the water to rise… And my sculptures to be swallowed and transported down stream… Eventually to the Monongahela River… All the while new stones will be washed from the walls of the creek… And dropped off for me to work with in the future… A perpetual cycle… That I have inserted myself into…

“One Leg” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – I may go back today to see if any of them survived… Though I’m pretty positive they are gone… And given last nights flood… The water will not be safe to work around…

“Far as the Eye can See” – © chriscondello 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – The last photograph before I ran out of here… My last memory… Till next time… When I rebuild… Expand… And plan my next natural art project in Frick Park…

See more Cairns here – Stone Sculptures in Frick Park – The First Rays of Sunlight

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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