Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

July 5th.

Attaching the head—
I welded just one connection from the neck to the head. As I assemble other parts of his body I will continue to evaluate the position of the head. I want him to be his reaching to the side searching for the next blades of grass within the reach of his massive head and tongue. With only one weld I can easily cut it off if I decide it is not in the right place or at the right angle. I do enjoy having a bobblehead bison in my garage for a while.

Building the girt—

I happened to have a circular scrap piece of rebar almost the right size. I created it years ago to be a round seat for a faux bois chair that was started and not finished. I turned it into the basis for the bison’s rear hip girth/stomach.

It is a little small, the small size gives me the flexibility to add to it exactly where I want it to protrude. As I get more elements worked out I will make it larger by adding the back hip bones that protrude. t is a lot easier to add pieces as I build him than to cut out pieces.


1 small tack world neck to head. Just to see where I want it.

1 small tack world neck to head. Just to see where I want it.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #15

Another day of building the bone structure of the face. The armature is more detailed than the sculpture will be. As I work I remind myself that the armature just needs to support the masses of dried mud and dried grass. It will not be visible under the herbaceous skin. I can’t seem to stop myself. I think it make me feel closer, more connect to the bison.

It also keeps me away from the news- COVID 19.

Today I worked on the lower part of it's cheekbones and then I added a rear jawbone.

Today I worked on the lower part of it's cheekbones and then I added a rear jawbone.

Looking up the mouth and nose of head minus the lower jaw.

Looking up the mouth and nose of head minus the lower jaw.

The old guys face left side

The old guys face left side

Looking through the skull

Looking through the skull

The right profile.

The right profile.

Endangered Knowledge: Soul of Humus #17

I started the lower jaw today. I spent the majority of the day researching the structure of the lower jaw and its movement as the bison chew.

Here is a collection of my reference material.

Here is a collection of my reference material.

Bison grab a tuft of grass with their tongue, then they pinch it off by pressing it between their tongue and their front lower teeth. They do not have top front teeth. They then swallow it whole. That is the beginning of a 24-hour digestive process.

Bison grab a tuft of grass with their tongue, then they pinch it off by pressing it between their tongue and their front lower teeth. They do not have top front teeth. They then swallow it whole. That is the beginning of a 24-hour digestive process.

I love this image, I took it last January at Roam Ranch right before the roundup. I think this is the one they call Poppy. Poppy is very curious and friendly. She is checking me out as she catches rain drops on her tongue.

I love this image, I took it last January at Roam Ranch right before the roundup. I think this is the one they call Poppy. Poppy is very curious and friendly. She is checking me out as she catches rain drops on her tongue.

You can see the lower jaw through the upper jaw here. It is slightly off to the right of the bison. I want him chewing away and want to exaggerate the movement. I will probably bend it a little more askew this weekend.

You can see the lower jaw through the upper jaw here. It is slightly off to the right of the bison. I want him chewing away and want to exaggerate the movement. I will probably bend it a little more askew this weekend.

Here the chewing lower jaw is more obvious.

Here the chewing lower jaw is more obvious.

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View from the rear or top down.

View from the rear or top down.

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Friday, I am committing to writing the Lawndale proposal- rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #14

I am getting close to finishing the head and upper jaw. The next step will be to create the lower jaw, then I will put the head aside and start building up the piece from the hooves.

More work on the cheekbones and connecting the horns to the eyes.

More work on the cheekbones and connecting the horns to the eyes.

Side view of armature

Side view of armature

Bottom side view

Bottom side view

Bison's left side view

Bison's left side view

Back of head looking down

Back of head looking down

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #7 cowbirds

As I work on the hooves, it has occurred to me that maybe the cowbirds should be bronze.

5 cowbirds of seeds, grass and wax just in case. Off to the foundry. I will have Legacy Fine Art Foundry cast these.

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Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #13

View l from the mouth

View l from the mouth

The cheekbones are added.

The cheekbones are added.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #12

My favorite measuring tool when building the armature is a sewing tape measure.

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Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #11 head

The head is a lot of detail work. Bending small pieces of steel takes time and strength. It is easy to bend large pieces of steel because I can use leverage to bend it. Small parts are too short To get much lecerage. This is the first time in my life strength is an issue., I have not been doing my regular weight lifting due to COVID 19 quarantine. So I have to think of creative ways to make the shapes I need. It takes longer to figure out.

Examining this work I have decided I need to raise the left horn.

Examining this work I have decided I need to raise the left horn.

I have only welded the horn in one location. This will make it easier to correctly position the horn once the head is connected to the body. I can find them if I want, or I can cut the one weld and resend them in the correct position.

I moved the horn and added the front of the upper jaw.

I moved the horn and added the front of the upper jaw.

I added the back of the upper jaw and two pieces to stabilize the head. The stabilizing pieces run through the center of the head, the length of the face to the back If the skull. I used the angle grinder to separate the front and left sides of the …

I added the back of the upper jaw and two pieces to stabilize the head. The stabilizing pieces run through the center of the head, the length of the face to the back If the skull. I used the angle grinder to separate the front and left sides of the front jaw separating the two stabilizing pieces. This will make it easier to make any adjustments in the head structure when it is finished and attached to the body.

The skin and coat of the finished piece is the most crucial part if this piece. This steel armature is purely structural.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #10 head

I have cut the steel for two sets of horns, the center of the face, top of the scull and part of the nisee. .

I have cut the steel for two sets of horns, the center of the face, top of the scull and part of the nisee. .

Working on the horns

Working on the horns

This bison skull was a Christmas present. From Griffin and Alex my son and daughter in law. They have been unbelievably supportive of my environmental works. They are the best. The skull is proving extremely helpful in figuring out how to build the …

This bison skull was a Christmas present. From Griffin and Alex my son and daughter in law. They have been unbelievably supportive of my environmental works. They are the best. The skull is proving extremely helpful in figuring out how to build the head armature.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #4 reference images.

When I start to build a new piece the first thing I do is gather and organize all the reference images and information I am going to need.

I staple all the images to a piece of cardboard. This way it us easy to see as I work. This secti n focuses on the hoofs. I am starting with the hoofs.

I staple all the images to a piece of cardboard. This way it us easy to see as I work. This secti n focuses on the hoofs. I am starting with the hoofs.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #8 Hooves

One of the most critical problems to solve is the placement of the hooves. They will be welded to Steel plates that act as the base. The base serves several purposes; it will make it easier to transport the piece without damaging it, it will make working on a large piece safer and less likely to fall on me. I am going to use 4 - 14” X 14” 1/4” steele plates. One for each hoove. This will give me the flexibility to adjust the placement of the hooves as the piece develops.

I am sending the hooves to Blumenthal metal and having them weld the hooves to the plates. It is tricky welding to a thin plate and not warping the plate.

I am sending the hooves to Blumenthal metal and having them weld the hooves to the plates. It is tricky welding to a thin plate and not warping the plate.

Why is this important to me? Please see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #6 Hooves

I am spending a lot of time looking at and thinking about the bison's hoof. Bison are ungulates. Their two toed hooves are a cross between a spade and two chisels. With the weight of their massive bodies their hooves cut into the soil, churn it up, break clumps, and create pockets that hold moisture. They trample old vegetation into the ground a long with the 40 lbs of waste they create everyday. They have a two pronged tools on each leg that tills and cultivates 24/7. And then you put them in a herd and they are mother nature's industrial farmer.

Image from bob the bison used at epic food conferences

Image from bob the bison used at epic food conferences

Image from under the shoot at the roundup

Image from under the shoot at the roundup

Image from the harvest

Image from the harvest

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #5 the welding begins

I am starting to design and build the armature (the support structure) of the piece. The structure will be supported with welded rebar and then covered in a steel lath to help hold the mud and dried native plants to the sculpture.

I begin with the hooves It takes a lot of muscle to bend a piece of rebar enough to make a complete hoof side, I will have to piece it.

I did not measure the circumference of a hoof but I do know the ankle is 12” and hoofs are bigger.

I did not measure the circumference of a hoof but I do know the ankle is 12” and hoofs are bigger.

I think best in wire or a material I can shape by hand - by feel. I decided to wrestle up a wire sketch of a hoof to get me started.

I think best in wire or a material I can shape by hand - by feel. I decided to wrestle up a wire sketch of a hoof to get me started.

The front part of a front hoof

The front part of a front hoof

Front hooves started

Front hooves started

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #3 Collecting raw materials

I reached out to the Houston Arboretum describing my project and my need for native plants. They responded immediately. They are steadily cutting plants out and I made a big haul today. My studio floor is covered in drying plants. I am drying these on my patio. Curtis suggested every morning I flip them, so rodents don't decide to nest in them. I love all animals but I am not a fan of rodents nesting around my house. They offered me to raid their compost bend as I need. :)

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Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #2 A closer look at the materials I have so far.

I am in love with these textures and I can hardly wait to incorporate them into my Endangered Knowledge piece. I do need to figure out how to fade the green out. I do not want a green bison. I think the answer is sunlight.

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Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #1a and Sculpture Month Houston

In a moment of global uncertainty, I ask myself, what materials would I use to leave a message for future civilizations? As I think of artists who painted caves, of muralists from the past, of artifacts from ancient civilizations, I am curious about how we leave a mark. My answer is tied to the natural world: much of my previous work has been about conservation issues, looking specifically at bees, at waterways, at recovery from Hurricane Harvey, at bison and now, at grass. And so, if I were to write a message to the future, I would use grass to write it, and bison to carry the message.

 

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

 

For this year's Sculpture Month, I propose a site-specific sculpture of a bison, made from a welded steel armature, a work of land art covered in topsoil and dried native grasses. This is part of a comprehensive installation that I am currently developing, which considers the role of the American bison within Houston's specific soil ecological history. The work is titled Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus.

 

It is inspired by the words of M. Thomashow, who writes, "Record natural history to the collective memory so that it is no longer endangered knowledge." For several years, I have been researching grass-fed food production, attending soil conferences, and visiting regenerative ranches. Research in these fields show how to fight desertification and reverse climate change through regenerative agriculture practices. Interestingly, this natural history of living soil, how it evolved in the Houston Coastal Prairie, and its essential part within microbial communities in human health, is not common knowledge. 

 

Description of Work

In the hide of a sculpture, I tell the narrative of soil health. My sculpture will record this endangered natural history through the dense coat of the powerful humus-built bison, that will be dripping in the armor of locally sourced dried native grasses and sedges, seeds, and pods. The male bison will be supported by a welded steel armature, covered in a stainless-steel lath. The bison's skin, made from these dried grasses, will be attached to the lath with a Houston mud composite. I propose the 11' long bison be exhibited in the center of a large grain silo, the bison in an actively grazing stance, head down in plow position, his hump rising robust and bushy out of his heavy forequarters to 6.5' tall. Lighted from inside the grain silo funnel, viewers can approach the bison and intimately inspect the diversity of the native plants implanted in its pelt.

 

Ecological History

Historically B. bison functioned as the first farm equipment. The grass seeds clinging to their burly coats were carried across the plains as they migrated north to south and back between seasons, like tractors up and down fields. Herds of tractors not green, but a rich brown harvested the plains with their appetites, each bite stimulating new root growth. The old roots withered into cavities that served as dwellings for a variety of keystone species, and became underground cisterns collecting floodwaters for drier seasons. Their coats dropped kernels and cuttings as the winds ruffled their beards and chaps, and when they took dirt baths in buffalo wallows dug with their horns. Massive roaming compostors, a single bison cow daily dumping 40 lbs. of fresh manure onto these seeds and drilling them into the earth with their spade-like hooves, sprinkling them with the perfect prescription of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium-rich urine and then moving in a predator safe tight herd on to the next buffet. With time the newly sowed fields sprouted new growth of blades, stems, and leaves of countless shapes, sizes, and heights. This diversity of leaves fit like puzzle pieces into dense living solar blankets, harnessing carbon from the air and returning it as sugars to feed the dynamic root microbiomes below the earth’s skin. The complicated relationship between the soil microbiome and the human intestinal microbiome is one of the most dynamic topics in biomedical research.  Flocks of birds mutualistically

living off the pests harbored on the bison followed the herds, drinking from and bathing in rainwaters that collected in the bison wallows, building their nests from clumps of bison fur. Recent studies show the fur provides a health benefit to unborn chicks. Bird and butterfly habitats were abundant when the bison roamed.

Relevance

Global warming, food security, drought/flooding, wildlife habitats, economic instability, and health – these problems are not new to humankind. The archeology of ancient civilizations has recorded connections between the longevity of civilizations and the health of their soil. The United Nations reported in 2014 that the world's topsoil would only last 60 more growing seasons. Soil scientists around the globe agree that solutions to these issues are rooted in our treatment of soil—the skin that covers our planet.

 

Message to the Future

The armor that protects the epidermis in the Gulf Coast prairie is grass. The animal whose population peaked at 30 million, is B. Bison. Combine native grasses with ruminants and the grasslands decompose into rich organic matter; for every 1% increase per acre of biological organic material, the soil can hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water. Restoring native prairie vegetation decreases water runoff and flooding, increasing soil absorption of water and slowing floodwaters on land. With extreme building practices and concrete hardscaping, reimagining the landscape of Houston's 600 square miles of real estate can make a significant impact on the region’s flooding. The prairie grasses' roots can extend from eight to fourteen feet deep: these roots sequester carbon like an upside-down rainforest. Changing our agricultural practices is an important step towards turning global warming right side up. Telling the dynamic story about these relationships between the grazing herds, the living soil, and finding ways to reimagine urban landscapes and agricultural practices in holistic and regenerative ways are the center of my current research and sculptural practice.

 

The impact of the bison on sustaining topsoil—and, therefore, life—need not be Endangered Knowledge. The role bison play within the prairie ecosystem—their ability to increase photosynthesis, reduce competition for water, and regenerate depleted, unsalvageable, lifeless prairies back to productive and bountiful, nutrient-producing land and wildlife habitats—needs to be carved into our modern systems. Recording this Endangered Knowledge into the consciousness of humankind will stimulate grassroots efforts and stop the cultivation of soil depletion and return the natural process to the treatment of the skin of our planet. A Parietal artist in 2020, I will use grass to record the Soul of Humus so that it will no longer be Endangered Knowledge.

 

Additional work

Soul of Humus will be the first piece in my Endangered Knowledge body of work. The complete body of work will eventually consist of the following sculptures: 4 pedestal-shaped sculptures of roots and soil, measuring approximately 12" X 12" X 36"; installations made from native grasses and their roots (size and number to be determined); 1-5 bronze castings of bison dung with their spade-shaped hoof prints, dung beetles, and mushrooms. I am also currently in conversation with a bison rancher to secure a bison heart to float in a glass case of formaldehyde: the bison, the largest mammal of the western continent, is the heart of our soil diversity, it is the western symbol of a healthy planet. The health and longevity of civilization, as we know it, is dependent on finding ways to mimic the natural process stampeded into the bayous of Houston. In this sculptural series, I look closely at the components of this process and the environmental interrelationships unique to the Houston area and world health. 

 

Footnote-

Bison vs Buffalo which name is correct? The common name Buffalo has been widely used, since early settlers were naming them as their European and Asian counterparts. The correct name of the last American surviving bison is B. Bison.

 

Further Reading and information –

- Allan Savory on how to fight desertification and reverse climate change

Soil as Carbon Storehouse: New Weapon in Climate Fight? - Yale E360

- A Prehistory of Houston and Southeast Texas,– D. Worrall, coming fall 2020

- Can Livestock Grazing Stop Desertification?

                   https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-livestock-grazing-stop-desertification/

- Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, by David R. Montgomery

- Soil Biology and Land Management https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052489.pdf

- Bison Eating Habits

- Wildlife that Depend on Bison

 

 

 

Sample Work and Visual Support Materials for Proposed Sculpture

 

Two small sculptures that are made with the same structure, process, and made with native plants-

The bison will be furrier than these small birds are and would be dripping in a thick coat of textured dried grasses.

Hay Day Peace Pigeon 201615” X 12” X 8”welded steel armature, plaster and hay

Hay Day Peace Pigeon 2016

15” X 12” X 8”

welded steel armature, plaster and hay

 

Feathery Finery Peace Pigeon 201612” X 12” X 6”steel armature, steel lath, plaster and plants

Feathery Finery Peace Pigeon 2016

12” X 12” X 6”

steel armature, steel lath, plaster and plants

Three large sculptures that are made with the same armature and process, but I have used metal instead of dried plant cuttings  on the surface for texture.

Broken 201840” X 29” X 55”Welded steel armature, stainless steel lath, concrete, wire cloths and wire

Broken 2018

40” X 29” X 55”

Welded steel armature, stainless steel lath, concrete, wire cloths and wire

Sonata in 4D 20186’6” X 5’5” X 5’steel welded armature, stainless steel lath, plaster, wire cloths and wire

Sonata in 4D 2018

6’6” X 5’5” X 5’

steel welded armature, stainless steel lath, plaster, wire cloths and wire

Bringing Home the Bacon 201966” X 42” 60”welded steel armature, stainless steel lath, hydro stoner, wire cloths and wire

Bringing Home the Bacon 2019

66” X 42” 60”

welded steel armature, stainless steel lath, hydro stoner, wire cloths and wire

There are many textures of native grasses at the Katy Prairie Conservancy and Buffalo Bayou.

If you accept my proposal, I plan on asking the Katy Prairie Conservancy and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership to allow me to source my grasses and plants from their properties.

Sample of one of the many amazing textures on the various grasses and plants in the coastal prairies.

Sample of one of the many amazing textures on the various grasses and plants in the coastal prairies.

This shows the movement I am visualizing on the coat of the Bison

This shows the movement I am visualizing on the coat of the Bison

Below are Some of the source images I will use while sculpting the bison.

 most of these I took doing research at Roam Ranch this summer, fall and winter.

This shows the position of the head I am looking for, it is grazing but you can see the face. This is a cow (female) My piece will be a burly big old male.

This shows the position of the head I am looking for, it is grazing but you can see the face. This is a cow (female) My piece will be a burly big old male.

This is a large bull but it is not very old. My sculpture will be an old male that will have scrapped up and chipped horns from fighting and digging wallows and a massive thick (and dripping with dried grasses) big beard and chaps. This side view is…

This is a large bull but it is not very old. My sculpture will be an old male that will have scrapped up and chipped horns from fighting and digging wallows and a massive thick (and dripping with dried grasses) big beard and chaps. This side view is pretty close to what I have in my head. I might have his head turned slightly to one side. That could be determined by which side of the building the silo would be on. The face will be more interesting and textured than the back side of the bison will be. My sculpture would be grazing on taller grasses. I would also raise his head for more eye contact

This is a good image of a bull’s face. Not my photo.

This is a good image of a bull’s face. Not my photo.

another view- not my image

another view- not my image