Symbiosis - where are the birds?

For several weeks I have noticed the neighborhood birds are not stopping into Symbiosis. I have asked the neighbors and they have noticed the birds were absent too. Today an article came out in the Houston chronicle, Songbirds Take a Break.

March 19th - first bird in garden. An Amerucan red robin foraging for insects, bugs, protein or seeds, poking it's beak into the newly installed living compost.

March 31, 2021 robin hunting for grubs as I install the American beautyberry.

April 9, 2021 robin on the oak stump. I installed rotting native tree stumps to give the birds a camouflaged lookout and hideout.

April 9, 2021 dove

May 22, 2021,

blue jay

May 1, 2021 American red robin

June 19, 2021

June 22, 2021

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

The surface material and how it will age/dry is a mystery. The arnature is the same atmature that I have used on all of my life size sculptures. The late Donald Tucker a local faux bois artist taught me this method. On the faux bous furniture, the finish is a concrete composite. On the other life size sculptures I have used concrete and hydro stone.

BROKEN

steel, reinforced concrete, and wire

40" X 29" X 55"

2018

photo by Nash Baker

Sonata in 4D - welded steel, lath, wire and plaster

2018

Photo by Nash Baker

HARVEY HEROES - LIVEstock BRINGING HOME THE BACON

66” X 42” X 60” - welded steel, lath, wire, wire cloth and hydro stone.

2019

Anniversary bench- Welded steel, concrete

2011

Symbiosis - Nash Prairie - seed collecting

Mark Morganstern of Morning Star Prairie Plants invited me to join him to collect seeds for Symbiosis at the Nature Concervancy’s Nash Prairie Preserve. “The 400-acre tract is one of the last remaining segments of the Great Coastal Prairie, which once encompassed six million acres between Lafayette, Louisiana and Corpus Christi, Texas. Nash is a pristine piece of prairieland, largely unaltered by man or machine. More than 300 plant species have been documented there, including several rare species and at least one type of grass thought to be extinct in Texas since the 1800s.“

I will plant the seeds in Symbiosis this fall. Next summer I will collect seeds and share them with other properties.

Green tree frog on a Rattlesnake master. The rattlesnake master reportedly supports 250 species of wildlife.

Rattlesnake master seeds

The prairie

Coneflower seeds

Rosinweed Sunflower seeds

Rosinweed sunflower

These are the seeds on the plant

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Today‘s progress may not look like much, however I worked 7 hours. I was focused on filling the tiny spaces in the groin, inside its flanks and rear end. And I was careful not to catch my skin on the sharp edges of the late. It is razor-sharp and requires careful deliberate moves.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

I attach the lath with airplane safety wire. Think of lath as the skin. Once the armature is covered in lath/skin, I will add the fur/soil/dried native plants.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Today's work

Yes, I use a sewing tape measure

I worked on his middle

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

A few weeks ago Nash Baker took some in progress shots of my SMH piece. Then I had two weeks of off and on heat exhaustion. It is a rough summer to have an outdoor living sculpture and a piece that requires welding in a space that does not gave AC. I have finally replenished the minerals in my body and I am back to work on my bison. The temperatures are going to be extremely high this week to work outside. :(

Working on Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus in my garage welding studio

Photo by Nash Baker

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Todays work- His right back haunch and leg.

Symbiosis- the tools of my collaborators

In creating a living sculpture, I have to accept change. I can not control the piece nor do I want to. From soil microbes to leaves, petals and butterflies, bees, skippers and caterpillars, I am always looking to the natural processes. I look to see what does the material want to make, what does it need to be. Competition, succession, disturbance, consumption are the sculpting tools of my collaborator, characteristics of the work. I have to let them follow their path to self-design their regenerating community. I bend my creative processes to the design principles developed through the ages on this planet for this place and time. The time is right to change how we landscape. I believe Houston is the right place and Houstonians the right people to plant the seeds.

Competition

Succession

Disturbance

Consumption

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Front legs and right shoulder

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

20’ more of rebar.

I used 20’ more of rebar today to build the hip bones up on both sides and his right side in the stomach area of his side. I worked from the hip to his shoulder.

My work space is not large enough to get a good side photo.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Another big day of welding..I added a big 96” circumference chest. Put the entire piece on four dollies and started his hump. Below are a few pics from todays work.

Behind my garage is a telephone pole. I use it to bend my rebar. This is a side view where I am going to bend the piece for the chest.

Halfway to becoming a bison chest.

Then I use my weight to even out the shape.

I hang the chest over the back and decide if it is big enough.

Next I weld the ends together .

Recycling some old dollies from past work and deciding on the best plan. Balance and portability is the goal. The brown paper is the footprint of my bisons. Each leg is supported by a dollie.

Thanks to Curtis for getting me the plywood and helping me mount the beast. This is just for while I work on the sculpture and for transportation. It is not part of the work.

Just goofing around

My garage studio assistant is taking a sun break.

Starting to assemble the hump.

And that's a wrap.

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.

SOCIALsculpture — how to see Houston

"If you want to make small changes, change how you do things;

if you want to make big changes, change how you see things."

— In Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown

How do we restore an ecological balance in Houston? We see Houston in the global ecosystem, see our relationship with wildlife and sea life of the western hemisphere.

Houston

See — Houston can balance humanity and urban wildlife.

Site-Specific installation: Symbiosis is a micro-ecosystem in an important ecological space.

Houston is 600 square miles of mostly privately owned land inhabited by 2.3 million organisms, on the Gulf Coast of South-Eastern North America. Its rainwater runoff feeds the ocean and impacts reefs one hundred miles into the seas. Chemicals from Houston are reported killing reefs 100 miles into the Gulf.

Drain

See — The pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides used to keep Houston’s commercial, residential city and county landscapes manicured are leached by rainwaters that drain into the Gulf of Mexico from our streets.

The plants in Symbiosis do not need chemical inputs to thrive. They have evolved to withstand droughts floods and freezing temperatures.

Located near the lower apex of the triangular-shaped North American continent Houston’s land and water provide nesting, hydration, and nutrition for animals that utilize this critical migratory pathway that funnels migratory life between the northern and southern continents of the western hemisphere. More than one in four birds in the U.S. and Canada has disappeared within my lifetime. Birds play crucial roles in maintaining an ecological balance on the coastal prairie, from eating mosquitos to providing food for scavengers and decomposers.

One In Four Birds In the US Has disappeared In My Lifetime.

See — that birds play crucial roles in maintaining an ecological balance on the coastal prairie, from eating mosquitos to providing food for scavengers and decomposers.

Symbiosis is building living soil that supports bugs, beetles and insects that birds need to feed their young.

A male American Robin sits on the fence at Lawndale at the light of day June 18th, 2021 with Gulf fritillary larvae in his mouth. Until Symbiosis was installed birds flew over Lawndale. The garden was sterile of what modern civilization calls landscape pests/what birds feed their young. The sculpture garden did not offer food or habitat for birds.

Larvae of Gulf Frittilary butterfly – Detail of Symbiosis

See — An important nutrient necessary for birds young to thrive.

With native plants in our urban gardens and commercial outdoor spaces, chemical inputs are not necessary. Chemical-free yards will help bring back the 1107 species once common in the Coastal Prairie.

Houston, the site, has experienced extreme flooding and weather conditions. We are located where once was the Coastal Prairie ecosystem that sequestered Carbon like an upside-down rainforest and absorbed water like a sponge. Of that original landscape, only 1% still exists. And yet, we can see an opportunity to capitalize on Houston’s reputation as the city of energy and cultural diversity. We can mitigate global warming and extreme weather conditions by changing how we see our role in a balanced ecosystem.

Lawndale Symbiosis

Lawndale’s sculpture garden is a micro-ecosystem within an important macro-ecosystem that casts a wide net.

Symbionts

The Passiflora incarnata provides nectar for pollinators. Native bees are the original regenerative farmers, they take nectar and regenerate the flower pollinating the Passiflora incarnata.

This is one species of the 4,000 bees native to the US. (Please note this is not a honey bee. Honey bees are not native to the US. They are part of the industrial farming ecological problem.)

I see an opportunity to create the visual for environmental change. I see hope.

“Look closely at nature and you will understand everything better” - Albert Einstein

Look closely at your micro-ecosystem.

To sustain is not enough. Our civilization has depleted the Earth's soil. It is not enough to sustain a depleted planet; we must all do our part and regenerate soil health to sustain life. Regenerating the Earth’s soil is an ongoing DIY project.

ART CAN ONLY ACTIVATE CHANGE WITH YOUR ADDED PERFORMANCE

—If you care about the environment, help get the conversation going and restore an ecological balance in Houston. Post one image of Houston native plants and or wildlife on Instagram  #lawndalesymbiosis and tag two friends.

In addition, forward this to two friends. 

Ask two friends to do the same, and ask them to ask two more friends, building a pyramid of activism.

For an enhanced experience viewing Houston’s wildlife and landscape I recommend the citizen science apps

“iNaturalist” and “Seek”.

#LawndaleSymbiosis

Symbiosis — DIY (the images for this post are under construction, stay tuned)

Symbiosis — DIY Steps

Change can happen at lightning speed when innovation is coupled with imitation. Here are the steps I took feel free to imitate them.

I became familiar with the six principles of Holistic Regenerative agriculture through the Savory Institute, Roam Ranch and was recently featured in the film Kiss the Ground. I wanted to make a difference and regenerate depleted land, too. However, a bison ranch is not in my future. It occurred to me that changing how we landscape Houston could make an ecological impact. Lawndale Art Center offered me the opportunity to install an environmental sculpture in the garden. They had just re-landscaped the sculpture garden with a traditional garden, so I did not expect them to accept my proposal. However, Lawndale is committed to artists that explore aesthetic, critical and social issues of our times. Symbiosis is a catalyst to invite the public to change Houstons’s environmental impact. Applying these principles to Houston’s greater urban landscape will significantly impact climate and extreme weather conditions. Houstonians—or anyone—can do this. Climate change is a DIY project.

Below I describe these principles as I applied them to Symbiosis.

See how others across the world have used the same principles I used below.

6 PRINCIPLES of HOLISTIC REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE AND SYMBIOSIS

Installing this site-specific installation, I incorporated the same principles used to regenerate depleted soils worldwide.   

Holistic management — BALANCE —Symbiotic

I keep in mind that the garden is a microsystem that must contribute to and function in the greater ecosystem of the western hemisphere’s continents and waters. In Symbiosis, I balance the needs of the; art institution, urban wildlife, donors, exhibiting artists, the surrounding community, and volunteers.

Holistic management — balancing the needs to run the art center, the neighboring community and urban wildlife/landscape.

Integrating livestock to build soil microbes — GroundWORK

 Living soil does not come from synthetic inputs. Instead, it comes from decaying matter that completes the circle of life. Mimicking this process in an urban environment is a crucial step. Without it, there is no life. In the natural world, grazing livestock such as bison, cows, sheep, goats, or chickens provides the decaying matter through their waste, stomping it in the ground and eating and damaging vegetation.

In Symbiosis, I mimic this process by installing a native leaf compost with animal waste components. It is full of beneficial microbes, free of dangerous synthetic chemicals, toxic dyes, and sewage. The heat from composting kills the pathogens. It is safe for children and pets. Because this step is critical, I turned it into a community performance art event. — GroundWORK

Intergrading animal — GroundWORK

Native moldy leaf compost was installed during the GroundWORK event on behalf of RoXoR gin a sponsor of Lawndale’s spring 2021 fundraiser event.

 Eliminating tillage  — CarbonSINK

 While we work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is more critical to sink the Carbon in the atmosphere back into the soil. Carbon is stabile in the roots and microorganisms of plants in the ground. When soil is disturbed, Carbon is exposed to oxygen and transformed into carbon dioxide, which warms the planet. Conversely, organisms can establish communities that feed off the soil's organic matter when the earth is undisturbed. As soil organic matter improves, so does the soil’s internal structure.

A healthy soil biome is vital for suppressing plant diseases and cycling nutrients among plants, eliminating the need for synthetic inputs whose production increases our carbon footprint.

 In Symbiosis, I am building a CarbonSINK by not turning the soil over before planting, keeping the soil structure intact as much as possible, and implementing “Chop and Drop” composting when plants go dormant.  Symbiosis builds soil biology and increases soil structure, increasing the soil's ability to absorb Carbon and water, reducing runoff, soil erosion, flooding, and preventing pollution from entering nearby bayous. 

Eliminating tillage — CarbonSINK

After a freeze in 2022, the red salvia above ground suffered. I carefully chopped all the dead materials and dropped them in the garden. I always leave the roots in the ground and 6” - 10” of stems for solitary native bees to nest in.

Maximizing crop/plant biodiversity, — ReCover

 We do not know what we have lost until we recover it.

With this thought, I researched native plants and what roles they have played in the Houston area ecosystem. Identified in the Coastal Prairie are more than 1,000 plus plant species. I have not relied on hybrids/variants of species or plants considered beneficial. Instead, I selected 36 species known as indigenous to the area. Native plants have supported over 4,000 native bees, 1,107 bird species, 750 species of butterflies, 200 skippers, and 11,000 months, and 4,000 wasps.

Symbiosis is to recover and support as many of these species as possible for all four seasons. In addition to supporting wildlife, I sought out plants that helped control ground erosion and water absorption.  — Plant it and they will come—

Maximizing Biodiversity — ReCover

Hyla cinerea , there are five true tree frogs in Texas. They climb grass and require a permanent water feature, a trough pond will do. I first saw tree frogs in the garden in September 2021 on a bushy Bluestem. I have since seen them on the Mealy blue sage. I have never seen a 2.5” tree frog in Houston before. I hope we can recover a few for every yard.

Plant material selections:  Salvia Lyrata, Calyptocarpus vialis, Phyla nodiflora, Bouteloua gracilis, Carex peredentata, Tradescantia occidentalis, Calyophus brerland, Oenothera speciosa, Rudbeckia hirta, Ratibida columnifera, Monarda citriodora, Echinacea purpurea, Schizachyrium scoparium, Salvia coccinea, Gaillardia pulchella, Symphyotrichum patens, Salvia, Farinacea, Chasmanthium lati, Silphium gracile, Verbena xutha, Salvia azurea, Eryngium yuccifolium, Solidago sempervirens, Capsicum annuum, Callicarpa  Americana, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus.

Grasses:  Andropogon gerardii Vitman, Schizachyrium scoparium, Chasmanthium latifolium, Carex texensis

VINES: Lonicera sempervirens L, Gelsemium sempervirens, Wisteria frutescens, begonia capreolata, Passiflora incarnata

Keeping the soil covered — Skin =  CarbonSINK + GroundWATER  =  GlobalCOOLING

—Skin, Like human skin the palnet’s skin provides many services necessary for good health.

The Earth’s skin is green. “The Earth is a living organism, composed of millions of species and billions of organisms—bacteria, algae, microscopic insects, earthworms, beetles, ants, mites, fungi and more—representing the greatest concentration of biomass anywhere on the planet. Microbes, which make up only one-half of one percent of the total soil mass, are the yeasts, algae, protozoa, bacteria, nematodes, and fungi that process organic matter into rich, dark, stable humus in the soil."  There are more soil microorganisms in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on the Earth! The living organisms in the soil receive their food and shelter from plants' biological processes and physical structure.

In Symbiosis protecting the surface of the work with green skin is an easy decision for me. The quality of the skin is intimately tied to cooling the planet through Carbon and groundwater.

Keeping the soil covered — Skin

 —CarbonSINK

I installed the plant material in a manner that mimics how seeds drift in the wind and are carried by animals in their coats or deposited in their waste — resulting in multilayered vertical, horizontal, and diagonal jigsaw puzzles of leaf shapes. These shapes have evolved over thousands of years, woven together to maximize every ray of sunlight. The living material will grow into a three-dimensional solar panel from 6" to  6' tall, sequestering Carbon out of the air and storing it in the living soil. I did not leave the ground bare around each species as is popular in traditional urban landscapes.

CarbonSINK — utilizing a variety of plant shapes to maximize carbon capture.

— GroundWater

Living organisms need oxygen. When rain hits the unprotected ground, the micro spaces that allow air to penetrate the soil collapse and the living organisms die from lack of oxygen. I selected thirty-six species of plants to include various leaf sizes and shapes, stem heights, bloom sizes, and surface textures. As the plants mature, they become a multitiered water slide of twists and turns, slowing rainwater, trickling it to the ground. This allows the Earth to respond like a sponge soaking up the precipitation and channeling it through the root systems and air pockets as freshwater to the aquifer for future generations. Slowing rainwater can mitigate flooding that has become the norm in Houston. 

— GlobalCOOLING: Soil soaked in water like a sponge and covered in plants that move, as a gentle breeze blows off the Gulf of Mexico, conditions and cools the air and the earth as it is warmed by the sun. In contrast moving cool rainwater across hot surfaces such as turf grass, artificial turf or concrete landscape, warms the water, picks up chemicals and dumps the urban solar-heated water full of toxic chemicals into the ocean. 

GroundWater and GlobalCOOLING — multiple layers of plants slow rainwater, giving the ground time to soak it up, purify and store it in the aquifer.

Maintaining living roots year-round — FoodWEB — GlobalCOOLING

Living roots in the soil are vital for feeding the bacteria and fungi that provide food for the creatures further up the chain. Living roots keep mycorrhizal fungi alive and healthy. These symbionts are vital for nourishing plants and provide convenient fertilizer and water. Maintaining living roots in the ground feeds organisms, providing year-round carbonSINK and GlobalCOOLING.

Endangered knowledge: the Soul of Humus.

SMH fall of 2020 was canceled due to Covid 19 last July of 2020. I put a halt on welding my piece and focused on planning “Symbiosis.” “Symbiosis” is installed the Big Show is opened which provided a tremendous amount of traffic. I will still check on it every day, but I will spend most of my day building my piece for SMH 2021. Today I started where I left off. Below are images from last year's work and blog posts.

When I stopped in 2020 I had the hooves on steel plate bases and new where I wanted them to bare the weight.

Today I cut the rebar to form the lover part of the legs and grinded the tips. Tomorrow I weld.

Some of my notes from measuring Epics Bob the bison January of 2020.

My bison will be in motion not standing still.

The skull and upper jaw.

And lower jaw

4 pieces of rebar cut for each leg will provide the structure of the lower legs.

Endangered knowledge:The Soul of Humus

I dried some cosmos leaves to us as the coat of a sculpture that is in the works - Endangered knowledge: the Soul of Humus. The piece will be in the #sculpturemonthhouston 2021 exhibit. I started the armature during COVID for the SMH 2020 exhibit, which was postponed. The sculpture looks at the ecological history of the coastal prairie. This texture is perfect #cindeeklementart #endangeredknowledge #coastalprairie #tezasart #houstonart #bioart #environmentalart #cosmos #art #sculpture #bison

Spontaneity and art - a good thing, we will see

I started my day at 6:30 am, pasting images of work into a word document for a curator/art consultant. A necessary task that I was thrilled to do- however, mind-numbing, to say the least. By 12:30 crossed eyed I took the dogs on a walk. When I came across this. My mind numbing was instantly healed with inspirational thoughts.

Seven immaculately bundled trimmings from a neighbors Crape, Myrtle. Crape murdered or not I- the trees were in the backyard, could not see them.

My trimmings from a site-specific installation @Lawndale Center for the Arts. Symbiosis

The image above is from last week at Lawndale (a post in am tardy with) My trimmings are wild and unruly. I am using them on social media to make a point - to change how we landscape- to landscape with habitat for wildlife in mind.

My neighbor's bundles of limbs are in sharp contrast to mine. They are an example of how controlling urban green spaces have become, the tidiness that is expected In our yards.

I am so tempted——— Such a great opportunity to turn these found object organic materials, perfectly assembled tied up with yellow cords into gorilla art. The colors will look amazing at Lawndale. It is not part of my work on Symbiosis to install anything I want. 🤔 The entire dog walk I was haunted by the bundles and their yellow cords. I am not comfortable installing gorilla art but I am excited with the idea and I know Lawndale won’t have me arrested like other institutions might if I randomly installed objects in their sculpture garden, right?

I have always challenged myself to take on the art that scares me the most- to embrace the butterflies as my son tells me. You don’t know until you try. - jump

I went to the door, I was hoping no one was home, Abby was a new neighbor and I introduced myself. - she moved in during Covid. We had a nice chat and she welcomed me to take her piles.

It took two trips

😁 when I bring new materials to Lawndale, I like to photograph them on this turquoise wall- documenting my materials. And I have to say! I love the colors - the Textures.

I declare this installation number 1. Untitled.

This technically is not Lawndale property, the wall is theirs, but the lot is unfortunately not owned by the institution. The lot is vacant. I get all the bundles out so I can pick up load number 2.

Installation number 2

Installation number 3

The yellow ties make my heart sing, that rich brown against the turquoise, and the golden grass softening the base, I am in heaven. I see ballerinas chins up, lined up to take their bows center stage. I had one left.

A painter from last week left their yellow roller- waste not want not. The clippings Are rich on the violet too.

Sometimes I feel guilty that I love my work so much.

There are bees that have not been seen since the 60’s that are not listed as endangered.

While the law lays out a process time of 2 years for a species to be listed, what we found is that, in practice, it takes, on average, 12.1 years," said Emily Puckett, who recently received her doctorate in the Division of Biological Sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science. "Some species moved through the process in 6 months but some species, including many flowering plants, took 38 years to be listed -- almost the entire history of the ESA."

After reading the document that listed Bombus Affinis as an endangered species I formed my own opinion by and it does not reflect well on the chemical industry.

Bombus Affinis - the rusty patch bumble bee