It was going to be temporary, a trailer for installations to come, something to talk about at the Lawndale fall exhibition opening — a water feature, a few beneficial plants, Gambusia fish, and a donated water lily. It is so much more —

The first sculptural element entering the garden —

Barrel in form, two-foot-tall, four-foot in diameter, vertically ribbed thin walls of zinc greet the patrons from the steaming black asphalt parking lot. The reflective vessel gives shape to 90 gallons of flowing, formless intelligence (more on water intelligence at a later date), fluid essential for life, essential for creating movement and energy. A hole, a whole, in a living sculpture, holistically created.

The geometric installation is a watering hole for insects, birds, small animals and dogs of neighbors; the nursery for the gardens mosquito larvae; a pantry of protein for the Gambusia mosquito-eating fish. It is Lawndale’s chemical-free mosquito prevention system.

Submerged within float hornwort and sitting on the base, a waterlily filters the H2O, the meniscal fish eat the algae off the sides. It is teeming with good bacteria that keep it clear and free of disease. It is a whole biome. The final touch, two kinetic blurs dart amongst the green, bright red, kinetic torpedos with fantails—purely aesthetic.

—The last thing you see when you leave Lawndale. It is worthy of bookend status to a visit to the art center; a water feature is a holistic system study. Without a water feature, an urban garden cannot be chemical-free. It is a critical component for all walks or flights of urban life. The trailer a hole, whole, and holistic; this is immersion art.

February 2021

The evening of the Mine the Gap: 2019/21 Artist Studio Program Exhibition.

The yellow flowers are Texas native Rudbeckia hirta; they support Little Carpenter bees (Ceratina sp.), Leaf Cutting bees (Megachile sp.), and Green Metallic bees (Agapostemon sp.). with pollen and nectar. Coneflower Miner bees (Andrena rudbeckia) prefer Rudbeckia Illinoisis flowers. Black-eyed Susans are a larval host for Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) and Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) butterflies, caterpillars. Look for adult butterflies that fluttering around the heat-tolerant perky petals. Its seeds provide nourishment for Bobwhite quail (Colinus sp.), wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), and songbirds.

The rotting wood from a Mexican Elder is a temporary installation while I hunt for the perfect Coastal Prairie rotting stump. Rotting wood has antiviral properties for many small creatures and; provides them a safe habitat, protection from predators, and a food source for-predators such as songbirds.