Movement
Dams fascinate me. We build large walls to hold the water back. We try to tame the water so we can control how much and when it flows. This contradicts the nature of water which is to constantly flow. Dams make me uneasy.
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Stage 0
The creek has been stretched back in time, erasing not only the human created erosion and damage, but also eliminating any chiseling the creek had done on its own prior to human intervention. It’s like shaking a giant Etch A Sketch until all evidence of previous drawings have been eliminated and the raw material is reset to a flat smooth plane where a new drawing can start to take form.
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And Then One Day I Swam
My relationship with Whychus Creek started tentatively. The milky glacial water was not inviting even though it was a hot day in July. The headwaters on Broken Top are not very far away. The water is cold.
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Whychus Stories
This place is defined by water.
I came to Pine Meadow Ranch to listen to stories of the creek on this ranch in Sisters, Oregon. The ranch is idyllic with its unobstructed views of the mountains and Whychus Creek, its milky glacial melt waters originating from Broken Top and all Three Sisters, running through the ranch.
Little, if any land on the ranch is untouched. It is a fully constructed landscape dating back to the 1800s when settlers cleared fields for cattle and began diverting streams to irrigate their ranches. Some of the coveted water rights for this ranch date back to 1895, superseding the water rights of Three Sisters Irrigation District (TSID).
Mergansers and the Space of Meaning
What do I learn from climbing a tall old-growth tree many times? What can I glean after sitting in one place from sunrise to sunset every season of the year? It makes me ponder the differences between actively or passively receiving information.
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A Relationship of Abundance
What would happen if fear and guilt is dropped from conversations about the environment? What would it feel like to think of ourselves as part of nature rather than something separate that we need to fix? What if the land is internalized so that we are in fact, healing ourselves? What if we change perspective to be in relationship with the earth?
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Dark Heavy Silence
I run before the sun rises for the opportunity to be alone in the silence of the forest. I run in the predawn to replace the chatter in my head with the stillness of the dark forest. It is within these spaces of stillness that ideas and illumination into the next creative step slip in before the chatter of the day resumes once again.
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A Most Meaningful Morning
Recognition begins fairly quickly. Knowing is revealed slowly. Familiarity opens itself to a knowledge that stretches beyond a perceptual knowing of a place to an integrated embodied knowing. It’s a knowing that happens when you can sense the rhythms and patterns without being overtly aware of them. This knowing is sensitive. It may feel like knowing something from the gut, but the gut doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s really a knowing that comes from connection. If the connection is disrupted, it is felt.
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January Roses
Why does the forest smell like roses in January?
Shut out the light and align your breath to what you hear. You start to hear the stories that are told by water.
Harmonizing with Experiential Knowing and Data Sets
Harmony Experiential Knowing and Data Sets Harmony Experiential Knowing and Data Sets Climbing the Discovery Tree – Leah Wilson I climb a 200ft old growth Douglas-fir tree every season so that I can feel the light quality change as I ascend above the forest canopy. This means of knowing extends past light registered and processed by my eyes. It offers a complementary way of understanding a forest that a complex data set cannot provide. I experientialy know that the warmth of the sun doesn’t have as much power over the dark, damp forest floor as it does higher in the tree. I know how... Read More
Fall Equinox Photo Shoot
Concluding a year’s worth of solstices and equinoxes at Watershed 2. In all, I recorded the chromatic changes in the creek 74 times from sunrise to sunset.
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Rot on the 4th of July
Rot on the 4th of JulyHJ Andrews Experimental Forest Rot on the 4th of July Over the 4th of July weekend I went to HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in Search of rot (liver-er trees). This is a selection of what I found. Rot-July-4-Leah-WilsonBrown rot Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-14Elegant Fungus Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-2Toupe? Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-3Deep in a logjam in Lookout Creek Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-5 Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-10Lookout Creek logjam Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-9Lookout Creek logjam Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-4The tree doesn’t lose its grasp after it falls Rot-July-4-Leah-Wilson-8... Read More
HJA Day 2015
HJA Day 2015June 25, 2015 Decomposition & Composition: Writing and Reflection Inspired by Long-Term Research This time at the log decomposition site I was there not to write, but to see if I could figure out what to paint for ROT, opening in January 2016 at the Arts Center in Corvallis, Oregon. I have been to this site many times, mostly by myself, sometimes with one other, but never with a group, and never with Mark Harmon. This is Mark Harmon’s PLACE. This year he is conducting the thirty year mark of research and observation here. It was a privilege to be shown various types of... Read More
Summer Solstice
HJA Day 2015June 20, 2015 Images From the Summer Solstice Photo Shoot Solstices/Equinoxes Project: HJ Andrews Experimental Forest Project June 20, 2015 from 5:25 AM to 8: 55PM The setup: Every 10 minutes from sunup from sundown we captured two images of the white rock in Watershed 2 and the surrounding creek. One of the two images included the color checker to enable me to calibrate every image to the proper color balance. Unlike previous sessions, Tim devised a simple, yet effective way to get the color checker as close to the rock as possible using a hiking stick and a medium metal clip.... Read More