the summer of waterfalls: installment 4.5 or how goofing off with my family led to a better artist statement

We had another art delivery in Greenville this week and with we couldn't resist the opportunity to walk around Falls Park and hike a little of the Swamp Rabbit Trail while we were in town.  We added Reedy River Falls to our waterfall list earlier in the summer but if you follow the river around the corner there's a nice little second waterfall ledge to enjoy.  

 It's at least worth counting as a half waterfall, though it's just as impressive as some we traveled to see this summer.  That puts us at 30.5 waterfalls so far this summer.

After a good walk and some time taking in the beauty, we grabbed some cold drinks and made our way to the Greenville County Museum of Art.  The GCMA has always been a favorite of mine.  My oldest brother took me there to see the Andrew Wyeth collection way back when I was a teenager.  The Wyeths are pretty much always on exhibit there somehow or another and they are as welcome a sight as an old friend.  These classic, realist paintings are usually well balanced with some really old stuff and a healthy dose of contemporary art.  We went a few months back and spent some time with Jasper Johns.  Jasper was present in the current exhibits as well and he was joined by William H. Johnson, Dave the slave potter, Yoko Ono, Eric Fischl and the kids' favorite, Ron Rozzelle.  They've even opened up new gallery space upstairs and I was thrilled to see my friend Diane Kilgore Condon's exhibit in the "Local Talent" gallery.  Admission is free and Greenville is one of the coolest towns around so I highly recommend you go see this museum any time of year.

I don't know any artists who enjoy writing an artist statement.  The artist statement is a necessary evil in the life of an artist.  If done well, it provides an honest glimpse into the mind of the artist as they create their work.  It declares the intention of the artist.  It answers the "why do I do this?" question that every artist has to answer for themselves.

Visual artists, however, are not writers.  We make artistic things much better than we arrange words on a page.  (See this entire blog for evidence.)  In fact, our relationship with words is a very tense relationship anyway.  Most of us feel that words are constricting.  They fit us and our purpose like a tight wool sweater, all itchy and gross.  Most of us probably agree that if words were adequate in expressing our ideas we would just spend our time typing instead of drawing.  Still, we are forced by galleries and exhibitors to wrangle some words together as a means of clarifying our purpose.  

This summer I've entered tons of shows and exhibits and most of those required an artist statement.  I fully believe that brevity is my friend in this endeavor but even so, I found myself trying to edit my old statement down to few enough words to fit the listed requirements this summer.  As I wrestled with what to leave in and what to leave out, I really started to question the accuracy of my words.  I started to see that it was time for a new declaration of my artistic intent.  Of course this was terrifying because the last thing I want to do in summer is write about my art.  And while I spent a good portion of my summer making new things, I have this general feeling that I did a lot of goofing off with my family this summer.  (See this entire blog for evidence.)  I was thinking about this one night while lying in bed and I started to see things from a different perspective.

As the full time summer babysitter, I'm not content to keep the kids busy or out of my way.  Because I'm also a parent, I feel the burden of responsibility to help my kids become good people, good citizens of the world.  The whole waterfall idea was more than just taking the kids to cool places.  It was rooted in the need to help my children learn to see and appreciate beauty.  I can certainly see both sides of this when we go.  We walk the trails and listen for the growing sound of rushing water.  Sometimes the kids can't hear it over their own chatter.  We walk and watch for every example of wildlife.  Sometimes the kids are too busy jumping to notice.  We stand in front of a divinely beautiful free fall of water and we feel the cool rush of wind on our faces.  Sometimes the kids cant really see it because they just want to eat a snack.

I've finally learned that it's all beautiful.  The sounds of nature, the wildlife, the waterfalls AND the chatter, the jumping and the snacks.  Heck, there was even beauty in the nasty little motion sickness incident.  Each place, each moment was beautiful.  

My hope is that Blue and Violet will remember The Summer of Waterfalls fondly when they are adults.  I'm realizing, though, that it may not be the waterfalls we all remember most.  Perhaps the things that will stick with us are the sweaty uphill conversations about Legos.  Or the seemingly natural way Violet gets out of the truck and grabs for my hand as she walks.  It might even be sharing the beauty of a peanut butter and jelly and some cookies on a big rock while talking about flatulence.

These are not the things I plan for us when I lay out a waterfall trip.  Yet, without these things each waterfall would be completely meaningless.  These common, ordinary moments have a transformative affect on me, on us all.

I clumsily tapped out a rough draft that night in bed on my phone.  I corrected and sured up those ideas in the weeks since and while I may not have finished a new sculpture or drawing in several weeks, I did manage to finish the new artist statement.

 Artist Statement 2015

My work attempts to find beauty among the ordinary.

Working with common materials like plywood or steel, I seek to use those materials as transmitters of sublime concepts, mirroring the idea that ordinary people can be transmitters of sublime actions.  Using everyday moments and experiences as a starting point, I strive to highlight their uncommon beauty and draw attention to the possibility of their transformative teaching.

Violet and Blue at the GCMA

the summer of waterfalls: fourth installment

Summer is slipping away.  The kids go back to school and regular life schedules in just over a week.  The Summer of Waterfalls will have to wrap up soon.  

But we will go out with a bang, not a whimper.

This week I used my waterfall guidebook and my map skills to locate several waterfalls in one area.  We have to drive a considerable distance now so we needed to make the most of our gas money.  I located 6 near Brevard, NC, got the kids up early, made some lunches and we headed out on a long adventure.  The adventure was made even more adventurous by two tiny disasters that happened during the day.  The first disaster didn't wait long to spring on us.  

I cut 30 minutes off our travel time by driving up Hwy 276 through Caesar's Head.  The road literally climbs a mountain through a series of switchbacks.  G and I both get queasy on curvy roads unless we are driving.  The kids are always fine.  Since G had to work, I took the curvy road.  About a mile from the top of the mountain and the picturesque overlook, I heard that sound from the backseat.  If you're a parent, you know the sound.  If you're not a parent, man oh man, you will get to know the sound when you have kids.  It was the sound of your child throwing up inside your car.  

It's always a little different but you know it instantaneously each time.  There's no mistaking the sound of puke on your upholstery.  

G and I talked about it afterwards and as best we can remember, Violet has yakked only three times in her life.  Two of those three times she has managed to yak inside my truck.  I guess I'm just lucky that way.  

 I'm not good with puke.  I figure no one is.  But we definitely needed to stop at the overlook to regain our senses.  And to clean up in a sink because I'm not smart enough to take my kids a change of clothes.  When the kids get wet on these outings, there are always towels in my truck to sit on.  Those towels got an early workout with the "incident".  Ever the problem solver, I proposed that Violet bathe in a waterfall and we'd get her all cleaned up so no one would know she had vomit on her shorts.  Off we went to the first waterfall of the day.

 Connastee Falls was tall and impressive, but I object to viewing waterfalls from the top.  You have to be able to look up to them for the full majestic effect.  This one is only viewable now from the very fenced in observation deck.  The kids were not impressed.  They're sorta waterfall experts now and this one just didn't deliver what they need.

 A short ride later we were in Dupont State Forest.  Our first waterfall hike was a short one to Hooker Falls.  This was my first visit to Dupont and I was surprised by how crowded it was.  The parking lot was so full we had to lurk for a space.  The short hike to Hooker Falls was easy enough for everyone so this place was teeming with humans.  

There were millions of signs posted asking people to not climb the waterfall and I'm trying to teach my kids to respect nature and the reasonable posted rules, so we stayed back at the swimming/wading area.  There were plenty of rocks there and lots of shallow water to keep Blue and Violet happy.  This was when tiny disaster number 2 occurred.  Blue lost his balance jumping from rock to rock and went horizontal in the shallow water.  He recovered quickly but I think he only managed to keep a small spot on his shoulder dry.  His pants, hair, and 90% of his shirt were soaked.  He came up laughing and walked over to me and that's when I noticed the rectangular box with rounded edges in his pants pocket.  He forgot to leave his iPhone in the truck when we got out to hike.  (No, my 8 year old does not have a cell phone.  He inherited my old iPhone a year ago and it works for him like an iPod Touch.)  He lost his laugh quickly and the sadness started.  I put the phone in my dry pocket and told him to say goodbye to it.  

 But there were more waterfalls to see and miles to go before we drove home.  So we set out on a longer hike to Triple Falls.  Those are the three different waterfalls that make up Triple Falls and you can walk out to each one at the three different levels.  Still a lot of humans, but plenty of room to move around and play in the water.

 We stopped at the middle one and carefully and slowly ate our lunch.  

Our dessert was this beauty, High Falls.  This one was much farther up the trail but very worth the hike.  It's a huge waterfall in height and width and there are enough rocks to climb on for days.  It is viewable from a distance but you can also walk along the rocks around the edge of the river right up to the base of the falls.

 The water was refreshingly cool.

 They both got to put their heads under the waterfall.

 Blue found this great little relaxing spot.

 We had hiked about 5 miles at this point.  In the parking lot before we left, I happened across another roadside waterfall in my guidebook.  It was only three miles away.  We had to find it while we were there.  So three miles down a dirt road turned into 10 miles.  We missed it.  But we drove so far, we made it to a different waterfall that I did not plan to visit.  Lake Cascade Dam Falls.  The falls are created by a dam so I wasn't going to put it on our list, but since it was right outside our windows, I stopped and tried to find a good view through the trees.  The kids were not up for climbing down the steep embankment for a better view and I probably couldn't have kept them both safe doing that anyway, so this photo will have to do.

 We saw this thing nearby.  No idea.

And since we are not easily deterred in our adventures, we opted to make a 7 point turn on the narrow dirt road and backtrack until we found Merry Falls.  It was a quiet but impressive little waterfall by the road.  The 8 waterfalls we added on this trip puts our total up to 30 waterfalls so far.

Back home and thoroughly showered, we pulled out Blue's phone and pressed the button.  It came on.  It's perfectly fine.  I know tons of people who have submerged their phones ever so briefly and every single phone has died as a result.  Now, every one but one.

The Summer of Waterfalls: third installment

 Stan and Robin were kind enough to invite us to stay with them for the weekend in Highlands, NC recently.  Stan was one of my college roommates and we have drafted him for some of our waterfall adventures in his home county this summer.  There's a ton of waterfalls near Highlands, so our crew of waterfall finders were happy to go.

 After a couple of laps around Mirror Lake on the paddle boat, we tried out the new BBQ restaurant in town where we all got to draw on the tables.  They only brought two packs of crayons for the kids...I don't think they realized they had a whole table of artists on their hands.  

We sniffed out the ice cream place in town and sat out in the very comfortable temperatures to hear the local dulcimer group play a few songs.

 The next morning we headed out to drive under Bridal Veil Falls.  G got out and took this photo of us parked under the waterfall.  

 This is the photo I was taking from inside the Jeep.

 Just a bit down the road was probably my favorite waterfall of the summer so far...Dry Falls.  It's hard to get a sense of the scale of these things in photos but under the waterfall there's a walkway.

 This is the view from directly behind the waterfall.

Such a powerful waterfall and so great to be able to walk right behind it.

 The walkway continues around in a horseshoe to the other side for this view.

 Next we drove up to Glen Falls, a series of three different waterfalls on the same mountain.  This is Upper Glen Falls.  Stan, Blue, G and Violet all went with me to view this one.

 From the top, it was a steep hike down a rough trail to the next one, Middle Glen Falls.  Violet was the only one willing to brave it with me.

 We couldn't resist the chance to see the last one while we were there.  Violet assured me she was up for the challenge so we climbed on down to the bottom of the trail for a view of the smaller, less impressive Lower Glen Falls.  Then we had to climb all the way back up the mountain.  Violet did great and climbed like a champ.

 On our way back to SC, we stopped to add one more waterfall to our list.  This is Silver Run Falls and it was a pretty good one.  A very short, flat walk from the road to a great swimming hole.  

 The spider monkey kids love climbing on rocks and we were able to jump rocks all the way around to both sides of this one.  

These beauties put our waterfall total at 21.

the summer of waterfalls: second installment

The McAbee adventurers loaded up again to find waterfalls a couple of weeks ago.  If you don't have kids you may not realize what an ordeal it can be to get a 6 year old and an 8 year old ready for interaction with the world.  Of course, G does it like it's nothing and while she's also getting herself ready.  I, however, struggle to get my stuff done in a morning so adding two other people to my list is tough.  I got up, ran, exercised, ate and then made sure no one had their pants on backwards.  Then I threw a few PB&J sandwiches together, filled water bottles and grabbed my waterfall guides and headed out.  

We live near one small waterfall but all the good ones are at least an hour drive away.  With the guidebook we can plan to hit several waterfalls in one trip.  This trip took us the SC/GA state line.  

 Photos never do waterfalls justice but this is the "Wild and Scenic Chatooga River".  It's a fun and amazing river.  Our trip took us to Bull Sluice, a place where the entire river converges into a narrow chute and drops 10 feet.  The small waterfall is not impressive as a waterfall, but the power of the river is very impressive.

 We arrived just in time to see 3 inflatable rafts enter the area to scout out the class V rapid.  We climbed on rocks while we waited and even got to see 2 kayakers put in right at us and shoot the rapid.  

 The first raft went through fine and the kids were ready to sign up.  The second raft lost a person in the rush of water.  The kids looked like they weren't so sure.  The third raft lost all but two people and the future rafting trip was put on hold.  You can see the second raft going over the falls in the photo.

 Just a few miles away we found a secret waterfall spot called Falls on Reedy Branch.  It's an unmarked spot at a roadside pull off and a very short walk.  It was very quiet and beautiful.  The small creek was home to crayfish and salamanders which kept the kids happy for a long time.  

 The third waterfall of the day was Fall Creek Falls.  This one was way out in the middle of nowhere.  I mean, I live in the middle of nowhere, so I know what it looks like.  But for this one we drove way out past nowhere, took three more turns down dirt roads and kept going.  We actually passed the little kid playing banjo on the front porch.  Our directions were great though, and we stopped at the right stump beside the right green tree and walked right over to the trail.  The trail was steep and we had to use the roots as steps to climb down.  Some trees had fallen recently and we actually had to walk across the creek on a fallen log.  Keep in mind there's a 6 year old and an 8 year old with me.  The beauty was worth it but the area was filled with horseflies who love to bite the top of my bald head so we moved along quickly.

 Here's a shot of the adventurers after we hiked back up the hill.

 I planned this trip around grouping waterfalls.  Knowing my adventure group, I looked first for waterfalls that were less than a mile hike roundtrip.  Then I grouped them by location and headed out.  As we arrived at Brasstown Falls, our last 3 falls for the day at one location, I took one last look at the hiking directions before getting out of the truck.  That's when the words "FYI: Not recommended for small children or dogs" caught my eye.  Bummer.  But what kind of adventurers would we be if we just left without trying?  So we got out and hit the trail "cautiously".  Upper Brasstown Falls (above) was a cool cascade waterfall just a short walk down the trail.  No problem.  False sense of security.

 But for this view of Middle Brasstown Falls with the Upper cascades behind it, we had to get a little scared.  The trail is not so much a trail as it is a narrow steep slope made of tree roots and mud.  There were points where I had to ferry one child across a stretch of the trail holding both hands and have them hold on to a tree while I went back for the other child.  Sensing the (light) danger, they both loved every minute of it.

After making it to the first two falls how could we turn around?  I mean, we could hear the next waterfall just down the hill.  So we trekked onward to see what we could hear.  More steep slopes, more (light) danger and more ferrying children across and more indescribable beauty.  This fall turns at an angle away from easy view and I didn't want to get my feet wet.  I walked out on rocks as far as possible to get this view while the kids chased fish in the shallows.  

This trip put our "The Summer Of Waterfalls" total at 15.

hashtag The Summer Of Waterfalls: first installment

I've declared this the Summer Of Waterfalls.  

Humans gravitate toward water.  I realize there's a survival instinct related to the primal need we have for drinking water.  That's probably ingrained in our DNA so much that even when we have free water dripping from our faucets, we still spend money for gas to drive to lakes and rivers to see water.  Lakes are cool but give me a waterfall any day of the week.  It can drop a couple of feet or a couple of hundred feet.  It can free fall or cascade.  Doesn't matter, I'll take it.  Falling water mesmerizes two legged creatures the same way that fire does.  It's just rocks and water but when the two are combined in the right way, it's magnificent beauty.  

I love to hike and I can appreciate the beauty of the small things like roots, valleys, ferns, flowers and wildlife.  I've found, however, that I need some sort of reward for a long walk in the woods.  I need a panoramic view from the top or a waterfall.  And if we're honest, I have two small kids and if I'm going to talk them into putting down their electronics and leaving their air conditioned rooms, I need the promise of a waterfall.  I'd still make them go, but the waterfalls cut down on the amount of whining I have to hear.

 The Summer Of Waterfalls officially began in May when we drove up to Pisgah National Forest on a whim to see if we could find Looking Glass Falls.  The internet came through for us and gave us great directions.  

 The internet did not tell us exactly how cold this water was going to be.  The amount of chilly water rushing over the edge caused a stiff breeze in the gorge and that combined with the mist from the falls was more than a little exhilarating.  Violet was not happy about this cold surprise.

 This roadside waterfall is very popular and having the humans in the photos helps give scale to the falls.

 Violet got out quickly but Blue and I ventured across the stream through the foot numbing water.

 G stayed warm and dry with Timber and took photos of us getting cold and wet.

A few weeks later we decided to use our new waterfall guide books and find a couple more.  We found ourselves driving through Walhalla and we called up Stan and Robin to see if they wanted to go exploring.  Robin was out of town and Stan was in his studio looking for an excuse to not work...so he decided to join us and be our guide.  Our first stop was waterfall number 2, Issaqueena Falls.

G got this cool photo of the kids and me coming back up from the base of the falls.

The Stumphouse Tunnel is right up the path from Issaqueena.  It's a tunnel that was started back in 18something and was carved through rock by hand.  It was never finished.

 So it's a deep dark hole in the rock that needs to be explored.

 The McAbees were prepared with flashlights and we made spooky sounds to creep out all the other visitors.

 The air shaft creates a cool breeze that was welcome relief from the 90 degree heat outside.

We checked in on the antique store in Walhalla, had a great pizza on Main Street and then decided to go in search of another waterfall Stan told us about.  This one is Whitewater Falls just in the edge of North Carolina and it was waterfall number 3.  This one drops 411 feet and is the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi River.

 Stan got this photo of us at the observation deck.  Sadly, this gorge is so steep and dangerous the kids didn't get to climb on rocks or get in the water.  

 But because Stan is awesome and knows awesome people, we did get to stop by this farm on the way back to his studio.  These were miniature horses and donkeys.

 And these were sheep.

 And we got to hold the baby.

 Today we had to deliver art to Greenville.  We stopped to critique Joel Shapiro's sculpture.  We approve.

We also had to walk by Reedy River Falls in Falls Park to check waterfall number 4 off our list.  It's a really pretty waterfall.

 And since it was sweltering outside, I let the kids kick off their shoes and play in the fountain.

 Then we drove out to Pickens County and found Twin Falls, waterfall number 5 for the summer.  This one is out there, but it's not a long walk and it's so beautiful.  This photo just shows one side.

 This was the side that was deemed safe enough for my crew.  We were able to get right up next to the falls.

In person this sight was inspiring.  In photo I can see how that would not translate.  Sorry I'm not a better photographer.

 This shows both sides of the falls.  A really great place.

 And the short walk provided plenty of time for rock climbing and adventuring.

With Twin Falls behind us, we thought we were headed to Cook Out for milkshakes but on the way we saw this one by the road and busted a U-turn.  This was the lower level of Wildcat Wayside Falls.  A perfect little place for wading and playing.

 This one shows the upper level falls, also great for getting wet.

 Then we were off to Cook Out, but not before we slowed down to see the two unicorns.