the river + me
Collaborating with the Chagrin River
The coast of Lake Erie isn’t solely punctuated by grey skies and the rusting remains of a world built in the last century. Its natural landscape includes three rivers that run through the greater Cleveland area. Of these, I am most connected to the Chagrin River. It is deeply embedded in my psyche, regularly showing up in dreams, meditations, and visualizations.
My first collaborations with the river began when I was about four years old, attending children’s classes at the Chagrin Valley Arts Center. We would pull our clay directly from a sloping wall—a natural clay deposit—that encased the back perimeters of the property. The sacred, primal act of plunging my hands into the soft earth and then transforming it into something new left an impression that is no less magical and awe-inspiring to me today. I seek to create in a state of wonder, and when I work with the River, these sensations are ever-present.
Having access to the river is a privilege and responsibility I do not take for granted. As such, the work I make around and within only incorporates immediately available natural materials at a scale which won’t disturb or harm the habitat. Within these parameters, the work I create is temporal in nature. The animal sculptures I hand-build directly from and on the clay deposit typically erode back into the river within days, as the microclimate there experiences constant rain and moisture.
Spending time alone creating with the river in every season is a meditative activity like no other, and a true exercise in nonattachment. Once I leave the site, the remaining life of the sculptures is out of my hands. The only evidence of them remains in photo and video documentation.
