Saturday, July 15, 2006
"Capture the Clinton!" Test Walk-Tuesday, July 11th
Hello!
The "Capture the Clinton!" team did a "test walk" starting from the Dawson Millpond spillway, a small pond just below the dam, at Beaudette Park.
There was Jill Hollowell from the Clinton River Watershed Council, Katie Serewicz and Pat O'Connor of the Art Experience, Pat's Cousin Martha and Katie's niece, Marlee. We all received a large piece of drawing paper folded into four sections and a large "Sargent Brand" black crayon. Here was the procedure:
1. Everyone picked something to draw (about 5 minutes)
2. We each picked a partner (we introduced ourselves)
3. Then we told them what we chose to draw and showed our drawing
4. We said what we noticed while we were drawing
5. We said what we thought we would remember from that place.
From there we took the trail to 4 more sites: a flood plain, to bridges over the river, and an (optional) bonus site a short way off the main trail on a bluff overlooking the river. We returned to Beaudette Park and spread out our papers so all 4 (or 5) sketches were visible at the same time. So with just 5 people we had 20 sketches! Everyone had a completely different take on each site. Some people wrote on their sketches or made lots of small sketches for each site.
Below are the sketches from the first site, the pond below the dam.
See the lamp pole on top of the dam? the spillway doors? the rock in front of the tree?
Jill imagined the site without the dam, a free-slowing river...
Katie noticed the pond's edge
We walked down the trail to the flood plain, a few steps off the trail and down a shallow slope.
It was otherworldly and mysterious. We all looked and drew what we saw, then we picked new partners to share our sketch with and did it again.
Katie noticed the shape of a plant...
Pat liked the exposed roots and jungle appearance of the flood plain
The next stop was the first bridge; people looked at lots of different things and saw this place in lots of different ways...
Jill noticed the junk dumped underneath the bridge and started planning a clean-up day...
Martha spotted a fishing bobber that had snagged an overhanging branch...
Pat and Katie took in the scene looking the opposite direction ...
Below is a photo of the same place taken two weeks earlier...
We picked new partners, showed each other our sketches, and we saw and heard how our partners were experiencing the place. We all were having very different experiences of the same place. People started sharing with more than one partner, looking at their sketch and listening to what the other person had noticed. Our experience became richer and more varied; we were seeing the place through other people's eyes and experiencing it through other people's experience.
Then we went on to the third bridge. When it started to sprinkle, what had been invisible suddenly appeared . The droplets started sticking and Katie noticed a spider had been busy..
... and then Marlee noticed it
... and climbing a tree we saw a poison ivy vine as thick as a man's arm...
... Jill noticed the rain droplets' designs on the water and the sound they made...
Pat noticed overhanging branches, a sand bar, a cinder block, a basswood leaf, and his cousin Martha in her parka drawing her sketch...
We headed back to Beaudette Park to the pond below the dam and saw this fellow hunting...
... and we took out our sketches and shared them with each other...
On the day of the event there hope to have at least ... a hundred walkers? We'll put up a clothes line and hang everyone's sketches on it and we'll see the Clinton through the eyes of everyone who showed up to "Capture the Clinton!" See pictures of the unfolded sketch papers below...
See you on Saturday July 29th! 10 am at Beaudette Park on Orchard Lake Rd. just east of Telegraph Road in Pontiac!
The "Capture the Clinton!" team did a "test walk" starting from the Dawson Millpond spillway, a small pond just below the dam, at Beaudette Park.
There was Jill Hollowell from the Clinton River Watershed Council, Katie Serewicz and Pat O'Connor of the Art Experience, Pat's Cousin Martha and Katie's niece, Marlee. We all received a large piece of drawing paper folded into four sections and a large "Sargent Brand" black crayon. Here was the procedure:
1. Everyone picked something to draw (about 5 minutes)
2. We each picked a partner (we introduced ourselves)
3. Then we told them what we chose to draw and showed our drawing
4. We said what we noticed while we were drawing
5. We said what we thought we would remember from that place.
From there we took the trail to 4 more sites: a flood plain, to bridges over the river, and an (optional) bonus site a short way off the main trail on a bluff overlooking the river. We returned to Beaudette Park and spread out our papers so all 4 (or 5) sketches were visible at the same time. So with just 5 people we had 20 sketches! Everyone had a completely different take on each site. Some people wrote on their sketches or made lots of small sketches for each site.
Below are the sketches from the first site, the pond below the dam.
See the lamp pole on top of the dam? the spillway doors? the rock in front of the tree?
Jill imagined the site without the dam, a free-slowing river...
Katie noticed the pond's edge
We walked down the trail to the flood plain, a few steps off the trail and down a shallow slope.
It was otherworldly and mysterious. We all looked and drew what we saw, then we picked new partners to share our sketch with and did it again.
Katie noticed the shape of a plant...
Pat liked the exposed roots and jungle appearance of the flood plain
The next stop was the first bridge; people looked at lots of different things and saw this place in lots of different ways...
Jill noticed the junk dumped underneath the bridge and started planning a clean-up day...
Martha spotted a fishing bobber that had snagged an overhanging branch...
Pat and Katie took in the scene looking the opposite direction ...
Below is a photo of the same place taken two weeks earlier...
We picked new partners, showed each other our sketches, and we saw and heard how our partners were experiencing the place. We all were having very different experiences of the same place. People started sharing with more than one partner, looking at their sketch and listening to what the other person had noticed. Our experience became richer and more varied; we were seeing the place through other people's eyes and experiencing it through other people's experience.
Then we went on to the third bridge. When it started to sprinkle, what had been invisible suddenly appeared . The droplets started sticking and Katie noticed a spider had been busy..
... and then Marlee noticed it
... and climbing a tree we saw a poison ivy vine as thick as a man's arm...
... Jill noticed the rain droplets' designs on the water and the sound they made...
Pat noticed overhanging branches, a sand bar, a cinder block, a basswood leaf, and his cousin Martha in her parka drawing her sketch...
We headed back to Beaudette Park to the pond below the dam and saw this fellow hunting...
... and we took out our sketches and shared them with each other...
On the day of the event there hope to have at least ... a hundred walkers? We'll put up a clothes line and hang everyone's sketches on it and we'll see the Clinton through the eyes of everyone who showed up to "Capture the Clinton!" See pictures of the unfolded sketch papers below...
See you on Saturday July 29th! 10 am at Beaudette Park on Orchard Lake Rd. just east of Telegraph Road in Pontiac!# posted by pat o'connor @ 12:59 PM 
