Testing Mercury!

Took my lunch break from work today to test out my idea for the first planet, Mercury! My original idea was to use snail shells, but after coming across these colored pebbles at the park where I was doing it – I was instantly drawn to the idea of separating out the white and red pebbles to form the “planet”. Even at its small size, this was very tedious and took up my entire lunchtime! I’m definitely happy with where it’s going, but am going to play around more with the snail shells too. I’m thinking of trying them on top of the red pebbles, and also of having more – as I don’t think I had quite enough this first time to make it work. I will also try a version with all small shells, as the larger ones made it difficult to get the circle perfectly round. Any other ideas out there? =)

Inspiration: The Art of Richard Long

I came across the fabulous nature art of Richard Long today while researching for my own nature art project for this month. I was instantly drawn to the geometric forms created… and inspired to do something similar. I’m considering doing my own versions of these types of land sculptures – one representing each planet in our solar system. Each will be carefully constructed of materials that portray specific characteristics of that planet. I may explore other objects from space such as supernovas or black holes if time permits. Am feeling excited about this one!

Planetary Alignment in May

I was talking to a friend of mine today about my monthly project being about outer space… and she mentioned a really interesting thing I had to share! This month, almost all of the planets will be aligned in the early morning sky – following the path of the sun. I’ll definitely have to try taking some photos of this as part of my month’s projects.. and maybe find a way for this this event to work its way into the nature art project for the month as well! For the full article about planetary alignment in May, click HERE. Make sure to check out the end of the article – they offer a few tips on photographing the event!

Announcing the May Project!

The cards for the May project have been drawn! Having already done another nature-inspired project for February’s temporary sculpture, I am excited to explore more areas of natural art! Off we go!