Dragonfly Dance

My eye was caught this morning by a huge dragonfly skimming over the top of the tallest tree in the neighborhood. He glowed in the backlight of the waking sun. A school of gnats shared the sky, dancing their gnat dance, enticing the dragonfly. The dragonfly dined then ducked behind the tree line; several other dragonflies replaced him as though they were playing musical chairs. They rose and fell until the morning sun moved high enough into the sky to blind me. The show was over for today; tomorrow if I am paying attention, Nature will bless me with another of her small, mighty plays.

Someone stomped Drought Flowers

I took a break during my sculpture class yesterday (Wednesday) and went to the cafeteria; they are right by the art building so I always check to see if they need attention. When I got back fifteen minutes later, someone had stomped down seven of them. I was hurt, angry, I felt so violated. The other people nearby were also angry. I gathered them with the help of Mihona, a young friend from Japan. After going through all the steps of grief. I decided I was going to take them home and repair them with duct tape and band aids. I'm going back to the college to re-plant them now, but first I'm going to find some cute band aids to mark every Drought Flower that has been deliberately damaged. I'm not going to let the bastards get me down.

Drought Flowers - My Process

How to build Drought Flowers?

Spring Semester 2006, one of my instructors had his sculpture class make something out of 100 identical objects. I decided then and there that I would do something with CD's; and I knew they had to be used CD's. If you leave CD's out in the weather, the paper backing peels off and makes a mess of the CD. So, the following summer, I glued two CD's back to back to see if they maintain their integrity. I left them in my veggie garden where they would be exposed to the weather for a year--and they remained intact!

The idea of solar flowers came from "Ringworld", a science fiction novel by Larry Nivens. Nivens' flowers are called "Slaver Sunflowers", silver disks that use the sun to "zap" anything edible.

The idea of having the CD flowers face the sun pleased me. l imagined them on some sort of flexible rod that would allow them to sway in the wind. I allowed the idea to percolate until I took a 3-D class this spring (2008). Then I faced questions about where I would present them, how would I assemble them, how would I get them to stay in the ground in 35 mph winds?

I glued ten CD's back-to-back then glued a group of three "petals" on one CD. Next, I glued another CD on top of them, making a sort of CD sandwich. I fiddled around with an old bamboo garden stake and some hardware to see if I could get an idea how to make it work. It turned out that by screwing nuts on the joins on the bamboo stakes, I could make them stable.

Once I figured out how to make the project work, I presented it to the division dean. She said “yes”, and the project was on. A week later I had made 44 “flowers” out of 506 CD’s, mounted on bamboo stakes.

I used a long screwdriver to make holes in the hard ground and hammered the “flowers” in. It was the only way I could figure out how to do it so that the things wouldn’t fly away in high winds. I made a few at a time and went out to plant them. I chose an area between the art department and music department that was un-tended. Students had made their own path through there, so that’s where I decided to plant them.

I arrived one day to discover that the music department had transplanted a few on their side of the sidewalk. They didn’t secure them well, so I planted a few for them.

I didn’t alter the space where I put the flowers; it was pretty trashy and it added to the air of desolation. Two weeks after the installation was finished, the area was free of trash and has stayed that way for three months.

People got all fussy about why I wasn’t worried about them being stolen. My attitude is that public art is, well, public; and part of the fun is seeing how people relate to the project. The only flowers that have been picked are the ones I planted by the music department.

People go by the office in the art department to ask if they can have one when the installation is over. I’m not quite sure what I will do with them. They have faded a lot in the sun and seem to be becoming brittle.

I have left them alone and they’ve accumulated a lot of dirt. Next week I will clean them so they will be ready for the beginning of the semester. I hope the school newspaper will do an article. The local Fairfield newspaper came out and interviewed me; it was a nice article with a very unflattering photo of me.

44 flowers sound like a lot, but they don’t come across as a huge field of them. It is a small, intimate installation. When someone approaches the installation, they don’t see it until that are in the flowers midst. People are surprised by them and delighted. They really “get” the message about the lack of water, but one of the things that surprised me has been all of the comments that it is too bad we can’t use them to collect solar energy. Another thing that has surprised me is a comment that someone made that all of the CD’s have been used, which says a lot about the way we de-value information.

Someone from maintenance wanted to take a couple of them to make "eyes" for a topiary caterpillar. I made two matching flowers for them; and they finally installed them but didn't do a secure job of it. They were taken the next day.

The flowers have been on display for three months; I go by regularly and do maintenance. Sometimes the bamboo splits in the wind and I just trim them so they are stable. Other times the hardware is loosened; sometimes I have to take them home to get the hardware to fit.

At this point, three months after the installation, all of the flowers I originally planted by the path to the art department are still there.

I feel that I am successful as an artist with this project. People are engaged, delighted, curious, entertained; they "get" what I set out to do and add their own reactions.

One last thing. I believe that creative people have to define success for themselves. I don't require financial gain to feel successful; it is my audience's reaction that satisfies me.

Peacock Walks at the Ranch - written 8/16/2008

As I parked my car at the Ranch one afternoon, I noticed a fawn feeding. I managed to get one photo before Mom saw me and took charge of the situation. I realized that that I had been seeing deer spoor. I can’t get close enough to the creek to see any tracks because the banks are too steep. But it’s there for me to enjoy, and I do. As I walked by the old caretaker’s cottage, I saw two black squirrels playing in the yard area. This is the first time I’ve seen black squirrels in this area.

The peacocks scream whenever someone they don’t know or don’t like (for example, the park rangers); but they know me now and don’t scream when they see me. I feel very safe when I’m with peafowl because as soon as the first peacock screams, I know he thinks there is some sort of danger. After the first male screams, the sentries scream the alarm clock-wise around the perimeter. I have an idea where the first male perceives danger so I can get an idea of what’s going on. Watching a crime show one night, the detectives encountered peacocks at a crime sight and one of them commented that the birds were the criminals' watch dogs.

The biggest danger is dogs or coyotes hunting the peafowl; occasionally a person chases them.
I always carry pepper spray now and sort of resent it, but I’ve seen dogs take down the birds and I would be delighted to spray one. I would rather spray the owner—it’s not the dog that’s bad—it’s an owner who doesn’t teach themselves how to handle their dog. Then, there are the ones who would like to have peafowl on the table. They are just huge pheasants, after all; they are indigenous to India.

Peafowl have been kept by the wealthy for centuries, because they are such great sentries. Also, they eat snakes. In areas where there are a lot of poisonous snakes, the peafowl keep the snake population down. I’ve only seen one snake in peacock territory in the 24 years I have been observing them.

The people who live near the Ranch want the birds gone because of their screaming and their droppings. The Ranch was donated to the city of Fairfield under the terms that the flock is maintained. There is a huge amount of open space there, and there are no snakes. At some point the birds will be removed; eventually the same residents will start coming across snakes, including rattlesnakes. How dumb is that?

The same thing is happening at Blue Rock Springs Park—which also has a huge amount of open space—there is a nice golf course there and the golfers face the same issues the people at the Ranch do and know nothing about it.

I have never seen a sign of a pheasant at either place, and I easily recognize pheasant feathers. I wonder if the peafowl are somehow dominant. Most people think that ring-neck pheasants are indigenous to North America; however, they were first introduced to the west coast in 1881 and to the east coast in the late 1880’s. These birds are indigenous to China; I find it amazing that they are common all over the country in just 120 years.

The Ranch is a “no trespassing” zone; I have become a sort of unofficial volunteer. Several years ago while I was out wandering, there was a motorcycle cop waiting to ticket people who were speeding. I noticed a mother quail walk across the street with nine brand-new chicks tow. They got down off the curb OK, but they couldn’t get back up on the other side. I put down my pack and water and crossed the street to help. I started scooping them up one at a time and delivered them to mom. The first person who drove up stopped and asked what I was doing. I showed her one of the chicks. She blocked traffic while I caught each one; the motorcycle cop was 100 feet away, and I could tell he was watching the whole thing in his rear-view mirror. Once I caught all of them and delivered them to mom, everyone drove away. The last to leave was the cop. He could have given me a ticket for trespassing.

Peacock Walks at Dunnell Ranch 8-12-2008

I need to walk in a woodsy place every day to keep my spirit clean. There are two places I wander regularly that have flocks of peafowl. One is the Dunnell Ranch in Fairfield; there is a stream wandering through the property and a huge amount of open space around it. There are ancient oak trees, cedar, juniper, figs, olives, California wild roses, and pomegranate. The family who once lived there loved interesting plants and there are many I can’t identify. The flock is small with approximately twenty males and four hens. There were five, but one had a broken wing last week and I haven’t seen her since.

The other is Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo - another subject for a post!

I have been working on a photo essay of the peafowl for several years. They can be viewed at the link at the top of the page called "Peacock Walks".

The ranch is a place of rich contrasts: golden, bone dry hills and open space stretch for miles. The area near the houses is cooled by the huge trees. Then there’s the stream. There is a bank of wild roses hugging it for several hundred feet. There are a lot of brambles and tons of poison oak and poison ivy—poison oak is a bush, poison ivy climbs trees. 

This is the time of the year when both the peacocks and the turkeys are molting. The feathers of both species are beautiful and I collect them. People think the peacock’s tail feathers are the only ones worth collecting; but the iridescent blue feathers on their necks, the blue-black and brown wing feathers, the small green feathers covering their shoulders and backs are all beautiful.

While I was peacock walking today, I spotted two different species of wood-pecking birds pecking on the same old tree. One species was a gray, tiny, finch sized bird with a very short tail; the other species was larger with a contrasting black and white pattern on its back - probably a ladder-backed woodpecker. Goldfinches dined and played their way through the star thistle, and a mountain bluebird flashed through the undergrowth by the stream.

There are two flocks of wild turkeys. They are extremely shy and race to hide when they see me. Today, while I rested by the stream I spotted fifteen or twenty feeding on some dry grass. I was able to watch them briefly before they got spooked. They spook easily. I think they are ugly birds—long, skinny legs and necks and they are very mussed because of their molt. They have a strange looking wad of feathers on their necks (waddle). I never get to see them close enough to really get a good look. 

As I followed a trail of turkey tail feathers, I came across the carcass of a kestrel chick. Its wing feathers hadn’t finished growing, so it wasn’t old enough to fledge. It must have fallen from its nest and glided to its final resting spot. Its body wasn’t disturbed, so I knew it hadn’t been dined upon.

I got lucky last night and watched a bunch of turkeys fly into their huge roosting tree. Turkeys and peafowl can fly, but they are quite awkward. They often lose their footing and crash to lower branches. 

Some peacocks joined them as well as four peahens; the best was when four pea chicks flew into the tree. The peacocks (males) are especially awkward right now because they are in the middle of their molt and they have lost many of their long, beautiful "tail" feathers.This seriously affects their balance.

At least three of the chicks snuggled together for the night. By the time it was over, there were between 30 and 40 turkeys and peafowl in the tree. If I hadn't seen them get into the tree, they would have been invisible.

"Drought Flowers" in local newspaper

Art Project Blooms At SCC: Student Puts Flowers Made From Cds On Display
By Nika Megino
DAILY REPUBLIC - July 28, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CA — Standing at least a foot tall and gleaming in the sun, Maya WindDancer's flowers might catch the eyes of anyone who visits Solano Community College.

What makes WindDancer's flowers unique? The SCC art student's flowers are made from used CDs and bamboo sticks.
 

Her "Drought Flowers" were part of a project for an art class that required students to create an art piece from 100 identical items. The blue, purple and silver CD flowers are on display between the college's theater and art building and will remain there through September.

The project was inspired by science fiction novelist Larry Niven's "Ringworld," in which he writes about metallic sunflowers that use solar energy to kill enemies, but WindDancer's 44 flowers made from 500 CDs seek to present a different message.

"The idea is that this is all we'll be able to have if the drought doesn't end," WindDancer said.

Although the drought flowers were made for a final class assignment, it was a two-year project for WindDancer, who always wanted to make an art piece out of CDs. 

The idea of using CDs came to WindDancer, 55, because people tend to toss them away as garbage too casually.

Despite the industrial look of the flowers, WindDancer took time to make the pieces react like a normal flower would. It had to be able to swing in the wind but stay rooted in the ground, she said.

"It was very challenging trying to figure out how it'll work," WindDancer said.

She began the project in 2006 by gluing together two CDs and placing them on a bamboo stick in her backyard to learn how the CDs would handle sunlight and the weather.

Once she realized the flower would survive, she began making more and figured out how to arrange them. She started collecting CDs, with most coming from donations.

Each flower consists of a bamboo stick as the stem and a minimum of 10 CDs as the flower's petals. The CDs are bolted to the bamboo stick, which is planted into soil.

The display debuted in mid-May after WindDancer spent one week installing the flowers. Since then, she has been surprised by the feedback she has received. 

"People really get it. It's so funny that people will keep it clean," said WindDancer, who added the area in which the flowers stand used to be full of trash.

"It's just been a really interesting adventure full of surprises," she added.

WindDancer Dreams: Today's Haiku 8/7/2008

WindDancer Dreams: Today's Haiku 8/7/2008