Last month I shared an experience of discovering a natural sculpture that my artist neighbor, Amy, had created at our mailbox.
Creating natural sculptures have now become a passion of ours, along with our two neighbor families who share a woods with us.
It’s become a spontaneous adventure of art and ‘ambush,’ in the best sense of the word. 
It all started when our three families got together and watched a DVD about the renowned Scottish sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, who creates sculptures that are completely composed of natural materials and are ephemeral.
We were inspired to create some natural sculptures of our own.
A month or so later, Harold and I were walking dogs in the early morn and came upon our next door neighbor’s mailbox.
A grapevine was artistically arranged around their mailbox. It actually looks a lot better than my drawing, more spiral-y and less snakelike, but you get the idea.
The next sculpture to appear was Amy’s creation at our mailbox.
It really surprised me as went to get our mail one afternoon.
In ‘retaliation’ for Amy’s work, we and our neighbors decided to get creative with Amy’s house.
We graced their mailbox with natural chimes. These chimes are made of different kinds of wood hung on a grapevine.
Then we found a big piece of oak tree bark with moss growing on it, from a downed tree in the woods. We added some stones for teeth and an eye, and voila! ……. a boar’s head appeared on their front porch.
At that point, the dandelions on Amy’s sculpture at our mailbox had died and disintegrated, so the hemp weaving was available for reinvention. The more I looked at it, the more it began to look like a spider’s web to me.
I found a piece of oak bark and some oak twigs and……I call it “Lynne goes over to the Dark Side.”
This morning, Harold and I were again walking Harper and Cinnamon and we spotted a small clearing, just a little into the driveway on our next door neighbor’s property.
And there it was, a flowing cascade of a sculpture, positioned between two live trees, and sharing space with a dead tree stump. You just gotta love grapevines.
I can’t even begin to describe this experience in all of it’s abundance: the sense of conspiracy and community, the absolute shock of delight in each new discovery, the gift of being in the flow of creativity and inspiration, and the grace of generosity of spirit.
I can only imagine what Bill and Sherry, our Mail People, think!
I’m sure this is only the beginning of this story. Amy calls it “Art War.” I love oxymorons, and I love being a part of this big adventure.
Permalink | Filed under: Being a Reinventer, Adventures of a Reinventer, Lynne's Reinvention Journey on June 6th, 2009 | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »
