diy outdoor craft ideas

i'm here in the woods near villanow, georgiaand this is the spot where i've chosen to install my new work, which i'm calling "thewoods are watching." it's part of my new body of work called "crayonportraiture" and it builds upon things i've done in the past such as the "jordan's journey"project and the "intersection" project, but this is something totally new, totally differentand i'm really branching out into some new territory. that's why i'm really excited aboutthe project. the banner you see behind me is somethingi made from an antique crayon portrait of one of my ancestors who actually lived rightin this area and that's part of the reason i chose this site.

"what you wanna try first, the metal one?" so i've enlarged it many, many times. it'sjust the eyes and it was originally much smaller. that digital enlargement process is very mucha key part of what this is about and that ties in with the historical aspect of thecrayon portrait medium, which is what the original image was, it was a type of enlargement.i've taken that further in the 21st century with digital techniques to enlarge it evenmany times beyond the original object. it's sort of about how nature and the environmentis a living, breathing thing and it's kind of watching us all the time even though wedon't think of it that way necessarily. it's also about the very personal genealogicalaspect that this is where my ancestors are

from, they worked this land, they roamed theseforests generations ago. my family lived in this area since before the civil war goingback at least eight generations i've counted on one line. that's the kind of thing thati explored in "jordan's journey" and really detailed how those collective memories influencethe present and who we are. so i wanted to, in a totally different way, explore thoseideas but engage more with the environment, with the landscape directly here in the forestand come into the woods and into that dark place where the sun... you know, right nowit's kind of shining through the trees here and it creates a really beautiful light andthat will change throughout the day, throughout

the seasons as this work remains in situ hereon the site. i'm excited about it and i can't

wait to see what it turns into and where itgoes and how that meaning kind of takes root into the forest and becomes something new. that's the work. here we are!