NaturePlay... a way back
For three Satyrday Mornings in May--and perhaps longer-- I'll be at The Seligmann Homestead in Sugar Loaf, NY offering a few hours of what's called NaturePlay. I'm working with the Orange County Land Trust to stimulate more land-based experiences. (press release).
It's "Deep Conservation" in the way David Sobel sees it:
Talking to trees and hiding in trees precedes saving
trees.
I'm not a Nature Educator, a Park Ranger and have no degrees in Forestry or Environmental Science, but, like many of us, I've been involved with the woods and streams and beaches for the last 30 years as an artist and maker.
An artist's purpose is not to teach something but to create an experience where you learn something via an encounter with beauty, joy, surprise, shock... The outcome of an artistic engagement is unpredictable and not easily quantified or measures.
Oh yes, your large motor skills may improve...
This is for everybody: children, artists, Park Rangers, moms, dads, County Executives, people who want to build Fairy or Troll Houses or do some trail maintenance...
This is being co-sponsored by my favorite group,
The Seligmann Center for the Arts... so there is a slight surrealist twist as we relish the unexpected, the coincidental and the discovered as we explore these 50 acres.
NATUREPLAY Satyrday Schedules:
10am Meet Sign In with Mud Signatures, Tour, 50-acre Site Maps: Uplands, Buildings, Wetlands
Hey! Poison Ivy and Ticks, Bathrooms Here.
There's a huge free scrap pile of great wood -- right around the corner at Laroe's
NaturePlay Look/Hunt/Make PATTERNS with Nature; Humans are aggressive.
WHY PLAY??
- To Remember our shared 10,000 year experience as Hunters and Gatherers
- To Encounter other living
beings: trees, birds, waters, plants, people
- To Experience the not-work, not-sports, not-chores model of spending time
- To Enjoy NOVELTY, exuberance, Discovery, Surprise, finding the unexpected
- To Get in The Zone
10:15 Perimeter Hike/Hunt: The Lenape considered found shape stone more important
than a crafted one
What’s Here TODAY? what’s seen heard, smelled, found
10:45 Share Reactions Were some placess more “special” ?
Start Common Map/Inventory
Suggest Sharing/Gifts: Closing Story here and gift for another person
or place
11-12 Interactions What do you need/want NOW? Quiet? Activity? Make?
Watch?
Using surrealism as guide: Honor accident, coincidence
Caretaking/Trail Making, Debris fences, Bench, Garlic Pull,
Tree Loom, Shadow Drawing, Contemplative Photography, Make Sounds?
Troll/Fairie Houses near Cemetery, Wand-Making, Magnifiers,
Marking
Noon NEXT TIME??? What can you do/be At Home??
HOW TO BE at Seligmann maybe NOT “What to DO”
- CARETAKING/ORDERING/TRAILMAKING: clip and trime till you drop... Look up the word "pleach"
- JUST HUNT/EXPLORE/NOTICE: The Cemetery,The dump, change/moisture, decay, sketelizing
Lots of birds here: Feather ID: Jays, Owls, Crows a checklist?
- WATER Bog Play Water Study Make and launch small boats
- EARTH mud work, mud stencils, Ash, burnt stick drawings
- STONES: stacking cairns, walls Stone Carving
- AIR/LIGHT Shadow, Streamers, Shadow Drawings, Smells, sounds:
hearing/making,
- contemplative photography, Drumming
- USING TOOLS: microscope, magnifying glasses, saws, clippers, loppers
- BUILDING/MAKING: debris fence, Troll and Fairy Houses, Debris Huts, wands,
Medicine Wheel, Benches
- Crushed Pigment Painting, Branch Charcoal Drawing
- QUIET TIME Books to look at? Water colors? Nature journals?
- SHARING Make Gifts, Storytelling, letterboxing
Contact Dan for more information 845 986 7293 or email