Living with the knowledge that the structure and composition of our seasons will certainly change over the next decades, I feel compelled to acknowledge and preserve the feeling of this moment in time. The messy tangle of broken sticks and scattered moss, the mulchy smell of a walk in the forest. This site-specific installation, created with artist Shayne Taylor for Stevenson High School, celebrates the diversity and contribution of each season in the Midwest.

The installation consists of 23 panels of white-tinted resin spanning 40’, and containing a flowing representation of the seasons. Within each panel is flora, fauna, seeds, sticks, and other elements found abundantly within their season and foraged by the artists. We celebrate the color, texture, and vibrancy of winter as well as summer. Winter is not a cold dead period, but one of necessary rest and regeneration. Spring does not burst from nothingness into tulips, but cracks through the ice and frost with diligence and determination. In tinting the resin with white pigment, the panels retains the translucence of resin, while obscuring the flora and fauna so that they read more as an abstract painting than a floral display. Overall, what the viewer perceives is a light and airy fogginess, with “brushstrokes” that shift in color and texture as it ebbs across the overall piece. Upon closer inspection, the viewer can make out an acorn, stick, or petal emerging from the fog.

Photography courtesy of John Jennings Photography