The Story
Image: Jumbled logs in a pile with some green leaves and other dry, wilted leaves.
What hath God wrought?
A big reason I always wanted to live on the SE side of Cedar Rapids: close proximity to Oak Hill Cemetery, where as a teenager, I used to explore at night in search of Tillie's ghost. Legend had it she was buried in the potter's field with an elaborate iron...
climate responsibility round robin
When we first invited locals to burn lines into a slice from the Log of Unknown Origin to commemorate their lost trees, we didn't elaborate on the form they should take. Even still, a pattern emerged immediately: short tally marks drawn perpendicular to the growth...
when personal & local history intersect: Dr. Arthur Erskine, the Masonic Library, and Kindred Spirits in Art
One of the most exciting parts of The Log Project is uncovering hidden histories while researching the locations where we picked up logs. Sometimes, we grabbed logs in locations with a personal connection and discovered a rich historical one, too. One such log: The...
the forensic signature of lost memory
We collected this log from the Alzheimer’s hospice that cared for Karrie's father. For this codex page, we are in process on a wax tablet with two contrasting layers of wax. The top layer will contain magnetite (iron oxide) aka Mars Black. The bottom will be lighter,...
Death on Ridge Road: Grant Wood, the clash between urban & rural and how we respond to disasters in red states v blue states
We collected this log from the curb by 5 Turner Alley, aka Grant Wood’s studio. We have envisioned this “page” in the codex as a re-imagining of his famous painting Death on Ridge Road, typically viewed as an impending car wreck about to kill the people inside the...
Big news! The Log Project is now supported by the NEA & Iowa Arts Council!
I can finally share some incredible news! I have been awarded an American Rescue Plan grant for The Log Project! My little derecho response that could will now come with a statement about how it’s supported in part by the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment...
700,000 trees; 700,000 people: Derecho, the pandemic, ableism, and disabled trees
The Log Project codex opened last night at CSPS Hall with pyrography: writing in fire. Visitors were invited to burn lines into log slices to represent their lost trees. This is the text they read before doing so: codex, an ancient manuscript text in book form from...
Time Check as an “anthropo(scene)”
Visual representations of climate scenes have not been perceived as immediately comprehensible or compelling evidence of climate change, failing to provoke strong emotional reactions in audiences. By contrast, a violent crime scene, whether in fiction or real life,...
purposeful plastiglomerate
We are at work on the codex, installation, and “little forest” created from logs collected all over Cedar Rapids in the wake of the derecho storm on August 10, 2020, when the city lost ~70% of its tree canopy to winds the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane with no...
The Forest For the Trees
The Forest For the Trees The week before derecho I walked to Bever Park in Cedar Rapids looking for wildlife. I had been photographing deer, including bucks with full, fuzzy racks munching on rich green foliage. They were often out as I walked the trails looking into...