Shiawassee River Series Update


It seems an awful long time ago that I decided to do the Shiawassee River series. I had thought that I would do one print at a time and they would all fit together in the end. But once I got started I realized that I needed to see the river in every season, travel the length several times, talk to more river experts and, finally, refine my skills as a printmaker so there will be consistancy throughout.

I feel like I finally will be able to do the Shiawassee River justice. The series will have all 4 seasons represented. It will show the various typography - from the first trickle out of the ground to swamps, high banks, farm fields, bayou's and finally the flats. It's a wonder filled landscape.

It seems an immeasurable privilege to have traveled the river and seen it's many faces and moods. Growing up with the river as my backyard, I'm sure I, like other people, stopped seeing it. But it keeps traveling the path it has made with no mind to our thoughts. It continues to sustain life in and around it. It continues to accept both man's abuse and recreation, our thoughtless pollution and our care and conservation. It continues.........beautifully.

In the words of John Muir:
One is constantly reminded of the infinite lavishness and fertility of Nature -- inexhaustible abundance amid what seems enormous waste. And yet when we look into any of her operations that lie within reach of our minds, we learn that no particle of her material is wasted or worn out. It is eternally flowing from use to use, beauty to yet higher beauty..........

1 comment:

Willi_H2O said...

Keep the pictures coming, please !
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If you need 4 season inspiration
of the Shiawassee River, look here:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/willi_h2o
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http://shiawassee-river.blogspot.com/

Willi Gutmann
http://bit.ly/detroitkayak