This sign on Interstate 65 can be seen from the Indiana side of the Ohio River just as you come up upon the bridge to cross the Ohio River to reach Louisville, Kentucky and other points south and west. My blog derives it’s name from this sign.
My name is Albertus Gorman and I live in Louisville. I am an artist and art advocate. In addition to making and exhibiting my own artwork, I have an extensive background in the visual arts. I also have a love for the natural world which informs the art I make.
This page has the following sub pages.
- Fishing Floats Collection
- Fishing Lure Collection
- Fake Food Collection
- Wee the People Collection w/Animals
- Reflectors and Tail Lights Collection
- Found Paintings and Signs Collection
- Bottle Images: Liquid Light
- Balls of the Ohio
- Passing Gas(oline) Can Collection
- The Shoes You Lose
- Plastic Bottle Color Spectrum
- Contents Under Pressure
- The Shoes You Lose 2
- Beach Combing
- Squirt Gun Collection
- Kentucky Lucky Ducky Collection
A friend forwarded me your work which is more than fascinating. My earliest years were spent on the Island surrounded with water, called Long. Teen years I lived in the suburban area of south of Pittsburgh, loving to see the three rivers.Then I migrated to the Washington DC and Chesapeake Bay areas and now I live in Central Florida where the waters of the St. John’s River flow north to Jacksonville. Your work is unique, reflecting the destruction and creation of mankind. We are fighting so to save our waters from those hungry to develop for the sake of the green of the dollar not the green of nature’s ecology. From my perspective saving nature is critical to saving humanity. We are one! To disconnect from nature is to disconnect from humanity.
I hope many people see your work. Have you contributed to Orion Magazine? I will follow your work as i come to valuing nature late in life but it is connected deeply with valuing human nature.
Thank you …
Hi Albertus,
Thanks so much for your comment on my blog, it’s always nice to be reminded there really is an audience out there in cyberland. Indeed I was interested to visit your blog – I had a great time viewing your work – we do indeed seem to be comming from the same sort of headspace. I’d love to have a more indepth conversation about it sometime.
cheers
pete
u4316509@anu.edu.au
Hi there! I really like your work! It is lovely and playful and respectful of the natural world. Thanks for sharing!!
-illana
you’ve found beauty. thanks for sharing. i love your concept.
I cannot believe I have only just now discovered your delightful and inspiring blog- just when I am about to take (temporary) leave of the bloggy world! i have really enjoyed your words and work pictures.
I am about to go on an artist residency to Korea… but I am putting a link to you on my own blog, and once in a while I will touch base, post the odd snapshot, and try to keep in touch….:-)
what a unique and inspiring blog you’ve created here, thank you. I discovered blogging just about a year ago and still can’t squeeze in a weekly update…
but love coming across others’ like yours. found it once I came across Sofia’s Dad’s Pots, another inspiring and funny blog.
do keep the images of your work coming as they spoke to me quite strongly.
Sofia’s Dad and I are good friends…eons ago, we graduated from Murray State University’s art department. So far, the blog has been a good way to share my river experiences with a wider audience. Thanks for your kind words… Al
Thank you for your comments on my blog. I really like your work!
Hi Al,
Happy Holiday. I confess I just took a quick look at your site but I wanted to let you know I finally got organized and looked you up.
After having studied non-stop for my Med-Surg Certification and passing the test I returned to school last fall and began working on my BSN. I should have it completed by mid-summer (at which time I’d like to come to KY for the All 70′s Reunion at North Hardin HS). I’m glad I finally got to your website. Schoolwork has kept me really busy, but now that I am on break I am enjoying life’s little pleasures, like the wonderful objects you are creating. Now I’m going to take some more time and look at what you’ve been doing. My love to Patty and the boys.
Mary
Hi Al
I love your blog and your art- can you give me a call?? I would like to talk to you about some upcoming programs and exhibits at the Oldham County History Center.
Thanks
Nancy
I found your blog today… as well as your workshop! In all the years that I’ve escaped out to the falls.. I’ve encountered several of your styrogoblins.. but never as many as I encountered today!
It inspired me to look you up to tell you that I LOVE them! Thank YOU SO much for your project! It’s truly amazing to behold!
and PS: I left you a tiny neon green squirt gun!
Emily, Thanks for your comment and squirt gun! Perhaps I’ll run into you someday at the Falls and we can collaborate on an artwork.
I am the young woman in your last post. I was so happy to meet to, and impressed with what you do. Good luck down there!
Claire, nice to meet you too! Best of luck in Cincinnati… Al
I am inspired and I’m following you for your depth, creativity and love of nature!
Albertus,
Greetings. Your styrofoam people have added delightful mystery to my walks at the Falls. Thank you. I came across your site while searching for a bird checklist for the park. Your photographs are wonderful also.
I recently published a couple of chapbooks and a lot of my writing has been inspired by the atmosphere of the Falls. If you are interested, I would be happy to send them to you as a gift.
Take care,
John
johnpswain@yahoo.com
Happy to have discovered your artblogcasa. Hi.
And Hi back to you! It’s nice to have another friend to share comments with. I’ve enjoyed and agreed with many of your replies on Lynda’s blog.
Same here. Nice to make your acquaintaince!
Mr. Gorman,
Terrific, terrific stuff here.
I visited the Falls for the first time a few weeks ago(down from Cincinnati), though the outer beds and falls were inaccessible that day due to the gates being up. I look forward to exploring the outer area on my next trip down – and thanks to your great site here I’ll make sure to pay attention to the things we are often inclined to step over and pass by.
I’ve got you bookmarked, and look forward to more great photos.
Karl Kauffman
Thanks Karl, I appreciate your comment. I earned my MFA from the University of Cincinnati. One of my graduate school projects was making a sculpture from the Ordovician fossils I was finding all over Cincy. That project pointed to some of the things I’m doing now at the Falls and helped give me perspective on the history of life.
Hey, I know and love this area! I found your blog while checking out good places to explore. I love the juxtaposition of nature, history and industry around there. May I ask how you got to Goose Island?
Oh yeah. Check out my blog, I do a lot or urban exploration in the area.
http://thrillseekingbehavior.wordpress.com/
Just checked out your blog and it’s cool seeing someone else commenting on the local scene! Enjoyed many of your posts. Thanks for introducing yourself.
I think the whole area has a kind of magic aura to it which keeps drawing me to it year after year. I walked over to Goose Island during the heat of summer when the water is at its lowest. You can do this at the eastern tainter gate when its closed.
Wow! Amazing! Would you be interested in doing an interview with me on my blog GreatGreenGoods.com ? We could talk on the phone (via skype) or I could email you a few questions.
This is an amazing project!
thanks,
Liz
greatgreengoods@gmail.com
Thanks Liz…I would be up for a few questions, but I will also say that I was interviewed by Lynda at her EchoStains blog. You might check out that interview in case you would like to ask different questions? Thanks for reaching out with your comment.
Thanks. Not sure i agree with everything but a good blog.
Thanks for commenting. What kind of world would it be if we all agreed upon everything?
(white noise)al gorman…..(glissendo whistling sound)…al….al…gorman…(pop!) hey al! i remember you! what’s it been, 30 years or so? i should get out more.
hope life has treated you well, it has me. Wife of 23 years, three boys, gainful employment (construction tech, mechanical design consultant), morgage, car payment, … you know, all those things we used to disavow, abash and decry.
so you see, i’m a total failure! oh well, such is life!
Great website, love your work!
What a blast from the past! I still fondly recall the Lysergic Sound Daddies and still had a cassette of your songs for what seemed decades. Alas, it’s gone now. Glad to hear you are well and seemingly civilized…it happens to the best of us. Long a go I figured that all the old hippies before us became Republicans anyway. Glad you like the blog. I’m still trying to push the art angle however I can. Thanks for reaching out.
Hello Albertus,
I just ran across your blog by accident recently, and am impressed with your photos , especially those taken around the Falls of the Ohio Park area. Believe it or not, I have been “beachcombing” (if I may be allowed to use that term) the Ohio for years, and have a collection of fishing bobbers, crankbaits and fishing lures, as well as other odds and ends I couldn’t resist saving. I used to wonder how all of the plastic toys, semi-truck taillight reflectors, lightbulbs, rubber and plastic balls, plastic fruit, shoes, and other “out of place” debris ended up in the river. I am now pretty sure I have a simple, definitive answer. I am quite sure that at least 90 percent (or more) of this floating man-made debris does not originate on the Ohio River itself. There are literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of minor “runs”, rivulets, creeks, drainage ditches, mid-size streams as well as smaller and larger rivers that drain into the Ohio River…from a huge area that covers most of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio, Western PA, parts of NY, etc. I have read or heard that in many of the higher elevations of the Appalachians, especially throughout parts of southeastern KY and WV, there are numerous creeks that (unfortunately) serve as unofficial dumping areas for some of the residents in those areas. Several years ago it occurred to me to start actively looking for any empty plastic prescription bottles that still happened to have the label intact and legible, in case I could get an idea where some were actually coming from. Lo and behold, the majority of those bottles I found hailed from SE KY and WV… including some tiny towns that were found on the map only after close scrutiny.
So, basically alot of what we are seeing is a vast cross-section of all man-made artifacts floatable, being “screened out” of these creekbank and riverbank trashpiles by the power of moving water. I have read previous comments left by others, wondering about what might have happened to the previous owners of some of the shoes, toys, etc. I’m afraid the sad unpleasant fact is that they were merely discarded along with other assorted household objects that all have one thing in common: They float instead of sink.
I hope these comments won’t be taken in a “bad way”. I have a fascination with the Ohio RIver, and the movement of water in general. I have found several notes in bottles over the years, mostly found around the Falls of the Ohio “driftwood gyre” just east of the Interpretive Center after a high rise and fall, and have also myself written notes and sent a number on their way downstream (usually using previously found bottles, as you did). Have a great day, and keep up this wonderful blog!! David W.
My email is davidrussell59 “at” att.net .
Thanks David, Your comments are deeply appreciated and it’s good to know a fellow “beachcomber” although I’m not sure that name quite describes us? Looking at the labels of prescription bottles is brilliant and I will endeavor to do so with the stuff I come across. I have found artifacts from towns north of Pittsburgh before the Ohio River officially comes together and from towns all along the way. I have never found a note in a bottle which I find kind of amazing, but after this most recent flood…maybe I’ll get lucky. My bobber and lure collection is ever expanding and I’m flabbergasted by all the fake fruits and veggies I’ve found over the years. Thanks for reaching out!
I really enjoy your blog Al, the combination of art, the littered environment and beauty of nature is brilliant.
Thanks Lynn for your kind comment.
Fantastic. Glad to have found your blog and look forward to more posts.
Thanks for checking the riverblog out!
I love your blog and have nominated it for a Kreativ Blogger Award.
Please visit me at http://www.trixiestales.com to “collect”
Really excellent. Fun, aesthetic & thought provoking. I think your work would also make a brilliant book to get kids engaged in a bit of environmental & creative awareness. Obviously adults too – it’s just that education needs to incorporate these sorts of things into its structure. It’s horrific the amount of plastic that floats about in our seas & rivers these days. Do you ever take your sculpture out of its environment? I can start to imagine some of your characters escaping on a mission & climbing up the walls of …
Sonya…thanks for checking out my riverblog! I’ve heard from other readers that they think my project would make a good book. I suppose I always assumed that life might go in that direction, but I have been having so much fun just doing the research part of it that I’ve gone no further than what you have seen. I like the idea of having a character “leave” the environment I have been interpreting and investigating a wider world.
Creative , functional, aesthetically pleasing…I like how you see possibilities & opportunities where see refuse. Keep the flame burning:)
Much appreciated Tom!
Now that is a blog worth following. Love your figures. I thought I never will say that, but: “Thank you for visiting my blog”
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I have a copy of the Lysergic Sound Daddies recordings as mentioned above. They were a great band, although I was too young to see them when they were around, luckily I am able to enjoy them via recordings.
I saw the band play maybe three or four times. Some of the members were friends of friends who were involved with Murray State’s art department. The radio station at M.S.U. was very influential and one show (Beyond the Edge: Forward Music for Modern People” did a lot to educate us (back in the early to mid 1980′s) on the best new music of the time. I think the LSD band was also attracted to this scene which was more involved than anything happening in Paducah, the band’s hometown. Thanks for reaching out!
I’m currently attempting to do a documentary on the 80-85 music scene in paducah. Any info, or contacts would be awesome. I’ve been attempting to reach the gentleman named Tim that commented here. Anyway, heres my email address paducahpromo@gmail.com, I have some of their stuff posted on youtube as well as The Drunk Drivers also a Paducah band from the early 80s.
-Ronnie
Hi Ronnie, It’s been a few years, unfortunately the people who I think could help you I can’t get a hold of them. Many of them were band members from various groups that played in the area. Have you ever heard of Bruce Spears and the Pierced Ears? Their best song was entitled “The police are running Paducah” and they may have recorded that one. Other group names I remember are The Drooling Idiots and the Dead Cats. If I turn anything up for you I will send it to your email address.
Hi Albertus
Your blog is one of my favourites and I’ve nominate you for a One Lovely Blog Award.
http://annerosegeorgeson.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/thank-you-jules/
I’m not sure if you do the award thing but just know that I love your blog.
All the best
Thanks Annerose…being one of your favorites is award enough for me, but thanks for the nomination! I appreciate you following along with me on my adventures to the Falls of the Ohio.
You’re welcome and thanks for the adventures!
Thanks for the response! i posted some videos on YouTube of the Lysergic Sound Daddies, well actually just their songs and pictures of the band. I’ve talked to 3 of the band members so far. one unfortunately passed away. Thanks again!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8YpHSt3_A heres a link to a LSD song
I had the opportunity to go on a guided tour of an art exhibit by Steve Gerberich at a science center several days ago. His kinetic sculptures utilizing everyday objects remind me of your work. You can check it out here:
http://www.scienceworld.ca/creativityinmotion
Thanks Isaac..I appreciate you thinking of me and I will check out the link… Al
Hey Al,
pleasure to meet you. :0) My name’s Birgitta and I live in Jeffersonville. I’m an artist too (photographer, mostly/Fine Art) and I have had a love affair going on with “Falls of the Ohio” for more than 30 years. (It’s in quotes because I was down there back in the day when the bait shop was still there in the 70′s and sold Zero bars and cokes- all for under a buck. I grew up down there, barefooted, sleeping down there for days with my fisherman Dad and 2 brothers. If we caught fish- we ate. If we didn’t- we didn’t.) I literally grew up down there at “Fossil Rock”. (I used quotes because I named the place 30 + years ago.) [wink] It’s like my second skin, being down there- I know it very well. And, I still go barefooted there, although I’m 43 now.
I’m just now seeing your blog and I’ve seen “log men” for years down there- so you’re their creator! Again, it’s an honour to meet you. :0) I’ve taken pics of your little creations for several years now. I’m sorry to learn that people have turned “Hobo Hut” into a party shack. My friend, Josh,told me they brought grafitti in- sigh. I would love to meet other artists from around here sometime; most of my (art) friends are in Australia and across the pond.
Anyway, maybe someday we can meet. I just picked up a new Lensbaby lens (amaaazing) and will be taking some pics of the Hobo Hut in just a bit. I’ve never been there yet and have been wanting to grab a few shots in case it’s not around later.
My blog is here if you’d like to check it out: http://monochromejunkie.com/
It’s great to meet another artist in the area!
Take care,
Birgitta
Nice to meet you Birgitta! It’s cool to hear from other folks that have a history with the Falls and are artists too! This place has been inspiring people for a long time and I hope it always will. I will definitely check out your blog. Thanks for reaching out.