Actually growing up in a remote rural setting with plants and animals as friends was the greatest of teachers. Our household was always filled with academic guests, biologists, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, other archeologists and not to mention a few people who had contact with aliens and U.F.O's. All sorts of personalities had seeked out my father for questions, answers and inspiration...and my little mind was absorbing...I almost felt like a child sitting with Socrates and his circle of peers.
Our property was along the Snye River and there was an Island on the other-side which is called Walpole Island first Nation(Unceeded Territory). I have spent so much of my youth exploring the shores and when I was old enough to be on my own at the river, thats when I got a scuba mask and explored the life of beauty that was underneath her aqua blue ripples.
I would watch the First Nations families across from our dock come home from muskrat hunting trips and during the fall migration I would see them drive their outboard motor boat past our dock and hold a wonderful stringer of mallards and geese.
In return I put down my fishing pole and pulled from the icy blue Snye river, my catch of yellow bellied perch and gold and white pickerel. Oh how I loved living my days along the Snye River as a child of nature.
Below is a visual synopsis of life as a child of nature.
Playing outside with a horse skull.
A day outside with my dads archeological pith helmut and plastic fishing pole....Ahhh no concept of school!
I can remember this day, it was the first time I caught a fish on my own.
I got a shoe lace and a bobby pin and tied it to a willow branch.
When I placed the worm on the bobby pin I quietly dropped it under the dock and watched a large mouth bass come creeping along out of the shadows. With one gulp he inhaled my homemade contraption. I was yelling at mom and dad that I had a big one....but they didn't believe me..until the water was splashing under the dock. I impressed my folks that day with a shoe lace fishing outfit.
I am so so proud I was brought up in a backwoods bohemian family lifestyle.
This is my first leopard frog that I caught on my own. I brought it home as a present for my father.
AHHHHH....being naked outside with the plants and animals on a hot July day...god did I love chasing dragonflies with my butterfly net in the nude.
This is a Mastodon molar, a tooth from a prehistoric elephant from the ice age. A farmer called my dad out to his farm in Dresden Ontario to show us a pile of bones his plow had unearthed. We found part of its massive skull and a few leg bones along with some very large teeth. The farmer told us he probably threw the tusks into the nearby creek the previous year after my dad told him what it was buried in his corn field.
This is Professor Edward Leonard Kroon and we are going on a Archeological expedition.
On this expedition a bundle burial was discovered. Here is a First nations individual who was buried with all hunting utensils. Arrow heads of bone were discovered which would later be identified as the bones from the tail of a very large Sturgeon.
There was also glass beads with the interred suggesting contact with european trade goods. I remember my father was a very thoughtful scientist and had the bundle burial reburied with offerings of tobacco,corn,beans and squash. Also he placed a bronze plaque with the University of Windsor's crest on it...inscribed it read..."Thankyou for your contribution to knowledge''.
The summer of that expedition, the team recovered one of the largest First Nations pottery vessels ever recovered in the great lakes basin. Its approx. height was 3.5' high and it merely collapsed in situ.The vessel had burnt bird bone for tempering and
magnetite for grog. Of important note was the fact it had beautiful carrying handles. I remember helping my father piece together this magnificent piece of pottery. As to its where about, the last I heard my father mention of it was after a Government agency raided his laboratory and confiscated it...maybe its in the Royal Ontario Museum?...it was his wish that it be turned over to Walpole Island Heritage Center to show the young people of the wondrous craftsmanship their elders had in their every day life. The vessel was assumed to be a winter storage vessel for seeds and its purpose was to be filled with agriculture seeds and buried underground for the following season when the hunter gather group returned to this site. No one returned and the vessel lay hidden like a time capsule.
Here we are on another Archeological expedition in Amherstburg, Ontario. My job for the summer was to clear the brush and stake off the area where midden pits were presumed, thats why the trusty sword and buck knife. It was a limestone and log foundation with a stone barn out back. It has been proven that Tecumseh Chief slept in this barn en-route for battle in the war of 1812. This was the homestead of Colonel Mathew Elliot(1739-1814). This site was where the house of Colonel Mathew Elliot was erected in 1784. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the American Colonies in 1761, and during the revolution served with the British forces as a captain in the Indian Department. He was an indian agent for the western tribes 1790-1795 and deputy superintendent of the Indian Department 1795-1798. Elliot represented Essex in the legislative assembly 1801-1812. As Colonel of the 1st Essex Militia he took part in the capture of Detroit, August 16, 1812, and the battles of Fort Meigs, Morraviantown, and Black Rock.
This is my little brother and myself after fishing together on the Snye River.
As I grew more connected to the land,I started to catch grasshoppers,crickets and caterpillars for bait. My fishing and trapping skills began to become a second language, using the resources around me. By this time my father showed me how to skin and render meat for the table. Cooking fresh fish along the Snye River was a common past time for me. I returned the unneeded parts back to the snapping turtles and crayfish.
Here is a fish story I must share. This is a fare sized Northern Pike from the Snye river. I was fishing for perch at the end of the drop off from my canoe. There was a stringer of perch dangling off the back of the boat. I was sketching in my artist pad while waiting for a bite. The day was quiet and calm on the river. Noticing the fish stringer tug a little, I quietly peered over the side. Well low and behold there was this Northern Pike eating my perch off the stringer. My dad had always said that you could rub the belly of a pike when he is gorging himself on a stringer of perch. Balancing quietly, it was time to test his theory. With a little patience I began to slip my hands beneath the surface and reach for my prey. Fingers ever so gently caressing his sides, I began to maneuver underneath him. It was working and I could look into his golden eyeballs and see those beautiful yellow spots and orange tipped fins. Then with the reflex of a hawk I grabbed him under the gills. Wow...the thrill of catching a Northern Pike with your bare hands.
PIKE FAMILY-ESOCIDAE
The pikes belong to the Holarctic zoo-geographical realm: that is, they are circumpolar in their distribution in the fresh-waters of Europe, Asia and North America. Distinctive characteristics of the family are the elongated head and the long depressed jaws which are armed with sharp, strong canine teeth. The jaws are shaped like a duck's bill when viewed from above. All the members of the family are predaceous.
In Europe a single species ESOX LUCIUS occurs, and in Asia two species, E.LUCIUS and E.REICHERTI. In Europe E. LUCIUS is called the pike, and this is the name by which it should be known. In North America at least four species occur,-the pike and maskinonge which reach a large size and two species which do not grow to a length of more than 12-15 inches. These are properly called pickeral, a name which means small pike. The popular name of one of these is grass pickeral. The use of this name for a small northern pike should be avoided,since it leads to confusion of it with the pickeral which never reaches a large size.
My little brother and I would sometimes use fish heads for bait to catch the ever elusive DOGFISH.
A portrait of me the first time I caught a snapping turtle with a fishing pole.
My father once caught a snapper and held it up to show his friends and its ability to have a longer neck than is visible was apparently proven. As he was holding it up it lunged its head sideways and bit my dad on the left chest area between his nipple and armpit. It was a serious bit for they had to drive him to the hospital with a snapping turtle locked onto his tit.
The doctors had to cut the head off the turtle and surgically remove the lower jaw from the snapper. I let this big guy go and was forever impressed with the ancientness of one of the greatest and most silent of marsh hunters. I respect the turtle.
Summers on the Snye River was they best teacher. My brother and I would have our own fishing derbies. Sometimes we would get our scuba masks and swim in the shallows and hunt for large crayfish and at times I would swim up to my little brother and stuff a crayfish into his speedos. At times we would swim out to the weed bed and get large gobbs of seaweed and place it on our heads and smear our face with mudd,then wait under the dock for a boat to be going by. When the moment was right, together we would swim out towards the boat with our mermaid seaweed hair and scare the crap out of the boaters. Then laughing about their expressions we went back to the ritual of fishing and dreaming of what kind of future was in store for our dreams.
This is a fox snake I brought home on my bike. It was laying on the pavement basking in the warmth. I regularly brought snakes home to our 11 acre ecosystem as so they were not run over by cars or large farm machinery. Their colour patterns were of the utmost colour combination, canary yellow to black checkered pattern. The Snakes in the Snye river Delta system are quit large and I have discovered them eating wild duck eggs whole. The fox snake also can mimic a rattle snake by touching the tip of its tail to a dried leaf. It vibrates the very tip up against the leaf providing a very good rattle snake sound.
Thats why so many of these wondrous creatures are killed in vain by an uneducated public. At times I have discovered them up on tree limbs raiding robin's nests. Yes snakes do climb trees.
Here is a hawk I found wounded along the Snye River. There were trespassers that day and I went to ask them to leave and discovered a pellet gun box in the grass that they had tossed away. Once I escorted them to the road I went back and discovered a dead robin on the path and further along the way a shot up bullfrog. I was disgusted with the mentality of these individuals. Buying a gun, throwing the trash around and shooting for target practice anything that was alive. I placed the deceased under a willow tree and said a animal spirit prayer to release their energies. On the hike back home I found a hawk in the dogwood bushes. Throwing my jacket over it and gently getting a hold of its feet and wings, I brought it home to the studio. After a examination, it was discovered to have been shot in the wing and one bone was broken. My dad helped me set the wing and we together build a large makeshift cage with a tree limb. The pellet was removed with tweezers and with peroxide and gauze and a little tape the hawk was set to heal. I learned that the hawk doesn't drink water from a bowl, but one must use a spray bottle and mist their beak area. They let the water droplets drip off the hook on their beak and the mist droplets naturally fall into the opening of the lower jaw, hawks drink from the altitude mist. So for 5 months I caught live mice for the predator. Over time I was the only one which could handle the hawk and feed raw liver and chicken giblets to this magnificent creature. Its eyes were ever so powerful and we both had a mutual understanding...I will help you heal....you eat and drink for me...and I will set you free. Then one day I placed him in a tree by the studio and he stuck around for a week jumping from limb to limb and practicing his wing magic. He flew away and glided so gracefully over our 11 acre forest and actually became part of our ecosystem along the Snye. Its a wonderful feeling to walk along the creek and see my feathered friend above in the trees.
Wow...over the years I have lost count of how many fox snakes I saved from the warm pavement of the highways. If they are on my path of travel I bring them home to "BITTERSWEET HOLLOW"...thats what our 11 acre ecosystem is called.
Any homeless baby animal that crossed our path was taken care of. My art studio was nursery in the spring and first part of summer. It was also great to make art surrounded by mother earths creatures, they offer so much inspiration. I truly understand Albrecht Durer and Leonardo's animal studies.
Here is my first major artists studio under the willows back by running creek. The building once was a horse stable, but it served me very well housing my 18th century printing press and canvases. It soon became the Cabinet of Curiosity with skulls, bones and feathers for material and inspiration. Here I began to explore making plaster moulds of animals I had found dead along the highway. It was in this little outback studio my inspirations soon began to flourish. Surrounded by plants and animals I understood the realm of Albrecht Durer and Leonardo, for these artists were amongst the greatest of teachers....Mother Nature.....and best of all I had a bonfire pit right next to the studio.
There is a place I always visit for raw materials to inspire me to create art. Its an area where people clean up all the dead fish from spring thaw and pile in one place. Here is where I can reflect on nature and explore the use of found objects. The camera has been a major source of documentation and record keeping for times when I need inspiration. This is a great lakes fish called a SHEEP-HEAD.
This is a self portrait with a plaster mould of a roadkill fox-snake. The moulds are used to press clay into or to make paper casts. Making moulds of animals is a wonderful medium. I learned to make moulds of objects from my father who would make moulds of Archeological discoveries. His philosophy was to leave the dig site with moulds and to return the burial goods back into the earth. A practice that did not fit well with Government individuals that my father had to answer to over the years.
Once I have finished making a plaster mould of the animals I will skin and tan them. Once they are tanned they are ready to be inked with oil based inks. My years of experimentation with printing embossed prints of flora and fauna has lead to an amazing discovery. The ability to tan bird hide with feathers still attached. The embossed printing process reveals a unique print on paper which in essence is a fossil on paper. All my embossed prints are based on the aspect of conservation. My art work is a direct use of all 4 elements. EARTH< style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_yO0Jn6hSy4I/RhGCgYGyyHI/AAAAAAAAAH0/v69iEi8zTwU/s320/DSCF1043.JPG" alt="" border="0">
Here I have a early example of a successful embossed print. This is one of the larger prints from my portfolio for I have a large printing press bed. There is a embossed fox snake skin and a embossed wood duck skin, this was the year I perfected skinning the bird specimen from beak to toe nail. Its a successful year, for now I can create embossed prints of bird species in their entirety, instead of just bits and pieces of the animal.Later on in the blog you will see more prints up close.
Over my long career as a visual artist living in the outback of Wallaceburg, I realized that public dumps are a great resource for found objects. My work is based on recycling and conservation, so finding free wood for canvas stretchers and found objects for sculpture began to grow. The output of art started to become volumes. The adventure of exploring is a major component for inspiration. In a way I am a neo hunter and gatherer with a mind set of Albrecht Durer and Leonardo.
This is a self portrait kayaking the Snye River, the Walpole Island bridge is in the back ground. A camera, a Kayak and the river..AHHHH the freedom to be inspired in the wonderful marsh ecosystems is invigorating. A kayak allows me to explore the shallowest of areas hardly seen by other boat travelers. In the marsh with a thermos of coffee and my artist journal is the beginning of hunting for a theme to create. On this particular day I was kayaking amongst the ice flows. During the spring, one can see about 7-8 feet down to the bottom with crystal clear clarity. Sometimes the schools of shiner minnows below my boat are in the hundreds and their silvery schools is so reassuring, that the local game fish will be well fed this season.
This was the summer I dug out my underwater camera and was going to create still life's under water and photograph them.
The Snye River has such a crystal clear blue water, no paint in a tube can match her brilliance on a sunny day. This is a underwater self portrait, free diving with scuba knife. Yes its that clear as so you can open your eyes and see the wondrous seaweed scapes and schools of baby perch and shiner minnows.
There is another river which runs into the Snye River and its the Sydenham River. I love exploring this river system for the terrain and coast line are completely different from the Snye River. This is a photo of myself and a life long family friend William Sauve. William just got done doing his tour of duty in Iraq. This particular day we were exploring the river bottom and found some moose bones, a few arrow heads and a large assortment of fresh water clams. Also of importance we found a early blacksmithed fishing spear. Across to the other side is a otter den. In the front entrance of the otter den we found its clam pile. They are eating local clam species and are the most beautiful swimmers. This particular river is the very river TECUMSEH CHIEF travelled by in canoe. I also fish with a dip net in this river and have caught and studied a clear see through fresh water shrimp.
This is one of my favorite still life pieces for inspiration. Its a moose skull. I was placing it underwater, then with a underwater camera take still life shots with the underwater sunbeams covering its surface. Its an example of exploring subject matter for making art. It was visually interesting to see minnows and gobies exploring the skull as it sat on the sandy bottom. The moose skull was a subject matter with inherent images of woodland, but when it is underwater amongst seaweed it conjures different images.
Swimming in the Snye and studying the animals that dwell in her liquid realm have enabled me to become a naturalist with my art. The animals also have become teachers allowing me to use their images in drawing,painting, and photography. I am also honored to use their skins for printing.
Where ever I travel I seek out found objects for the art making process. While on vacation visiting my parents in Florida, I couldn't help but get some grouper heads for making prints with. Sea fish skin seems to be more textured for the embossed printing process. No pun intended but this is titled "GROUPr PORTRAIT".
There was a large deer cull at one of our provincial parks because the deer were killing the trees. This is a visual example of utilizing the hunters discard to somehow make a artistic or spiritual connection at seeing such a huge amount of deer culled from one area. There was for me a artistic response to somehow utilize every piece of this beautiful intelligent creature as so their spirits were not forgotten.
As a conservationist I also balanced my responsibility with harvesting wild meat on a few special occasions. When I did go hunting it was a spiritual act from my masculine energies. To partake in the age old inner drive to participate in the HUNT.
To say my prayers before and after a hunt is a code of honour.Its a connection to earth energies and the primal self.
My lessons from nature are brought with me when I teach art or lecture on art.
This is one of the largest embossed prints to date. It is a Quadratic of a printed canada goose skin.Its called "HOMAGE TO THE SPIRIT OF THE CANADA GOOSE"
Here is one of the largest embossed fish prints from my portfolio. This is a mighty old river carp with seagull feathers.
Preparing to tan a section of moose hide as so to experiment with embossed printing.
The animals that inspired me so much soon found their motif as frames to house my prints.
My artist journals that house ideas,poems,articles,sketches and dreams are the nucleus to my inspirations. To date there are 29 books of my personal codex.
During the summer I collect roadkill butterflies and dragonflies for my printing and painting. They are the most beautiful of the found objects.
Some animals I don't use for art making! This red tailed hawk I saw from my car as he landed on a hydro wire. He lost his balance coming in for a landing and his other foot reached towards the other wire and he was electrocuted. My heart went out to this mighty bird, so I drove back and retrieved his body and buried him by our pond. I took this self portrait to create a painting honoring the spirit of the red tail hawk.
Using raw stones in the outdoors as sculpture material has been talking to me.I am greatly influenced by Andy Goldsworthy's works of art.
By far the greatest muse is being near water and woodlands. I consider myself to be a REGIONALIST ARTIST. I exist and dwell within the Great Lakes and my artistic creations are born from my experiences here on earth. My inner drive is to document and preserve through visual art, during the most explosive time in human history. WE AS A HUMAN RACE ARE ON A HUGE CUSP OF CHANGE...........THE SILENCE IS WAITING FOR YOU TO LISTEN.
THANKYOU FOR SUPPORTING THE ARTS!!!!!!!!!!!! JON-ERIK KROON
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