The author spends time at a beach in Toronto creating ephemeral art using natural materials like stones and pebbles. Over three days, the author makes different designs including a spiral and straight line, but finds them washed away the next day. Though prepared for the temporary nature of beach art, the author is still disappointed to see their creations destroyed. The final day is spent cleaning the beach instead of creating more art.

1. Now you see it…… now you don’t
Time for Nature July 2012
Julie Wood

2. Deciding…..
I live in Toronto’s eastern Beach area, and, like
a lot of things we take for granted, I very
rarely actually take the time to look at the
array of nature that surrounds my home. So I
thought I’d spend my Time for Nature looking
closely at a small part of the beach

3. Many times, the beach looks like this….

4. But if you look, you can find a part that
looks like this

5. Day 1 – choosing my site
It didn’t take long to chose where I wanted to
hang out and create my art work. I spent the
rest of the day watching my fellow beach
visitors – swallows, plovers, cormorants and
Canada geese mainly. I also worked on ideas
for what my piece of art would look like.

6. Day 2 – creating my work of art
I’ve always been fascinated
by spirals. I originally
wanted to use leaves, but
when I got to the site, it was
too windy. So I had to adapt,
and use stones instead. My
first work was a spiral, in
dark grey stones. It took
quite a while to find enough
stones of exactly the same
shade.

7. Ephemeral Art
I like to idea of creating art
that will only last for a few
days (though I was surprised
at how short a time my art did
survive for). If no-one sees a
work of art, is it still art? How
many people saw my art? It
was also important to me that
I only used materials available
close by – nothing was
brought from elsewhere.

8. Day 2 – continued
To counterbalance my spiral,
I then worked on a straight
line – graded red pebbles
that disappear into a hole,
and presumably down to the
lake. The position of the rock
made this one a bit more
difficult – I had to perch on
one corner, and balance
carefully before I leaned
forward to place the next
pebble.

9. Day 3 – reflection
The morning was spent as a
guest of Lenore’s “Time for
Nature” plan, exploring the
Rouge Valley. I then went to
my site, to check up of my
two works of art, and plan
another one. But, to my
consternation, they had both
gone!

10. Day 3 – reflection continued
I don’t really know what happened –
maybe the wind picked up overnight,
and the waves washed them away. Or
maybe an over-enthusiastic dog went
by. But more likely, someone passed by
and brushed my carefully selected and
placed pebbles into the lake.
I’d said lots of brave things about not
caring that my art wouldn’t survive…
but when it happened I was bereft!

11. Day 4 – despondent
I didn’t have the heart to start
again…. so I decided to spend the
day at “my” site, hanging out with
the swallows, and picking up the
garbage that previous visitors had
left, or that had become washed
up on the shoreline. Maybe not
as creative – but it was a “thank
you” to a beautiful part of the
eastern beaches of Toronto