Here's a sampling of photos from a recent Art and Ecology Workshop hosted by the Dublin Arts Council and Ashland College. The RIPPLE EFFECT workshop was coordinated by Carol Argiro of the Arts Council. Dr. Mary Sheridan held a concurrent Summer Teacher Institute with graduate level credit through Ashland College. Artist, Angelica Pozo also participated, adding her magical views of the world through her many public art projects and a hands on clay day.

Days on the river, netting and identifying aquatic life blended with copper and clay art workshops. We also visited Pickerington Elementary, home of the original wetland restored by Mary Sheridan, Ron, and staff and students in 1992. Workshop participants included a high school history teacher, elementary art teachers, middle school sciene teachers, and even an administrator. Many had never looked beneath the surface of the local waters. Most had never torched copper or molded wet clay into new forms. All came away with many new ideas for their classroom.

Like the best school visits, this workshop blended art and ecology. Totally hands on, we spent three days in the water and at least half or more of each day working with metal, clay, and even erasers. The tiny erasers were carved into rubber stamps, then added to the working pool of ideas that have led to the creation of a "Letterbox" that has been placed on the grounds of the Dublin Arts Council.

Our letterbox is known as "Riverbox of the Sun" and is meant to help bring Dublin residents back to the river. Set into the earth near the banks of the Scioto River, the box is a beautifully molded sunburst with a lid of brass and glass. Clues to its location can be found on the Arts Council website, www.dublinarts.org. Angelica Pozo www.angelicapozo.com was also commissioned along with other artists to create additional letterboxes placed in public locations along the river. See www.dublinarts.org/ripple/riverboxes for more about the Riverbox of the Sun. Also ask Ron to send you a copy of the original legend he wrote to include within the River box on the grounds of the Dublin Art Council. Better yet, visit the site to find the story within the box!

Just like kids, teachers were excited to see tadpoles, baby bluegills, and other pond life on Day 1 of the Ripple Effect Workshop

Diving into Moose Marsh, Ron and a willing participant dive into Moose Marsh and its lush growth of water lilies. Moose Marsh was restored by students and teachers at Pickerington Elementary in an early wetland project that has inspired many Whale Watershed projects.

On tiny Indian Run Creek, a tributary to the Scioto River, teachers gather around the net as they catch hundreds of crayfish and freshwater invertebrates. Big catch of the day, a Rainbow Darter. This small but colorful fish helps us identify water quality levels. Darters prefer highly oxygenated water in riffle habitat, so their presence is one indicator of fairly healthy stream conditions.

Out West, we use salmon in much the same way. If a salmon stream is degraded, numbers of fish will be reduced. In Ohio, water quality is the worst in the nation according to recent EPA surveys. If we can restore darter habitat, we can begin to turn this around and bring healthier waters to the Midwest. Pesticide and fertilizer applications are common in Ohio. Perhaps Scioto River Watershed residents can take a tip from salmon stream restoration efforts --- one way to do this is to begin promoting "DARTER FRIENDLY LAWNS" much as they do in the Pacific Northwest, where salmon friendly lawn care is a growing trend.

After visiting ponds and streams, workshop participants molded clay into many natural forms and hammered or torched copper into sunbursts, fish, and flowers. The†result of our collaborative effort, "Riverbox of the Sun" is now installed on the grounds of the Dublin Arts Center. The ceramic sun box has a porthole lid and contains a journal and stamp for letterbox visitors, an original sun myth, and information about the project. Sun rays are stamped with the names of Scioto River Tributaryies, all of which may soon be a part of our ongoing efforts to bring art and ecology to the rivers. Our hope being greater awareness of the Scioto Watershed.

Rubber stamp art is one of Ron's most popular activities during school visits. He often gets lumpy bumpy packages in the mail with requests from entire schools for a carved whale, shark, or Labrador. Here, participants begin to make their own stamps as part of the letterbox project. Stamps were also inked and pressed to paper and the image was attached to sheet copper. Small fish, flowers, and other copper forms were then made from the original stamp.

Some pressed plants into clay.

Some shaped clay into plants or fish or birds. Students of all participants will benefit when their teachers take them out to net in the river, work with clay, and pound copper into shiny objects of art. One thing is for sure, participants in the workshop came away with far less fear of trying new science and art projects. Science can be intimidating if you think of it as physics or chemistry with equations and expensive equipment. But science is natural, it is our way of learning about our world. Dive in and explore.