Ephemeral Nature Art Project (Video)

The Ephemeral Nature Art Project is designed in the spirit of mandalas, balanced rocks, and Tibetan sand paintings; being ephemeral and using materials at hand.

Think of this activity as a sort of treasure hunt in which you’ll search for, collect, and arrange ‘nature treasures’ into an ephemeral art design. Envision an end product that will resemble a nature mandala, though it doesn’t have to exhibit a radial pattern.

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For this project, imagine yourself as an Australian bowerbird, who collects colorful things to arrange into a pleasing design to help attract a potential mate. 


Suggested Supplies

 

1)    Nature Ephemera

 

Materials for this project are very open-ended and will completely depend upon what’s available where you live and the access you have to local nature areas. The sky’s the limit but could include such things as leaves, flowers, cones, seeds, acorns, seashells, feathers, small bones, rocks, minerals, moss, lichen, driftwood, etc.

 

Alternatively, if you can’t get outdoors to collect, you could use ‘nature treasures’ that you may have gathered from previous outings or vacations. See my blog post on ‘cabinets of curiosities’ for more ideas of items to use for this project.

 

Keep in mind that you’ll probably need more than one of each item in order to create your Ephemeral Nature design.

 

2)    Art and Documentation Supplies

 

You may want a camera to take a photo of your design, since, by definition, it is supposed to be ephemeral. Alternately, if you create your design out of small and durable items, you might be able to preserve it by gluing the items to a mounting board.

 

A Caveat

 

Here’s a caveat to consider when collecting items for this project. Please be aware of any rules regarding where you can collect and what is legal to collect. For example, feathers of many bird species are illegal to possess, and some rare plants and wildflowers are protected as well.

Also be mindful of avoiding things that might be poisonous, venomous, or simply irritating to the skin if you touch them (like poison oak and poison ivy). 


Good luck and have fun!

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Ephemeral Nature Art Project Guide by Christine Elder.pdf
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