Ice Surprise

While up in the mountains, I decided to walk up the stream that was feeding the lake. I started seeing a strange sight... all over the brown-leaved forest floor were large chunks of ice. I kept following the trail of ice chunks till I came to a place where the forest met the cliff face rising up... then I understood. I was standing on a battlefield of sorts... a massive ice avalanche must have occurred here somewhat recently... and this was the debris from an enormous wall of ice that could no longer cling to the cliffs in the warming temperatures of spring.





I also noticed a lot of ferns were starting to green up after being covered over by deep snow for the past 5 months. We have a variety of fern here that manages to keep green even under all that cold and dark... so, I decided to celebrate the coming of spring with these two elements. Never before have I worked with green and ice in the same piece. Until now, I had never seen it as a possibility.

Here is what got created in this surprising landscape. Despite the signs of such terrible destruction and violence caused by the falling ice, new life will rise again. This seemed a very fitting end of the winter of 09.

Enjoy !