Beehunter Creek Series - Failing Faster

© Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek, gold field 949, watercolor, 9 x 12 inches. 

Framed $300.  

In my day job, we’ve been working on some big projects lately. Learning new things, new platforms, new ways of thinking about things - at the very same time that these same platforms are ‘updating & upgrading’, which means that just as we learn how to do something, it changes. At one point we launched a project and it just wouldn’t work. It was a bit discouraging, but our team has a great mindset and at our next meeting we spent some time talking about the notion of ‘failing faster’.

This is the idea that the object of the game is to blaze new territory, build skills and go where we have never gone before. We remind ourselves that new stuff is…new. There are no crystal balls, you just have to wade in and figure it out. The more you do that, the faster you figure things out and reach your goal. It takes time, effort, and a tolerance for failure and frustration.

This made me think of Thomas Edison’s approach to his own work. You’ve probably heard of his ‘Ten thousand things’ quote. I found the real story HERE.

‘… in 1910 in a comprehensive two volume biography called “Edison: His Life and Inventions”. The anecdote was told by a long-time associate of Edison’s named Walter S. Mallory. Edison and his researchers had been working on the development of a nickel-iron battery for more than five months when Mallory visited Edison in his laboratory.

‘I found him at a bench about three feet wide and twelve to fifteen feet long, on which there were hundreds of little test cells that had been made up by his corps of chemists and experimenters. He was seated at this bench testing, figuring, and planning. I then learned that he had thus made over nine thousand experiments in trying to devise this new type of storage battery, but had not produced a single thing that promised to solve the question. In view of this immense amount of thought and labor, my sympathy got the better of my judgment, and I said: ‘Isn’t it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done you haven’t been able to get any results?’ Edison turned on me like a flash, and with a smile replied: ‘Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.’’

In 1921 Thomas Edison was interviewed by B. C. Forbes for American Magazine. Edison described an incident that matched the anecdote presented by Mallory although he did not provide a precise dialog [BFTE]:

‘I never allow myself to become discouraged under any circumstances. I recall that after we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed ‘to find out anything.’ I cheerily assured him that we had learned something. For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldn’t be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way. We sometimes learn a lot from our failures if we have put into the effort the best thought and work we are capable of.’

I love that last line.

It’s true for art as well. This is why we work in series - to explore an idea by putting into the effort the best thought and work we are capable of.

Recently, I’ve been working on a series of paintings of Beehunter Creek. [You can see some of the early versions here.] For each study, I have a question: What happens if I use this brush? What happens if I use these colors? What if I reverse that? What if all I do is pay attention to the edges? What if I start this way or that way?…

It means that I end up with stack of things that didn’t work, but slowly, slowly I collect the things that did work and if I keep going, then some day all those things will click into place and a higher and higher percentage of the studies I do will turn out well - precisely because I will already know what doesn’t work and I’ll be able to focus on what does. [The painting above is the 5th study I did of the Beehunter Creek scene. I’ll continue to explore it - larger, brighter, looser, etc.]

I’d love to know the things that you’ve been working on, that you have stuck with until you know the things that won’t work and the things that will. Drop me a line and tell me about it.

Here's another of the studies I did in this series. 

© Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek, 948', watercolor, 16 x 20 inches. 

Framed, $575

Beehunter Creek Series

 ©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek, purple', watercolor, 16 x 20 inches.  $475, unframed.

I'm doing a thing this year where I work from one reference photo and spend the year painting it so at the end of the year I have several versions and can let myself experiment in all the ways. 

The reference photo was taken last March on a cloudy day.  Mostly beige, but I love the lines. It's a good photo to work from.  I want to emphasize here that the point is *not* to copy the photo, but to use it as a jumping off point.  

This means that I'll leave things out, simplify, go crazy with color, experiment, paint different sizes, etc, and if I drift away from the literal, that's ok - great, even!  [In the ref photo, there was a large tree branch coming in from the left.   I left it out completely.]

©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek - 856', watercolor 8 x 10 inches.  $190, unframed.

©Robin Edmundson, 'Beehunter Creek', pencil study, 4 x 6 inches. 

I have a couple more paintings of this scene already in the works and I'll post them as they're done. 

Black Necked Stilt

Beehunter Marsh, Indiana

On Father's Day weekend, we took a little drive out to Goose Pond and Beehunter Marsh to do a little birdwatching. 

It's a real test of a bird sanctuary to see what cool birds are around in the middle of the day in the middle of June on a 90 degree day.  

A real test of the people silly enough to try it, too.  

Our expectations for bird watching were low. 

Beehunter was quiet.  We didn't walk far enough to where we'd seen the bald eagle before, but we did see some geese.

The girls said that geese were boring.    K2 wanted ducks.   You know how she loves her ducks.

Lily was only going to be impressed by something spectacular, like the whooping cranes we saw there a couple of years ago. 

So we got back in the car and drove on to Goose Pond. 

Egrets and great blue heron, Goose Pond, Indiana

Goose Pond is so wet now that it's full of water now, even after all those 90 degree days with no rain.  

That's the power of clay. 

We pulled off Hwy 59, to watch for birds.  

Herons

We saw a lot of egrets and a lot of herons.

A. Lot.  

And we kept seeing a smaller bird flying around that was black with a big white tail.    We were patient and finally saw some wading and close enough to photograph.

Black necked stilt and egret, 6/17/2012, Goose Pond, Indiana

That little black and white bird on the left near the white egret is a black necked stilt.

Black necked stilta are pretty common - on the other side of the Mississippi River.

As in,  woo-hoo!  This is a spectacular bird sighting.   Very rare for Indiana.

In the middle of the day.

In the middle of June.

When it's 90 degrees outside. 

And a stiff breeze is blowing.

We'd never seen anything like it and had forgotten the bird books [of course!], so we had to look it up when we got home that evening.  

Lily figured out what it was and she was, indeed, impressed. 

Black necked stilt, 6/17/2012, Goose Pond, Indiana

So were the rest of us. 

I can definitely recommend Goose Pond NWR as a fabulous birding site, even at the most unlikely times and seasons.    You never know what you're going to see there. 

Egrets and black necked stilt, 6/17/2012, Goose Pond, Indiana

Goose Pond and Beehunter Marsh

Egrets and great blue herons at Goose Pond, Indiana

Not far from us is one of the most amazing wetlands in the midwest.   Goose Pond and Beehunter Marsh sit almost adjacent to each other.  A few years ago they were reclaimed from agricultural use and purchased as a National Wildlife Refuge.   This is what the website says:

The soil in much of the basin has a clay content exceeding 70 percent, which greatly restricts subsurface drainage. The cropland was tiled and drained with lateral surface drains that emptied into an extensive ditch system. The open ditches conveyed runoff waters to pump stations where the water was pumped over the levees into the ditched creeks. Since it is a natural basin with low, level topography and tight subsoil, flooding was a constant agricultural concern that required constant maintenance of the drainage systems. This drainage problem was likely the reason for a large portion of the area changing ownership eleven times in approximately 35 years. Both Federal and State agencies had considered the area for acquisition and restoration at various times since the early 1950s.

Geese at Beehunter Marsh, Indiana

I totally understand the clay thing.   Really.

Clay is a pain.

These wetlands are what is left of the Blackwater Marsh, a glacial era wetland.   It almost disappeared.  This is how much they've restored so far:

Wetland areas:
Beehunter Marsh: 541 acres
Goose Pond Main Pool East: 320 acres
Goose Pond Main Pool West: 1,223 acres
Goose Pond (other units): 1,876 acres 

Total Acreage: 3,960 acres of open shallow water
There have also been more than 400 acres of tree plantings and more than 1,300 acres of native prairie grass plantings so far.

I haven't figured out what these are, but the marshes are covered with them.

 Here is more info on the plantings:

Prairies were restored on approximately 1300 acres of upland soil types and consist primarily of native prairie grasses and forbs (wildflowers). Species include big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, prairie cordgrass, prairie dock, blazing star, and black-eyed susan. These habitats will provide excellent nesting habitat for waterfowl as well as grassland birds. Prairies also provide winter cover and foraging habitat for several grassland species that have shown population declines in recent decades, including short-eared owls, dickcissels, upland sandpipers, sedge wrens, and Henslow's sparrows.

Bottomland hardwood trees (including oaks and hickories) have been restored on approximately 300 acres. Once this forest community matures, it will likely become inhabited by squirrels, turkey, white-tailed deer, and many species of resident and migratory songbirds.

Approximately 75 acres of oak savanna will be restored. The historic data appear to indicate that oak savanna may also have been a component of the uplands surrounding the Beehunter Marsh. Midwestern oak savannas are among the rarest ecosystems in the world, with less than one percent of Indiana's original savanna remaining. Savannas are much like prairie habitats in that fire tolerant species comprise the majority of the vegetation. Unlike prairies, however, savannas, or oak barrens, do have a woody plant component generally represented by bur and/or black oak. The oak trees will be planted sparsely, approximately 27 to 48 trees per acre. Although many species of plants are common to both savannas and prairies, the animal communities will be slightly different due to the structural component the trees add. Prairie warblers, indigo buntings, red-headed woodpeckers, and loggerhead shrikes are just a few of the species which benefit from this type of habitat.

Herons and egret, Goose Pond, Indiana

I found some other really interesting photos, here.

And here is a map of the property.

Egrets and black necked stilt, 6/17/2012,  Goose Pond, Indiana

Rural Recycling

We saw a long row of the most adorable birdhouses I have ever seen in my life on the road that leads to Beehunter Marsh BH8 in Greene County, Indiana. 

They were made out of old barn wood.  You can see how the bottom edge has been rotted some where it met the ground.   So cute. 

There were dozens of these. 

There was one on every fence post down the road.  This is JR. 

Notice the recycled doorknob ears, the keychain earrings, the toothbrush, the mop and brush heads, etc.   

You'll want to go back at look at each one to fully appreciate the details. 

The details made me laugh right out loud.   This is Sally. 

Some were painted, like this one.   Every single one was full of character.  

This is rural recycling at its very finest.