spiralgoose.jpg (19408 bytes)

One of the images sandblasted into the boulders.		 ridemap.gif (60252 bytes)
Where the River Runs East to West...
           Quad Cities
                      Illinois and Iowa

QCArts.gif (8339 bytes)
NATURE SPIRAL

Illiniwek Forest Preserve
Hampton, Illinois
The History of the Project
The Artist The Artist: Kunhild Blacklock
Completed:  1997
Nature Spiral
Home Page		 The Nature Spiral, located in Illiniwek Forest Preserve on the Mississippi River near Hampton, Illinois, was completed in the fall of 1997.
The Nature Spiral was the result of a process begun in 1996  involving community residents in the design and placement of public art on the Mississippi River as part of the RiverWay project.
The People Who Helped The purpose of this project is to interpret the environmental history of the area.
The site plan for the project is below.   There are landscape symbols for the trees:  river birch, cottonwood, and autumn blaze maple.
Directions to the
Site		 wpe06304.gif (219551 bytes)
Site Map
Top of page
More than  50 people helped with the project.  Indigenous wildflowers, plants and trees have been planted amongst the boulders.
The Symbol of the Spiral in Eastern and Western art is mainly associated with fertility and birth.  It is found in burial chambers, probably denoting the journey of the soul into the chamber itself as in the womb of the Mother-Goddess.  The spiral also denotes water as an agent of fertility, and is a common motif on ancient vessles.

nature4.gif (259493 bytes)

spiralmovingboulders.gif (268821 bytes)
42 images of flora, fauna and animals indigenous to the area were sandblasted into the boulders.

wpe34410.gif (16325 bytes)
The Mullein

wpe32434.gif (15828 bytes)
The Walleye


The drawings made by Kunhild Blacklock were inscribed into the rocks.

Rubber matting with the stencil of each drawing was glued onto each rock.  Volunteers cut the matting away from the design, leaving the matting surrounding the shape, which was then sandblasted into the rock.

Finally, the etched shapes were painted to enhance their visibility.

 

spiralfishcarving.gif (113923 bytes)
The Flathead Catfish
nature9.gif (62754 bytes) wpe60883.gif (11626 bytes)Amongst the flora and fauna represented on the rocks are the bald eagle, the bluegill, the mayfly, deer, catalpa leaf, the big bluestem, jack-in-the-pulpit and the waterlilly.
River Action:  www.riveraction.org

 

 Quad City Arts:
www.qconline.com 		,
Top of pagebugsquare.jpg (39496 bytes)     Home           greensquare.jpg (37290 bytes) Contact Uswhitesquare.jpg (30840 bytes) pinksquare.jpg (45067 bytes)

copyright 1999 C. Bolkcom