The inflow to Clark Lake in the southeast corner of the Park has recently been enhanced in an effort to revitalize its flow, slowing it, cooling it, and re-meandering it to become less ditch and more stream enhancing the general health of its biology. While taking part in this process I became interested in the word “stream.”  According to most dictionaries, a stream is a body of running water flowing on the earth.  A stream is also a continuous succession of words or time or a continuous series of events or influences. A stream is an outflow or influx of something, it is things moving, or the prevailing direction or opinion.

All of these definitions relate to the desire for the Clark Lake inflow to be revitalized as an active stream with healthy biology moving through space, time, and the lives of those who inhabit the park. The word “line” also piqued my interest as we re-drew the stream through the park. These are simple words but I have found the dictionary often elaborates on even the simplest concepts giving them a deeper meaning. A line I discovered is a long mark made with a pen, a pencil or tool of some type. A line is also an indication of demarcation and an outline or contour and a wrinkle or furrow. Putting these two words together seemed to be exactly what was accomplished with the rebuilding of the inflow a long mark contouring the earth and made with flowing water.

This thinking inspired my new work. Stream Line is a sandblasted line that reiterates the re-meandering of the stream, curving through the creek bed, appearing, disappearing, providing opportunity to seek and discover a way up or down stream similar to the way fish might find their way up a stream to spawn or a the way a child hops from rock to rock.