river ice

Deep in the winter, after the water has lost its summer heat, the surface of the river in Chicago freezes. Sunlight and city lights are reflected from the ice and, when it’s newly washed and wet, the frozen water also reflects the cityscape. It’s magical.

Each year I look forward to this transformation of the Chicago River. It does not freeze often, and doesn’t remain frozen for long - usually just a few days before the water warms by one or two degrees and the ice melts. While it lasts, the floating ice is always in motion and the compositions formed by its broken sheets and irregular polygons are forever changing. The appearance of the textured surface also changes with the light as clouds come and go and, as the day progresses, the color palette varies from fiery-heat to frigid-cold

I began the project River Ice in January 2017. Each year the ice-cover, its appearance and its extent, has been different. The resulting series of images is, for me, a celebration of the phenomenology of winter. It’s a celebration of the natural world reaching into the center of the human world, and of things that are novel because they are forever changing and brief.

The series inspired me to write the poem "Ice Flow" which has been published in the art and literature magazine Praxis.