I was told of a group sculpture exhibition at Sander's Farm in Garrison, New York.  It has been going on for a number of years by a group of artist [collaborative concepts] from Beacon, New York that is about 60 miles north of New York City up the Hudson River Valley.  This is an active farm with many cows in the fields.  And the cows do eat or break the art.  Some of the works presented early for the newspaper were very much plop down art and fabricated. My work had to be of nature and I wanted to make something with an isolated tree -- a sort of dress -- LADY OAK.  The materials had to be long stemmed weeds gathered from nearby.  The tree and the branches told me where the lines should come out from but I knew to end the lines in a pretty even way around the tree.  Many times I climbed the ladder to tie up the lines and to measure them out.  It took two weeks of working, gathering and bundling them and putting the lines in place.  Then for me the ground has to be in control too and I cut the grass well making the interior an integral space.  This tree was at the far top field quite alone.  

the work is dependent upon the tree. But I present here a photo of mostly only the work. I finished it the day before the show opened on September 2, 2011.  It is made out of many kinds of weeds, lots of mugwort and then everything that I could find and I bundled it with jute.  It is about 28 feet in diameter.  When I returned a few weeks later the weeds were dark and not golden as I expected.  the grass grew even and very green under the tree, and still had a controlled impression.

I was asked to make a work here on the land near Warwick, New York.  This is the countryside of an almost mountain area.  There is a beautiful glen that the stream goes down and a flat area with four trees, one is about in the middle.  I gathered the very invasive Buck Thorn and used it with wire to make the lines of the oval and the supports that were attached to the tree with nylon rope.  A few days after this work was made a hurricane came and the stream became a torrent but nothing happened to my art.  I was thinking on how to support the oval with only the necessary lines.  I know that over lapping distributes the points and support.  Therefore like the work that I make in the water I wanted the oval to be perfectly level too.  BLACK MEADOW OVAL was completed Monday August 22, 2011 in the afternoon.  The size of the oval is about 20 by 14 feet and as high as the top of my head high.  

Good art-in-nature blends into the nature and can be difficult to photograph as this piece is.  

 Roy F. Staab

It took ten years for my art to evolve from painting, to line structure on paper, to installation.  In 1983 started to make works in/over water -- large works, using only natural materials that I gathered near by.    I would go to natural sites and make art for me, photograph it and tell people about it.  In the beginning it was North Carolina, Brooklyn or Long Island. Then I became really a peripatetic artist making my art installations in many places in the world.  I like the idea of working with nature and with the idea of ephemeral, nothing to hold on to but the visual experience; Art that is and transcends the object.
I gather the materials. I choose a site. I get an idea. I make it and then photograph it.
I learn as I work. I explore form, shape, plane, proportion and natural science.
I observe the earth, the light, the water, the tides, the wind and space.

Email. roystaab@yahoo.com / roystaab@blogspot.com