Jody Hildreth loves to be outside, especially when it comes to powering up mountains and hills.
The Waterville resident, whose day job is as librarian of Sauquoit Valley Elementary School, missed those opportunities to travel during the pandemic.
Hildreth turned to videos on YouTube, which led him to discover some creative nature art.
“People make characters out of pinecones, branches, nuts, rocks, whatever they see that inspires them,’’ Hildreth said. “I was particularly taken with artist David Bird of Rhode Island, who uses acorns to create elves in scenarios with birds.’’
Much of his traveling and being outside helped Hildreth add to his life list of birds he’s seen, but again, Covid restrictions kept him close to home. Bored one day, he began crafting a person using an acorn as the body.
So was born Acorn Man, whose adventures have been captured in books published last year, and will be told in four more coming out this year. “Once I found the acorns, the ideas just came to me,’’ Hildreth said. “The best part is I’m having a ball doing this.’’
Creating Acorn Man (and later on Acorn Girl) pulls together another one of Hildreth’s passions, that of photography. He’ll spend hours creating the scenario and then capture it in a photo he shares on his Facebook page and other spots. To find them, search for Acorn Whimsy.
What propels the creations to capture people’s attention is the details in the work of each scenario. Hildreth plots it out…