Community Garden - Birdhouses/Feeders

Progress on our community garden projects are going great! We have gathered all materials and finished construction on the birdhouse and our feeders. Kyle and I were about to get some scrap plywood from Lowes for only 27 cents!! This was a great success because we are trying to aviod buying materials and using as many recycled items as possible. :) The plastic bottles we are using for the bird feeders are also recycled. We dug through the bins at Arts West and gathered some extras to use. The wooden spoons for the feeders have been primed and painted with the matching blue pain that is located in the community garden fence.. so everything will match! The birdhouse is primed and will be painted by moi sometime this week. We haven't decided as a group what is going to be on the birdhouse yet, but it will probably be some kind of abstract pattern because we only have 2 different colors. Installation will happen on Sunday and everyone should have their projects up by Monday! Now we just have to wait for the wildlife to come enjoy their re-vamped place!!

Here are a few links to some early ideas I had for feeders/birdhouses:

http://www.freewoodpuzzles.com/birdfeeder.html
http://www.runnerduck.com/hexbirdfeeder.htm (ambitious, but still very cool!)
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/greenacres/wildones/handbk/wo26bird.html (cool because you can choose what type of bird you want to attract)

Sacred object at arts west!

Yesterday (April 13) I brought Jeorge to all my classes with me :) On Mondays and Wednesdays, i'm in arts west all day. I have ceramics in the morning and painting in the afternoon. I didnt get too many weird looks because Jeorge is just a stuffed animal.. i think if my sacred object were a rusty can or like Natalie's big bowl with moss in it, people around me would have been more confused. Some people did ask me why i had him and when i explained it they thought the project was really cool. He basically just sat on the table while i was glazing or painting. He was a perfect little buddy to have with me in class :)

Wasteland

After talking with Samantha, I thought I knew the basic idea of what to expect when I sat down to watch this documentary... But it was so much better than i expected.

Not only was the artwork beautiful, every other aspect of this project was equally as beautiful. The filming, the ideas and intent behind this project, the people who Vic befriended, the whole experience behind this artwork was a beautiful process to watch.

I think i was the ideal audience for viewing this documentary. I am an artist with total appreciation for what Vic has done. But i also had NO IDEA that there are people who live their entire lives being "pickers". I had no idea how HUGE the landfill in Rio De Janeiro was. The video definitely raised awareness within me and the 2 friends who i watched it with.

I thought the resulting pieces of artwork that came out of this project were stunning, but i found myself more interested in the process behind his work and the people who he impacted. I really wish i could do something like this within my lifetime. Vics work is really an inspiration to me and the documentary was very touching to watch. My favorite part was when Vic took Tiaõ to the auction and you got to see the pure joy and shock on his face when he realized how much money his portrait sold for. I would love to be able to affect someones life in that way. I would definitely recommend this movie to others :)

Here are before and after pictures of my favorite portrait: Magna

Pregress Report on Our MAP!

In the past week, we have:
•Walked the entire tree walk using the map pamphlet that was provided to us
•Discovered that the map definitely needs and update. There were trees that had moved and other trees that were mission all together. Some trees had the signs for the tree walk, but they weren't anywhere on the map!
•As we walked, we took note of all these changes and put together a rough draft of the updated tree walk
•We have been researching all of the trees little by little and putting together an information spreadsheet to later post on the internet
•We made final decisions about the layout, shape, key and coloring of our map
•Each group member has a portion that they are working on while doing the group research

Here is a rough draft picture of our idea:

Mapping Project Cont.

Today in class, my mapping group got together and went on the Elon tree walk! We are focusing our map on the tree walk so we wanted to check it out and see how up-to-date and accurate it is. We found that some of the trees had been moved to other locations while others were missing all together. It was also good to see for ourselves so we could pick up on patterns like how many of the trees Elon has and where on campus they are located in terms of student traffic and visibility from the main roads. Our next step is to further research the types of native and non-native trees included in the tree walk.

Japan Research

For my spring break I went on a cruise so it was hard to stay up-to-date with the events going on in Japan. I didn’t have internet access at all, but there were TVs on the ship with somewhat reliable connection. :)

When I got home I was able to do further research online:

MAR. 20

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-20/world/japan.nuclear.food_1_iodine-fukushima-prefecture-spinach?_s=PM:WORLD

A lot of what I tried to notice about this research is how much the information changed over the course of a week. This article is talking about how they are starting to find traces of radioactive material in the water and some foods, but that the amounts aren’t posing any health threats. How much will this change during the week?

MAR. 21

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-21/world/japan.quake.tsunami.funeral_1_young-friends-tsunami-rikuzentakata?_s=PM:WORLD

I almost didn’t post this article because its so sad and I got pretty emotional reading it. I think its really important to think about the individuals who lost their lives due to this natural disaster. Its easy to think about it as one large sum... 10,000 people dead. But who were those people? Each of them was an individual with a family and friends and hobbies and goals. Take a moment to reflect on this crisis. Maybe even put yourself in the shoes of a mother who lost a son, a soccer player who lost a teammate, a sibling who lost a brother. If 10,000 people are dead, think about the number of people who are affected by those deaths...

MAR. 23

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-23/us/colorado.oregon.radiation_1_radioactive-material-amounts-of-radioactive-iodine-radioactive-particles?_s=PM:US

Radiation particles travel 5000 miles to the west coast of the U.S.

MAR. 24

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-24/world/japan.nuclear.reactors_1_nuclear-plant-fuel-pool-fuel-rods/2?_s=PM:WORLD

This is another article that is hard for me to read. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking about these men that are working in the nuclear plant to try and fix this mess. They are basically committing suicide to try and save their country. They are being exposed to high amounts of radiation everyday and risking their own health to better Japan. I kept thinking about their families and if it were my husband or my father that was going in to work at the plant everyday. There is no way I would let them do it. Everyday they leave their houses and their families have no idea if they will be coming home. I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like.

MAR. 26

http://gu.com/p/2nyqb (i tried to post this video directly to the blog, but i couldn't figure out how, so here is the link... its worth checking out.. some of the best... worst? amateur footage I've found of the devastation..

MAR. 27

Linda Weintraub

At first, the packet from Linda Weintraub’s book was a little daunting to pick up and start reading because it was so big! However, once I started reading it, it was quite interesting. I really liked that way she organized her thoughts into smaller sections instead of one huge body of writing. I’m not a huge reader and this made reading the packet a lot more enjoyable and easy to follow.

Brandon Ballengee is one of the artists that Weintraub talks about and I thought his ideas of “love motels” for bugs were so cute! I’m not in the insect group for the community garden project, but I think they should look into Ballengee’s work for some inspiration.

At Linda’s lecture, she talked about many more interesting artists. She started with Spencer Tunick who photographed 600 naked humans on top of glaciers in Switzerland. These glaciers are being radically affected by global warming – hence the humans being naked without freezing to death. I thought this was a very interesting and unique way to convey the message of global warming awareness.

Linda talked about the Austrian Art Collective who created the giant pick bunny rabbit that is made up entirely of biodegradable materials. The group is focusing in decay and how the environment naturally recycles itself. They question the idea of  “appealing” with the cute pink bunny, and “repulsive” with the process of letting it decompose and be eaten by the creatures around it.

My two favorite projects Linda talked about were the “Disembodied Cusine” project and the “Repainted Painted Trees” project. It’s funny to me that these were my favorites because the first was the most in-depth and complicated one she discussed and the second is the simplest project she discussed. The “Disembodied Cusine” project is exploring the idea of creating edible meat without the environmental effects of animal waste. The team of scientists collect muscle cells from animals and literally grow their own steaks! The part that really blew my mind was when she said they are trying to figure out a way to exercise the meat cells so that they become muscular instead of just floppy meat. If this research ever goes into effect, the meat industry is going to drastically change! So many farmers would be out of work and the population of livestock would decrease immensely. Pretty crazy to think about.

The “Repainted Painted Trees” project was done by a woman names Shai Zakai. She lives in an area inhabited heavily by trees. One day, she noticed men from the city walking around her house painting bright orange “X’s” on the trees they wanted to be chopped down. After the men left, Zakai went out and painted over the “X’s” to make it look like regular bark again. Sure enough, the workers didn’t cut down the trees! I loved this project because its so simble and beautiful and anyone could do something like this. It’s a breath of fresh air when people stand up to the government about things like this. Its also a reminder that everyone can leave their mark and help the environment in little ways as well as big ways.