I spent Earth Day carving woodblocks and watching Beauty is Embarrassing, a documentary about artist Wayne White. Mr. White was one of the artistic forces who created PeeWee's Funhouse. I connected with this artist immediately. He uses whatever is around him to make art. He had a trash pile in his studio, so do I! After I finished the 3D Wetland my husband would not leave my studio until I gave him an armload of trash, which he disposed of immediately. I got the usual arguments of, look how much space it takes up, fire hazard and REALLY, you need ALL that! Pictured above is what I have left. I'm in good shape, lots of art materials left.
Back to Earth Day. A local chemical company usually sponsor's an Earth Day community event in town. This year the company skipped the community event, instead they sponsored programs for the elementary school.
Although I missed the community event, I feel it was a good decision to focus the Earth Day message on children. In the 1970's I was in elementary school and the energy crisis made an impression on me. Our elementary school also had an ecology curriculum at the time which definitely influence who I am today.
Here we are post Earth Day. Today I will hang clothes on a clothes line and will set my recycle cans out for collection. I try to do small things everyday. Somehow I feel me, and society, are failing on some of the bigger issues. Last week I had to buy a new car. Mine was eleven years old and in the shop often. As I searched for a new car I was expecting to find cars that got incredibly great gas mileage. I mean, the news is endlessly reporting how we are on the verge of another energy crisis. So why are our choices for good gas mileage either very small cars or hybrids with price tags that make your eyes cross?
In the end my husband bought the car he WANTED to drive, not that he will driving it much. It is a terrible gas hog. I think my new car is my husband's midlife crisis so I'm going with it. I pick my battles. It is nice to drive a vehicle where all the windows work and the driver side door doesn't drop an inch when opened. Oh, the emergency and ABS brakes work too!
FYI, Other Netflix art documentaries worth seeing:
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Eames: The Architect and The Painter
I went to Netflix online to find the documentaries, then added them to my Instant Queue.
I don't have much luck finding things on the Nextflix TV screen search.
Hi Jill,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new wheels - and on having a clothes line and using it! There's nothing better than the smell of outside on your clothing and sheets! My Mom still uses her whenever she can.
your trash pile makes me smile. I frequently fantasize about bigger art space and all the cool things I'd do with it, when in reality I would just collect even more junk and have even bigger piles! Thanks for the tips on the netflix documentaries. Have you ever seen "Rivers and Tides" about Andy Goldsworthy? It's lovely.
ReplyDeleteI did see Rivers and Tides. I've seen it more than once!
Delete