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November 12, 2009

‘Seconds’ are items, which, in some way, are not quite right. They are imperfect and therefore of lesser value. But who made these rules that we use to judge perfection? Who says the decoration has to be in the center? Who says a whole bird is better than half a bird? Who says a flower can’t grow down? - Jason Miller

Ceramic Superordinate Antler Chandelier by Jason Miller (Miller Studio)

November 11, 2009

Nature Deficit Disorder, is a term invented by Richard Louv in his book called “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv writes that children are spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children.
Richard Louv spent 10 years traveling around the USA reporting and speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas, about their experiences in nature. He argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields,” while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors “safe” regimented sports over imaginative play.
Causes:
Parents are keeping children indoors in order to keep them safe from danger. Richard Louv believes we may be protecting children to such an extent that it has become a problem and disrupts the child’s ability to connect to nature. The parent’s growing fear of “stranger danger” that is heavily fueled by the media,  keeps children indoors and on the computer rather than outdoors exploring. Louv believes this may be the leading cause in nature deficit disorder as parents have a large amount of control and influence in their children’s lives.
Loss of natural surroundings in a child’s neighborhood and city. Many parks and nature preserves have restricted access and “do not walk off the trail” signs. Environmentalists and educators add to the restriction telling children “look don’t touch”. While they are protecting the natural environment Louv questions the cost of that protection on our children’s relationship with nature.
Increased draw to spend more time inside. With the advent of the computer, video games and television children have more and more reasons to stay inside, “The average American child spends 44 hours a week with electronic media”.
Effects:
Children have limited respect to their immediate natural surroundings. Louv says the effects of nature deficit disorder on our children will be an even bigger problem in the future. “An increasing pace in the last three decades, approximately, of a rapid disengagement between children and direct experiences in nature …this has profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the earth itself.”
Childhood obesity has become a growing problem. There have been multiple studies that show children who go outside more often exercise more.
Attention disorders and depression may develop. “It’s a problem because kids who don’t get nature-time seem more prone to anxiety, depression and attention-deficit problems.” Louv suggests that going outside and being in the quiet and calm can help greatly. Attention Restoration Theory develops this idea further, both in short term restoration of a person’s abilities, and the long term ability to cope with stress and adversity.
In an interview on Public School Insight, Louv stated some positive effects of treating nature deficit disorder, “everything from a positive effect on the attention span to stress reduction to creativity, cognitive development, and their sense of wonder and connection to the earth.” From Wiki.

October 30, 2009

Flower inspired earthenware by Walter Ostrom.

October 26, 2009

Birds by Kenojuak Ashevak. Kenojuak Ashevak was born in an igloo in an Inuit camp, Ikirasaq, at the southern coast of Baffin Island. 

October 23, 2009

October 19, 2009

Vancouver and New York based artist Aurel Schmidt.

Creek Tangle A/2, 2009
Gordon Smith
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 67 in.

Creekside Grasses #1, 2009
Gordon Smith
Acrylic on Canvas
67 x 85 in.

October 18, 2009

Semi #2, 1999
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inch

Erosion #3, 2001
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inches

Jet Trail #4, #2/25, 2001
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inches

Prairie photographs by Kevin O’Connell

September 27, 2009

Mandra on Earth Day Network writes: When I was a child, the cornflower was a very common view in every grainfield in Sweden (we grow barley, wheat, rye and oat), as in many other countries. Then, because of the over-use of herbicides, they disappearded, I haven’t seen them in over 40 years!
When I last traveled from my country-house to Stockholm - they where suddenly there again! Not everywhere, of course, but i saw a huge field with this blue in it - it was a lovely scene! :—)
Centaurea cyanus (cornflower) in the past often grew as a weed in crop fields all over Europe, hence its name (fields growing grains such as wheat, barley, rye, or oats were formerly known as “corn fields” in England). It is now endangered in its native habitat by agricultural intensification, particularly over-use of herbicides, destroying its habitat.

September 17, 2009

September 13, 2009

Biodegradable moss planter(organic carpet consisting of assortment of mosses) by Japan-based flower artist Makoto Azuma  

September 06, 2009

Hummingbird




Humming bird, detail



Crimson necked bullfinch

Brunonia Serica
Ferdinand Bauer
1760-1826
from Floral Illustrations of New Holland

Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
15th or 16th century
Gouache on vellum

From Vienna Dioscorides



From Vienna Dioscorides



Botanical Illustration from Codex Anicia Juliana, AD 512

From Vienna Dioscorides



Banksia coccinea (Scarlet Banksia)
Ferdinand Bauer
Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae
Early 19th century



Adele Morosini Rossetti (for Botanic Garden)
Rosa Abraham Darby
Watercolor , color pencil, tempera on paper




California flowering plant





California snow flower

Peruvian flowering cactus

September 05, 2009

September 04, 2009

I ♥  Mineo Mizuno sculptures. Mineo Mizuno was born in Japan and currently resides in Los angeles, CA.  Water-drop/pebble like large ceramic forms are covered in small holes in which mosses are planted.

July 18, 2009

The High Line was built in the 1930s. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park.

This is wild strawberry or Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria Vesca)  growing in Brooklyn backyard. Mmmmm!

Wild strawberry is not like a regular strawberry at all. It has a different taste and smell.  It smells like forest. Red, juicy and fragrant wild strawberries are false fruits Berries are seeds hidden in a juicy pulp. Examples of berries - blueberry, cranberry, tomato and watermelon. The seeds of the wild strawberry sit on the surface of this false fruit that functions as a bait for the animals, who eat the seeds and help spread the seeds with their droppings.  Wild strawberries are so delicious and aromatic because they wants us to eat them (yes yes!), ha-ha!
Wild strawberries usually are found near trails, young forests and forest openings.

There is so much can be said about this amazing fruit. 

June 11, 2009

The Horticultural Society of New York is awesome.  The Horticultural society of New York makes New York city better through horticultural programs, library resources and exhibitions. Below are some photos of the exhibitions held in HSNY:



Above: Sustainable fashion Show - Bodkin-  Eviana Hartman uses recycled tire rubber as buttons, boiled carob dyes, bamboo/organic cotton, organic wool,  recycled polyester fleece.


Above: The Artificial Kingdom - art exhibition by Rowena Dring and Jude Miller


Above: Awesome indoor green wall at HSNY

Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh was founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants.  Nearly 34,000 plants are grown at the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and its three smaller offshoots located in other parts of Scotland.  These represent nearly 17,000 different species from all over the world, or about 7% of all known plant species.  I was surprised to see so many species of plants at the same time!

May 29, 2009

This drawing by Karin Uusikorpi of an owl is incredible.  I found it by accident by looking through flickr.  Karin writes about herself:  ” I am a prairie girl born in Saskatchewan and raised in Northern Alberta. I draw, paint and play with colour. I eventually will get back to making things out of clay. I have made art in some form or another since I was little & still do. I am always picking stuff off the ground and saving it for future use - I am a self proclaimed ‘packrat’ and ‘magpie’ that routinely tries to cull the collection of stuff”

Osias Beert the Elder
Still-Life with Cherries and Strawberries in China Bowls
1608 Oil on panel
19 5/8” x 25 3/4”

One of my favorite Flemish vanitas paintings is “Still Life with wild Strawberries” by Osias Beert the Younger. Vanitas is a type of still life painting popular in Northern Europe in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th - 17th centuries. The word “vanitas” is Latin, meaning “emptiness” and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death.




Osias Beert the Younger
Still Life with Wild Raspberries
Oil on Panel
11.2” x 15.6”

STILL LIFES WITH FLOWERS

Pieter Brueghel the Younger
Still Life with Flowers
1601-1678





Jan the Elder Brueghel
1607 Oil on wood
98 x 73 cm





Brueghel Jan the Elder
Still Life with flowers in a Glass

May 26, 2009

Scottish Highlands area is an amazing and magical place that is definitely not from this world.  Steep bare mountains,  strong winds, rainfall , swampy grasslands and many waterfalls, they hide one of the strangest animals -  Kyloe.

Kyloe or Highland Cow is an ancient Scottish breed of beef cattle with long horns and long wavy pelts.  ( They look a lot like mammoths or at least like giant,big headed, hairy cows)  Highland cows are known are a hardy breed due to the rugged nature of their native Scottish Highlands, they graze on plants many other cattle avoid.






Other inhabitants of the Highlands are lots and lots of sheep.  Sheep is everywhere. 

May 23, 2009

May 09, 2009

April 24, 2009

Pando is a clonal colony of a single male Quaking Aspen located in the state of Utah, U.S.  All trees in Pando colony are determined to be part of a single living organism with same genetic material and one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000 tonnes making it the heaviest known organism and with the oldest root system known in existence at ~80,000 years of age.

April 23, 2009

Kusamono and shitakusa are a potted collection of plants. Plants used are typically moss, grass, lichen, small mountain flowers and plants, bonsai trees, bamboo, or bulbs, that may be arranged to heighten the beauty or reflect a certain season.  Usually a collection is displayed separately in special pots, driftwood, or even stones. Photos from beautiful blogs: Shitakusamono and Happy Hearts at Home.

April 22, 2009

       

Terraskin,  Via Stone and Fiberstone are tree-free papers made of minerals.  Stone paper is similar to traditional papers only it has a lot of advantages. When it comes to printing Via Stone paper uses 20-30% less ink than conventional papers.  Stone paper can be water-resistant, tear-resistant, recyclable and biodegradable.  No water or bleach can be used in its production as well!