just wanted to share

Agnes Denes, Wheatfield, 1982

Beef- Its whats for dinner.

I love roast beef, I loooove tender little filets cooked almost rare, a bison burger... I could eat it every other day. The point is that I really like my beef and bison. I tried the whole vegetarian thing for five years and was broken by the bison burger at Cumberland Brews... it really haunted my dreams.

However, the truth about beef is that the manufacturing and industrial farming of cattle is ruining the environment and our health. Most cattle raised in a factory farm setting are kept in crowded environments and are pumped with antibiotics and growth horomones. These animals are then slaughtered and the meat is processed with preservatives and other additives to keep it looking fresh and juicy. What about the environment? Did you know that possibly 15 -20 % of methan emmissions are produced by livestock and the leading cause of the deforestization of the Brasilian Amazon is cattle ranching and clearing of forest for pasture land.

It's not all bad... you don't have to give up the occasional steak and burger just yet. But, this consuming culture really needs to cut out all the bigmacs and royales with cheese. We need to start supporting local farmers, who raise their cattle naturally and on a farm where they are allowed to graze and soak up the sun. Wholefoods may not carry all local, but they do run specials on free range steak and ground beef all the time. Also, Cumberland Brews has an awesome Bison Burger, from KY BISON, that rocks my world everytime I eat one... ( I am biased because I work there). Eat more vegetables and save that steak for a special occasion... if everyone would do that, we would be healthier and live on a cleaner earth.

Want more?

Check out this article from Mother Earth News.

Anthotypes

The top image is created using crushed rose petals and the bottom is made with pokeberry juice. Both images were exposed in the sun for approximately two months.

BBC's radio broadcast on WFPL had a story this morning about sewage pollution and the Ganges river in India. I thought it was a coincidence considering yesterday I was researching the MSD sewage spill into the Ohio River and ranting to my boyfriend about how horrible it is that something like this could happen in Louisville. Listening to this story really put everything into perspective...

Please watch this video.

My Favorite Products

I've often said that I don't know what I would do without my Dr. Bronners. Dr. Bronners Magic Pure-Castile Liquid Soap is one of the most wonderful cleaning products available. The soaps are offered in both liquid and bar form, however I use the liquid because a little goes a long way. A 32 ounce bottle has lasted me up to six months and runs about $15 dollars. I have seen the product at all natural and whole food grocery stores, as well as Krogers and Valumarket. The company has set high standards, both ethically and environmentally, in every aspect of the business, from ingredients, production, and employment to staying active in support of issues to better our world. They use all organic, fair-trade products and are active supporters of movements to recommercialize industrial hemp, a plant that is both sustainable and beneficial to agriculture, manufacturing and trade. The liquid soap comes it many different varieties as well as a mild, unscented formula for babies and people with sensitive skin. My favorites are lavender and peppermint, the latter being a cooling refresher for a hot summer day or long one at work.

Plus - The bottles make for very interesting reading and contemplation in the bath.

DR. BRONNERS MAGIC "ALL-ONE"

Check out the writing on the Peppermint label.

WTF

Talk about social injustice. Apparently MSD accidentally released over 8 MILLION GALLONS of RAW SEWAGE into the Ohio River on November 11. Guess where it happened... West Louisville. I bet that if this happened in the east end there would have been a lot more "stink" about it in the media.

Read the Courier Journals article.

People I admire

This fall, in NYC, I visited the ICP (International Center of Photography) and was captivated by a video portrait of Cate Blanchett. Many of us know her as an actress who is famous for her role as Queen Elizabeth, however she is very active in the environmental movement as well. She was recently featured on the Diane Rehm Show (11-18-2009) in which she discussed her role on stage in "A Street Car Named Desire" and her work to raise awareness about climate change. Cate has done a lot of work to educate and raise awareness about climate change and how to combat it with better technologies and by restructuring of how we live. She is native to Australia, a land that has had to deal with the effects of climate change first hand. She and her husband, Andrew Upton, recently became artistic co-directors for the Sydney Theatre Company. They plan to take steps to move the theatre company "off-grid", by adding solar panels and recycling rainwater.

Subscribe to the podcast for the Diane Rehm Show to listen to the episode

I wish I could find a clip of the video portrait of Cate Blanchett, by David Rosetzky, but...

Check out ICP anyway...

Kentucky Engagement Coference

I get to represent U of L, as well as the art department, at NKU tomorrow. I will be speaking on a panel with three other students from other universities in the state about projects we have done in the community. I am going to talk about the project I did with the Collaborative Arts course from last Spring (2009)... maybe I'll put in a word or two about this class... Check out the blog from the class. Kentucky Engagement Conference November 20, 2009 Join us at the 4th annual Kentucky Engagement Conference where you can dramatically increase your knowledge and skills relating to students’ civic learning and civic engagement. You’ll find nationally known speakers, expert panels, roundtable discussions, tips from students and community members, 30 displays of projects at Kentucky’s college and universities, and plenty of opportunity to network with faculty and administrative colleagues. This year’s conference promises to provide you with lots of ideas for your classroom and campus. Go To Website

The Leaves Are Falling

The artist, Jane Hammond, has created several installations using fallen leaves. Each individual leaf is inscribed with the name of soldier that has died in Iraq. The most recent installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, began with 4229 leaves.

"Jane Hammond’s Fallen Text by the Artist

There is something about leaves in the autumn, at the zenith of their coloration that is transcendent: they are both dematerializing and intensifying simultaneously. As their bodies become lighter, their color is becoming more and more intense. I’ve tried to gather leaves just at this moment when the chroma is so strong it transcends the body of the leaf and becomes a kind of pure light. It does rhyme with the idea of “the spirit” but I think in a way that is accessible and earthly. It’s more Emerson than Aquinas.

One of the things that has been interesting for me is how much more particular leaves have become for me—like the lives themselves. I see them now as such individuals. It is a kind of miracle how attention to something makes it so much more interesting.

Besides thinking about leaves, both in the general and in the particular, it is also useful to think a moment about the nature of numbers. Numbers were invented for agricultural record keeping. They served a useful function of distilling the manyness of hundreds and thousands of sacks of wheat into a unitary phenomenon—a single number. Sometimes I think we have grown up so completely with the abstraction that is numbers that we forget the manyness and multitude that they actually represent. Every person whom I have heard say of “Fallen,” “Oh My God, it is so many” also knows, intellectually, what four thousand is, but there is something about seeing the number concretized that undoes a lifetime of thinking in the abstract.

It started out as something specific and concrete—the equation in my mind between lives and leaves. But more and more time has entered into the equation. The ongoingness of the piece is reallyits essential nature. It is a work of art in which the artist is not in control of when it is finished nor how large it is. I am something between an author and a witness. It has a performative quality but it is not a script I wrote.

I suppose it also has a performative nature in the sense that it is not a fixed arrangement of leaves. So far, everywhere the piece has gone, I go and arrange the leaves and in a sense “make” the piece. It’s hard for me to imagine not doing this myself.

Three concepts that inform most of my work are collecting, collage and collaboration. The gathering of the leaves themselves has now extended over several Autumns and in places as far apart as Hawaii, Texas and Vermont. The marriage of each name and leaf is a kind of collage and while I don’t know how to perfectly extend the “collaboration” metaphor the piece definitely feels bigger to me than my ideas or my craftsmanship or my authorship. It has at its heart our collectivity."

My Favorite Products

I've decided I am going to post products that I use regularly and are recycled, biodegradable or in some way sustainable or better for the environment.

Earlier I posted about white vinegar as a great option for cleaning, it is not as toxic as bleach and some other products out there, and it is very affordable.

ECOVER is a brand of products I use and really like. I have consistently used the dish soap and cream scrub for years. I just recently started using the laundry detergent, because I finally got a washing machine, and love it. All the products have a nice, natural smell and have never irritated my skin. They are biodegradable with low impact on aquatic life, based on plant ingredients and are not animal tested. The only downside is that this brand is more expensive and cannot be found an all stores. However, I have found that I don't go through the products as quickly as some others, especially the laundry soap and dish soap.

Where do I go?

What's going to happen to these old television sets? I have at least two in my home that haven't worked since the digital conversion. Imagine how many tv sets are out there just waiting to be trashed. FYI they are toxic, full of lead of other substances.

You can recycle your old television sets in Louisville (very close to UofL, I go back it almost daily) at...

Louisville Waste Reduction Center

636 Meriwether Avenue
Hours of Operation: Tuesday through Friday 8 AM to 6 PM, Saturday 8 AM to 3 PM.

I came across this website that reuses wrappers to make all kinds of things. Terracycle also offers a program that donates money to schools for collected wrappers. Check out the website.

Significant Place

This building had been empty for as long as I can remember. There are so many incredible buildings in the city of Louisville that sit vacant. WHY?

SO... I'm not trying to single out smokers, I just wish they wouldn't throw their cigarette butts into my yard when I have a party. It's a bitch to clean up and I worry about all the little animals that graze in my backyard.

Take a look at this fancy thing... These are free (while supplies last) and were part of RJ Reynolds Tobacco's "Smokers for a Clean America" program. Click here to get to the site.

Crime Scene

Q. How long do cigarette butts last in the environment?
A. Cigarette butt : 18 months - 10 years
Cigarette Butts are made of plastic, of the same type of plastic as is found in plastic bags and soda bottles. They will eventually degrade, especially if the environment is right for that sort of thing (moist, warm, and shady) but they will take much longer to degrade if flicked away on a beach or some other sandy, dry, hot area.
The nicotine contained in 200 leftover cigarette butts, however, is enough to kill a full-sized human being (according to the admittedly biased http://www.whyquit.com/), and can have a negative impact on the wildlife in the area.

Thanks WikiAnswers