Art & Ecology Group

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Comment by Cathy Fitzgerald on November 14, 2009 at 4:17pm

Great Alan,

knew there was an artist in you!

Cathy

Comment by charlie easterfield on November 14, 2009 at 1:41pm

I really like that piece, Alan... I couldn't call myself an Artist until I was in my thirties....but feck it, doing the work is all it's about! manifesting thoughts and feelings with aethetics...the piece is visually pleasing, and if it makes people think, even better! Go For It!

Comment by Alan Price on November 14, 2009 at 12:16pm

Hi Cathy
Just joined your group. I am neither an artist or an ecologist but I have imagination and am interested in how things are linked in natural systems. The attached photo might sum it up!! Giant kelp washed up on a beach in Northern Calfornia - I just moved it around a bit! The kelp beds are under threat due to increasing sea temperatures. The people I met in the States recently did not seem too concerned or even aware of the problem. We just don't know what we've got till it's gone - as Jonie says.
I look forward to the interaction.
Best Wishes
Alan

Comment by Vered on September 12, 2009 at 9:52pm

Dear Lyn
I will be very happy to meet you - it is busy time with the thesis but we can help each other .
We have lots in common - and it seem hard to meet as a group.
Call me 0861910302 or email me veredboaz@gmail.com
Have a nice weekend ,
vered

Comment by Cathy Fitzgerald on September 11, 2009 at 9:13am

Hi Lyn

Good to hear from you and what you are doing. Yes, I'd love to see more activity here but I don't seem to get much time to post with a fulltime job but occasionally I blog about art & ecology, with a focus on eco forestry, www.ecoartnotebook.com. I hope to post some more links to others working in this area soon

Comment by Lyn Mather on September 11, 2009 at 9:09am

Hi all, I hope this site and group will become a bit more active (maybe so after the pale summer as we adjust to the colour of autumn hues). All the discussions are close to my heart.

Like Suzie and Vered, I am also pursuing art therapy and writing my thesis on - 'What is Natural about Art Therapy' - in fact it looks at what is natural about art-making generally these days in the nature-to-culture/culture-to-nature continuum, focusing on art for life as opposed to art for art's sake. I would like to get information and feedback from members of this group as well and hope to contact members in the future regarding their views and input.

Thanks for now. Autumn - and good time to collect art material from nature in small quantities and share some hazels with the squirrels.

Comment by Cathy Fitzgerald on June 7, 2009 at 11:37am

Thanks for your indepth comments Marella and best wishes for your event.

I'm going to the first ever UK Art and Forestry seminar in London next week organised by the RSA - will report back on my blog for those interested ecoartnotebook.com

Comment by Marella Fyffe on June 7, 2009 at 10:24am

Valerie from Omagh here, just enjoyed dandering around the RSA site and got inspired seeing Tania Kovats, and the Kingsnorth 6. Thanks it is a great new source for me.
I am organising a Sing for Water event in Omagh on 27th Sept more details will be on the events page soon, for me it is a wonderful way of doing something that I love, creates harmony and community, whilst doing something positive to raise awareness about the inequalities of our lives. "It is not so much that the food supply is a problem for poorer countries,but rather our food decisions in the rich world are causing these problems in the poorer countries.By relying on free markets to manage distribution and on using our wealth to buy their food we are creating high prices and thus shortages.

Another critical issue here is our role in the global water situation. Meat and dairy based diets have a huge water footprint with I kg of grain fed beef requiring 15 cubic meters of water compared with 1 kg of cereals needing only between 0.4 and 3 cubic meters. This is known as embedded or virtual water and we are effectively importing this water from other countries which are are under greater water stress than our own.

According to the WWF the UK effectively imports 62% of its water footprint and in his book when the Rivers Run Dry . Fred Pearce calculates that the equivalent of 20 Nile rivers move from developing to developed countries each year. http://tinyurl.com/5uyrnl. Our wealthy world is creating shortages of fresh water in the the third world and denying access to safe water and sanitation.

Along with air and food water is the most fundamental requirement of human life so ensuring a reliable healthy supply is one of the first questions we must examine when looking at the future."

WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation