Chinook Book, coupon book of businesses with integrity

The Chinook Book is a coupon book of good businesses, which basically boils down to businesses that treat their employees and suppliers with respect, they are mindful of their impact on the environment and they are apart of their community.


There are Chinook Books and iPhone and Android apps for the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Seattle and Denver.

Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang

Judith Selby Lang and her husband, Richard Lang, walk beaches collecting plastic objects. They wash and sort the plastic treasures by color and then make art out of them.

• Judith and Richard's art website

• Their eco art gallery, called Electric gallery is in San Francisco, CA.

• What you can do about plastic pollution- downloadable pdf

Get Involved- Public Citizen

Public Citizen is one way to stay informed on what's happening politically in the US. On this site you can follow the issues that are being talked and voice your opinion by signing petitions. Sign up for the free notices on which petitions are going around on Public Citizen's Action Network.  

Stop Junk Mail

I look at it like a game. How little trash and recyclables can I incur? By having fewer objects come into my home, the less I have to organize and keep clean.

Download your free Stop junk mail kit.

Fighting the Big Banks

Mushrooms will save the world

In the above photo Paul is holding an Agarikon, which is the oldest mushroom. It can live for up to a 100 years and when it's diluted to 1% it's the effective way to treat the Bird flu.

In 2011 Paul Stamets spoke at the environmental conference, Bioneers, about how mushrooms will save the world. They are the most ancient, keystone species and yet the least studied.

The photo was borrowed from the wiki article on Paul Stamets.





Paul Stamets considers himself the voice for fungi. From his research he's discovered mushrooms that can eat oil spills and nuclear waste, along with a mushroom who's fiber is good for making clothes, and a mushroom that is super dense in vitamin D.

Paul has several patents pending on uses for mushrooms. I was curious to see what exactly he discovered, so I looked up his application on freepatentsonline.com by searching by his last name.

Paul Stamets on TED

Bioneers Conference 2011

Bioneers is the largest, annual environmental conference in the USA. It’s like TED talks, except with a hope filled focus on how to take care of the earth. The three day conference happens every October in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The one session that I connected with took place in a small tent, that seated a couple hundred people. Everyone was barefoot and sitting on the ground. We held a council and shared our knowledge on how we have experienced the divine feminine and the divine masculine.

To me the divine feminine isn’t a goddess. Instead it’s a balance of traits that I‘m searching for, the ones that will make me most effective and content in life. Women are known for being nurturing, but they are also fiercely protect their loved ones. Within myself, I want to be a whole person, both a cook and a bread winner. Then if it happens, find a man who is also actualized and together we’ll be like iron sharpening iron.

Just as women have natural strengths, men do to. I think of the divine masculine as a benchmark for the men I look to date. Are they gentle? Do they know when and how to protect? Are they humble? Are they compassionate? Do they guard their health as being the most important, for how else can you serve without life?

We talked about the imbalance of masculine versus feminine power and how men and women need to treat each other as equals. The session was co-facilitated by a man who looked like my late grate-grandfather, Popsi. He said it was up to the men to honor and respect the women by giving us space to do what we do best: taking things deeper, being creative, forming communities, sharing feelings…

Hearing from this Popsi look-alike that ladies should be praised and valued as essential, was edifying. I felt important. I felt vital. Being apart of this circle meeting gave me the further conviction to better myself, to find that balance of traits within.

We carpooled up to Marin county, that's just north of San Francisco for the Bioneers Conference.

We helped man the WEAD booth, which is the Women Environmental Artists Directory.

Over the three day weekend, the morning sessions were held in the main auditorium, where we heard from top environmentalists, scientists and activists.

Besides having a vendors tent of organic/fair trade/eco-friendly products, there was an art exhibit by the artist-in-residence from Recology.

If you are interested in going next year to the Bioneers Conference in October, be sure to check out the scholarships. They offer them for youth, full time college students, seniors and activists. They also have a scholarship for teachers who use the Bioneers DVDs as part of their curriculum.

One of my favorite presentations at the conference was by Paul Stamets. He talked about how mushrooms can save the world. Also check out Stamets presentation on TED.

-Article by installation artist and former student of the Eco Art Matters Class, Elizabeth Symington.

Eco Arts Award

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 31, 2012

The Eco Arts Award is giving $1,000 to the first place winners in the six different categories. In a time where creativity is essential for solving world issues, us artists are even more valuable then before. 

Categories include: 
songwriting
literature
photography
fine art
functional art
short video

The deadline has been extended to January 31, 2012, so look at the guidelines now and start writing your proposal! Submission fee is only $30.

Lily Yeh- Bioneers Plenary Speaker

My Plastic-free Life blog

 
The albatross has the longest wingspan of up to 11 feet! They spend most of their lives gliding over seas, often going hours without landing. Surprisingly enough they also drink salt water.

The albatross are attracted to floating objects, which unfortunately lots of plastic are floating in the ocean. The famous National Geographic image shown above is of a washed up albatross and the trash found in its stomach.

Since how the ocean is down hill from everything, trash accumulates there. In the Pacific ocean there is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a swirling mass of plastic. When it was first discovered it was the size of Texas. It's now the size of the continental US and just as deep. All of this plastic is killing sea life and they are also eating and we're in turn digesting the plastic too.

Check out this wonderful blog called My Plastic-free Life for practical ideas on how to avoid and/or reduce using plastic. A good place to start is to buy a metal canteen instead of using plastic water bottles.

350.org

Depending on what's happening in the community during the semester, the class might participate in marches that relate to environment and/or social justice. One year we marched with 350.org, a non-profit that educates about the elevated levels of carbon dioxide that's in the air and how that effects everyone worldwide. 

"And what does this 350 number even mean?

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change."
-350.org's official website

Assignment #1: Art Project Inspired by a Nature Walk

Take a walk in nature alone for at least one hour. Be watchful of patterns, wildlife, smells, sounds, and your personal experience, taking time to be still and listen. Think about your relationship to nature.

If you wanted to give back something of your experience or ideas, how could you interpret that into an artwork?

Create a small piece based on your experience. Do drawings from nature; write ideas in your sketchbook.

Check the syllabus for the deadline. Depending on class size, we might extend the critique over two class periods. 

Fall 2011 Syllabus/Calendar

Eco Art fall 2011 Syllabus

Women Environmental Artists Directory

WEAD's Mission:
Focusing on women's unique perspectives, we collaborate internationally to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art.

Click on WEAD and sign up for their newsletter, look at images of eco-art and apply to be apart of the directory.

Make a Bat Box

The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave, Texas, eat approximately 200 tons
of insects nightly. 

To encourage bats to live in your neighborhood, make a bat box! Having bats around will insect control and pollination. 

  

You can decorate your bat box however you'd like!

If you'd like to learn more about bats check out

Sulphur Creek Nature Center, in Hayward, CA.

Most semesters, naturalists from Sulphur Creek visit the Eco Art Matters class to talk about the importance of bats. The best part is that they bring adorable live bats to the classroom!

Art Roots Here

 Art Roots Here, Big Daddy's Community Garden, Emeryville, CA May 2009 

Art Roots Here , postcard from the show
Spring, 2009

Curator’s Statement

It’s my privilege to have been selected to bring together a collection of artworks by a group of people who are as interested and committed to the renewal of our environment and spiritual balance as I am.  The urban garden site that I manage on the Emeryville/Oakland border and that we’re utilizing for our show is a great emblem of this commitment.   Until just a few years ago the location of  “Big Daddy’s Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden” was a broken down service station with an auto-detailing business, as much a symbol of an industrial past as today it is a symbol of recycling and creative re-use.

The works  produced by Laney College’s Eco-Art class students combine a central focus with a variety of individual perspectives, many keying on the garden and its growth, many a celebration of organic materials and forms.  All share a dedication to improving the health of our planet and quality of our lives.

-Vickie Jo Sowell

Earth Goddess by Pam Cronsear

I was inspired by a visit to the Albany Bulb during that semester. I learned how up until the mid '80s that location had been formed when a literal dumping ground for all kinds of construction waste grew into a little peninsula in the Bay. When dumping became illegal in the late '80s, nature—in the form of nesting birds and rodents, vines and bushes, etc.—reclaimed the land. Today it is a park with pathways meandering past broken brick chimneys overgrown with brush and probably housing many small residents; twigs twining up alongside rebar; people-made shelters where the homeless have not only lived but embellished their nooks with artwork...

The "Earth Goddess" for me was a symbol of nature's power to thrive despite mankind's ridiculous and destructive activities. She is created out of a cast-off pile of bricks and straw I found on site. Then I built her up with left-over concrete and grout, broken pottery (I'm a mosaic artist so I have lots of that kind of stuff), and a necklace and crown fashioned out of beer bottle caps that I found across the street, plus washers and other metal items picked up off of sidewalks, and wire.

Pam Consear

services: www.handygaloakland.com

blog: www.HandyGalStudios.wordpress.com

reuse shop: www.HandyGalStudios.etsy.com

art shop: www.PamConsear.etsy.com

Local Food Garden by Tracy Nguyen and Barbara Petterson

Materials: straw bales, soil, plants/herbs, wire fencing, cardboard, wood shavings

“Three studies…suggest that residents in Oakland’s low-income neighborhoods are unable to access healthy foods due to lack of proximity to vendors that stock affordable, healthy foods. The studies were based on surveys and focus groups within the East and West Oakland communities. Overall, the studies suggest that increased availability of healthy foods is a critical concern to these communities. Based on focus group responses, the studies also conclude that more education is necessary to inform residents of food options, and that access must be improved by adding grocery stores with healthy foods, farmers markets, fruit and vegetable stands, and community gardens to these neighborhoods.125" (Unger and Wooten, 2006)

“…more than 80 percent of the students in Emery Unified School District … receive free or reduced-price meals before, during and after school. However, this program is in trouble after State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced that state funding for subsidized meals is running out.” (Martinez, 2009)

That’s why we decided to get together to help Oaklanders and Emeryvillers get easier and better access to healthy, affordable foods. By building and growing our Local Food Garden at the juncture of Emeryville and West Oakland, we are providing a place where community members can get together and learn how they can grow their own food. It is also a place for contemplation in the midst of the city, as people are welcome to take a seat and breathe in nature or take a walk around the path. Our hope is that the quotes, educational facts and beauty of the garden will inspire people to try growing their own food themselves.

Martinez, A., In Emeryville. (2009). Budget scare for popular free lunch program. Retrieved April 18, 2009, from http://inemeryville.org/2008/12/09/popular-free-lunch-program-is-put-on-the-chopping-block/.

Unger, S. & Wooten, H, Oakland Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and University of California, Berkeley, Department of City and Regional Planning. (2006). A food systems assessment for Oakland, ca: toward a sustainable food plan. Retrieved April 18, 2009, from

oaklandfoodsystem.pbwiki.com/f/Oakland%20FSA_6.13.pdf. 

Art Acts for Change

 Art Acts for Change, Vickie Jo Sowell's Studio Gallery, Emeryville, CA Dec 2008 

 

 

GERTRUDIS MONZÓN
JEANNIE DOOHA
BONNIE CARPENTER

 
“THEIR BLOOD AND THEIR TEARS FLOW ACROSS THE BORDERS”
 

Mixed media installation
 
As love, hope and dreams know no borders; violence, disillusionment, despair and death know no borders as well. Blood and tears of violated and murdered women in Guatemala, Mexico, the rest of Latin America and the world call us once again to respond to a crisis that worsens and continues today to be shrouded by a veil of silence, disinterest and impunity.

The altar we have created brings to light the plight of women, most specifically in Guatemala, Central America and Mexico as well as throughout the world, who are victims of gender based violence and murder. We draw inspiration from the Mayan civilization and the physical representation of the pyramid/temple with its literal and spiritual significance.  Using the different levels of the pyramid/temple we illustrate the ugliness and prevalence of the forces oppressing  women throughout the world, as well as the murder of specific women.

The tears and blood of the “sacrificed” woman fill a basket held by an indigenous woman and an urn collects the blood at the foot of the stairs.  Blood and tears are essential life forces…may they be gathered from those who have been victims of life denying forces, to flow forth and affirm life.
  
The two female figures rising at the top of the temple, vow to remember and represent those who have been “sacrificed”.  They call for all of us who create and view this piece to work toward the end of the violence and to transform the region and the world into places
where people treat one another with respect and love.
 
The red “Huipil” (Guatemalan traditional garment) behind the pyramid symbolizes the project.  The powerful forces of the sun and the moon on each side of the “sacrificial temple” represent the Hero Mayan twins, “Shabalank” and “Hunahpu” who tricked and destroyed the dark lords and triumphed over evil, making the Earth ready for the creation of human beings.   We call upon these symbols for strength and inspiration.

 

 

ALEXA CALOS

DISCOVERING NATURAL ALLIES

water color, gouache, graphite, ink, white charcoal, on paper,
oyster mushroom spawn

Mushrooms and the mycelial network from which they fruit are the "great recyclers" of the forest.  They are constantly transforming, digesting even, some of the toughest substances like wood and rocks, thereby creating rich soil.  They can also break down harmful toxins like crude oil spilled into the environment and then transform that oil into food for their own growth. It turns out mushrooms, toadstools, fungi, whichever you choose to call them, can help us undo some of the damage we humans have done to our eco-systems.

Paul Stamets, a pioneer in fungus research and development has even discovered a way to use the mycelia of certain fungal species to control populations of destructive insects like termites, carpenter ants, mosquitos, and locusts; read, non-petroleum based pesticides.

Certain fungus planted as companions in the home garden (and used in reforestation) can increase the vigor, and yield of the other plants.   Equally as important, filters of wood chips and straw infused with mushroom mycelium can keep harmful bacteria, emanating from livestock feedlots, out of our waterways and bays and therefore out of our food and water supply.*  These are amazing organisms... learn more and spread the word.

*Stamets, Paul  2005    Mycelium Running, Berkeley, Ca
Ten Speed Press

Matters of Fact

Matters of Fact , postcard from the show
Leonie Holzman

Heart of the Matter

 

 Heart of the Matter,  Art Center Gallery, Laney campus  2007

Heart of the Matter, postcard from the show
Jody Stegman

Heart of the Matter is the 4th exhibition of the Laney College EcoArtMatters class.  Each class develops its own personality depending on the unique individual artists that spend so much creative time together.  This group has obviously worked hard, benefiting from the class guest speakers and at the Bioneers Conference, from lively discussion, readings and films, and from collaborating with each other.  The work reflects their extensive research and the rich diversity of their personal talents and passions.  

My great reward in teaching this class is witnessing the transformations that take place and seeing the work produced as students learn about and become impassioned about their own choices of concern.   I am continually amazed at what these remarkable students invent and envision, reinforcing hope and belief in our ability to survive through creative and compassionate action. 

I congratulate and thank all my students for their hard work and talents, and hope this is just the beginning of an ongoing process of creative adventures.  May you be inspired to spread not only the word about these urgent matters, but also the great hope as manifested by this work.

Andrée Singer Thompson

Pedal a Watt
Mary White, James Cline

The Watt Energy Pedaler
Salvaged exercise bike from Urban Ore, salvaged DC generator from a treadmill found on the street, recycled bottles and slumped broken window glass, DC halogen lights, steel stand found on the street in San Francisco, prisms from WWII tank windows, salvaged DC headlight, salvaged DC water pump, salvaged LED lights

We addressed the following question: How do we become power generators, without using more embodied energy to make new apparatus? How do we bring more awareness of the amount of energy needed for simple household appliances.

Clean and available energy will become more and more important to our world as more people require more power.

Traditional forms of electrical power: coal and nuclear power plants, create environmental pollution. "Clean" producers of power: solar, wind, wave, hydro and pedal powered energy, don't emit toxic waste, are usually quiet and provide electricity with less poisoning of the air, the water or the soil. We need to encourage more sources of clean power in the future and new ways to use our current clean technologies.

We need to learn to appreciate how much power is used in our daily life for lights and appliances. If we experience the human energy required to power the simple appliances around us, perhaps then we can learn to conserve and more wisely use the energy we have.

Our Watt Energy Pedal bicycle helps the user stay aerobically fit while creating power that may be used to power lights and/or other small appliances. The Energy Pedaler may also be used to charge a battery so that the power may be used at a later time
The average rider will produce between 125 and 200 watts an hour using the bike. While this may not seem like much power, many pieces of equipment draw very little power and can be powered for long spans of time with small amounts of power.

Lights, laptops, and radios all draw small amounts of current at 12 volts DC. In addition, LED lighting and high efficiency fluorescent lighting now allow 200 watts to go a long way. A typical 25 watt fluorescent light bulb, which replaces a 100 watt incandescent bulb, will last 8 hours on 200 watts worth of power. LEDs (light emitting diodes) are even more efficient and will last days on 200 watts worth of power.

Here is the Power Consumption of Typical Appliances:


Small TV 100 watts

Large TV 200 watts

Laptop PC 10 watts

Desktop PC 75 watts

Stereo 20 watts

Charging a cellphone 5 watts

Hi Effic. Desk lamp 15 watts

An Explanation of Watts vs. Watt-Hours
Watts is an instantaneous measure of power at any moment in time. Watt-hours is a measure of power over time.

 For example, the Energy Pedal creates 200 watts of power per hour. If you pedal for 2 hours, then you have created 400 watt-hours (200 watts x 2 hours) of power.
 This 400 watt-hours would power a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours, a 200 watt large screen TV for 2 hours and so on.

Directions
Carefully climb onto the bike and begin pedaling. Pedal hard
enough so that you are turning on the lights and fountain.
The fly wheel does not stop when you stop pedaling. When
you decide to stop, be careful to take your feet off the pedals to let the bike slow down to a stop.

Dinner Kills

From Predicament to Possibility
Nzinga Irene Pace
Clay, Oil on canvas
9 ft. x 6 ft.

Diesel exhaust is the number one toxic air pollutant in California.  The Port of Oakland is the fourth busiest in the US.  Diesel truck exhaust directly affects the air quality in West Oakland.

The black smoke causes cancer, reproductive harm, asthma, heart disease and premature death.

Average diesel emissions per square mile in West Oakland are more than 90 times greater than average emissions for the rest of the state.

West Oakland residents breathe air with diesel particulate levels that are five times greater than what residents breathe in other parts of Oakland.

An examination of death certificates dating back to the 1060’s revealed that residents of West Oakland live ten years less than people living in the Oakland hills. They also have five times the risk of getting cancer than residents in other parts of Oakland.

Asthma is epidemic in this neighborhood. Children here are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than the average child in California.

By the year 2010 the number of truck trips to the Oakland Port will double from 11,000 to 22,000.

 

Happy Shopper, by Kin Kwok 

La Madre Tierra: So Pleased with your offering. Urine separating toilet seat.
Christina Bertea

Lotus: Inside Out
Prototype urine separating compost toilet seat
Clay, hose, found metal and plywood
Feeling alienated?...DIS-connected?
Not a meaningful part of the greater whole?
Here’s how to restore your link to the sacred web of life:
Get PISS-connected!
Claim your right to participate in the nutrient cycle:
Consume, give back…
Consume, give back…
Consume, give back…
Your urine is a near perfect fertilizer (diluted
3 to 5 times with water…)
Use a urine separating composting toilet or urine separating flush toilet (from Sweden,
where they harvest urine to sell to farmers)
and share your “gold” with the garden!
Your trees and shrubs will thank you, and you
will feel oh so useful and connected to life.

The Challenge:
*Natural gas is a non-renewable petroleum product, in decline as is oil
*Natural gas is used to make the nitrogen fertilizer used in conventional agriculture
*If fertilizer becomes prohibitively expensive or scarce, much of the world’s human food supply could be in jeopardy

Option:
*Find a plentiful new source of nitrogen fertilizer (human urine)
*Educate people to value and collect that source

Residual Impact:
*Increased awareness that what goes in /comes out, and is beneficial for the earth—or not
*Possible improvement in diet and less consumption of pharmaceuticals