SAND, GLASS, WAVES

Llewelyn Ash {Adventures of a Glass Blower} from Benjamin Dowie on Vimeo.

THE X-RAY ORIGAMI OF TAKAYUKI HORI

   

Takayuki Hori's unique work won first place in the 2010 Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Competition. Using a process called Oritsunagumono�defined as 'things folded and connected'�he portrayed eight endangered Japanese species. The only color in Hori's pieces comes from the ubiquitous marine garbage swallowed by his wild origami birds and reptiles.

Via designboom and monogocoro.

MAN, SEA, WOMAN

Tomorrow Man Made by The Sea from Catherine Fran�ois on Vimeo.

HAECKEL'S OCEAN

Actiniae [sea anemones]

Prosobranchia [archaic: snails]

Acsidiae [sea squirts]

Cyrtoidea [archaic: radiolarians]

Chaetopoda [archaic: segmented worms]

Hexacoralla [corals & allies]

Gamochonia [archaic: cephalopods]

Decapoda [crustacean]

Ostraciontes [boxfishes & allies]

Diatomea [diatoms]

Discomedusae [archaic: jellyfish]

Ophiodea [brittle stars]

Cubomedusae [archaic: box jellyfish]

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (16 February 1834-9 August 191) was an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny, stem cell, and the kingdom Protista. Haeckel promoted and popularized Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the controversial recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarizes its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny.

The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures (see: Kunstformen der Natur, "Art Forms of Nature"). As a philosopher, Ernst Haeckel wrote Die Weltr�tsel (1895�1899, in English, The Riddle of the Universe, 1901), the genesis for the term "world riddle" (Weltr�tsel); and Freedom in Science and Teaching to support teaching evolution.

In the United States, Mount Haeckel, a 13,418 ft/4,090 m summit in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, overlooking the Evolution Basin, is named in his honor, as is another Mount Haeckel, a 2,941 m/9,649 ft summit in New Zealand; and the asteroid 12323 Haeckel.

All plates from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

HEARTBREAKING HOPE: THE ART OF GAIL POTOCKI

Icarus. 2008. Gail Potocki.

  
I know of no other artist who wields insight, emotion, and intellectual heft�not to mention gorgeous technique�to examine the environmental ills besetting us today.

Gail Potocki's landscapes are catastrophes unfolding before our eyes�in the sea, in the air, and on the land. Yet her human subjects, shattered and vulnerable, are creatures of exquisite hope... precisely because of their melancholic awareness of their plight.

(As always, click on the images to see larger versions.)

I asked Gail to tell me about each of these paintings. Of Icarus (above), she wrote:

"Influenced by Icarus ignoring his father's warning and flying too close to the sun; I saw similarities in this myth with nature's warnings of our own possible self-destructiveness. In the case of Icarus here, his wings have been stolen from the dead bird that he has slung over his shoulder."

Thaw. 2008. Gail Potocki.

 
About Thaw, Gail said:

"Both the bees and the woman are out of place in this landscape. The bee brings a fleck of light to the woman representing our dependence on them as life givers/pollinators."

Overflow. 2008. Gail Potocki.

 
Overflow:

"My concern about human population growth is represented by the two people interlaced in the human paper cutouts. The background is a solid mass of buildings where only a small square of sky shows through as all of the landscape becomes consumed."

Shipwrecked. 2005. Gail Potocki.

 
Shipwrecked:

"I've played with another idea of the disappearing bees, battered and shipwrecked against the rocky shore."

Plastic Vortex. 2008. Gail Potocki.

  










   





  
Plastic Vortex:

"With animals trapped in the plasticized water, the figure in this painting recoils from the Grim Reaper-like seabird as she bears witness to an omen of the future of our oceans."

Tiara. 2005. Gail Potocki.

 
  
Tiara:

"This is symbolic of deforestation's effect on the landscape. The woman/tree hybrid catching fire represents all of humanity's attachment to nature and how our fates are intertwined."

Gail paints in Michigan. I picture her world as a snowy canvas.

Via.

   

Here's what she told me about her relationship between her natural neighborhood, her work, and her audience:

"I am definitely more productiveoverall in the winter. I spend most of the year at my studio inMichigan (right in the middle of the snow-belt) so I love to be in mywarm studio listening to music and painting when there's a blizzardoutside. I try to transfer some of the drama from the weather intothe work.

"Also, the view of the open field behindmy studio ignites my creativity. Although I am not really a painterof landscapes, being surrounded by all this natural beauty inspiresme to create narratives about it and how our actions affect theenvironment.

"I am notna�ve enough to believe that 'art can change the world,' but Ido feel that my goal as an artist is to try to bring things topeoples' attention that they might not normally think about."

For more on Gail Potocki, check out her website, plus this stunningly beautiful book, The Union of Hope and Sadness, written by Thomas Negovan, director of Century Guild, the Chicago gallery representing her.

EXPANDING OCEANS: BATIKS OF MARY EDNA FRASER

Great Barrier Reef II (Australia), 108" x 45," batik on silk. Mary Edna Fraser.

  

Artist Mary Edna Fraser has a new exhibit called Our Expanding Oceans at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. These are beautiful batik pieces designed to use art as a vehicle to share scientific information. Many are featured in a new book, Global Climate Change: A Primer, by Orrin and Keith Pilkey, Duke University Press:

Global warming endangers coral reefs in two ways. If sea level rise is too rapid the reefs will drown and if maximum summer temperatures are too high, fatal coral bleaching (caused by loss of the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae) may occur. Bleaching has already killed portions of the Great Barrier reefs. Fortunately if conditions are right, reefs can recover. �Orrin Pilkey 

Mary Edna Fraser tells me of the outcome of her first snorkeling adventure in 2007:

And it was my initiation into underwater photography as well.  The batik is a synthesis of that experience which was like flying under water with colors and shapes constantly in motion. This aquatic excursion changed my life forever.

Charleston Airborne Flooded, 95.5" x 35," batik on silk. Mary Edna Fraser.

  

The piece above is of Fraser's hometown, Charleston, South Carolina. It's based on a NOAA projection of a 4.5-foot/1.4-meter rise in sea level by the year 2100:

The dark green band along this Charleston regional shoreline is the area that will be flooded after a 4.5 foot sea level rise. The barrier islands along the outer coast have largely disappeared in this projection, though in reality the islands might instead grow narrower and migrate toward the mainland. Anyone planning on a property purchase in this area might be well-served by this beautiful piece of art. Already sea level rise has made the storm water runoff system ineffective and unable to drain the city during a simultaneous heavy rain and high tide. As the shoreline moves inland, so will future storm surge levels and storm waves. All told, coastal living in the lower coastal plain faces a challenging future. �Orrin Pilkey

You can see more of Fraser's art-science mashups here.

VINTAGE SEA SELLS

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