Posts Tagged ‘earth’
Mushrooms Rock!
Pencil, Biro and pigment on paper “Mushroom Field” Marianne Slevin 2010
It is funny when you discover the same thing coming from several different sources at round about the same time. Today has been a lot about mushrooms for me. How mushrooms can help save the earth. I just watched a great video on TED T.V by Paul Stamets about solutions to help save the earth. They grew Oyster mushrooms on some land where there was toxic waste and the mycelium, a fine but strong branch like network covered the land producing mushrooms actually revived the land and soon there were insects and birds and it was an oasis of life once again! Fungi uses radiation as food, Mycelium can absorb oil, it can even brake up rock.
The drawing above was from the idea of mushrooms saving the earth but done before I had seen the video more about my imagination then facts. This morning one of the Tweets I was reading jumped out at me so I followed the link about this discovery that mushrooms may save the planet. It totally inspired me. This drawing is like an elaborate doodle, very enjoyable to draw! I think there will be more to come on this amazing fungi at work!
Sketch book drawing of Mycelium by marianne Slevin 2010
Standing On The Earth I See
Standing on the earth I see,
That you are quite the same as me,
We are both like leaves from an apple tree,
I think I am I, but I don’t even exist
surely I am, without the I added in
I look at you, as if you are you through and through
but we are all made from the same sodding goo!
Oh no that’s not right cause it’s not goo at all
it’s something that’s no thing at all!
Now I am no wiser I have just down sized me
to a ant that is beside me,
Then I realize there is no separation at all!
For I am as large as the planet which is still rather small
And I am not sure if my cousin is the moon!
Poem by Marianne Slevin
Rising tide lines
Yesterday, we drove through such a deep flood, that the head lights of our Lada Niva filled with water, and made them look like goldfish bowls! Apparently about 70% of the earth is covered in water. Our own bodies are also about 70% water, I think. What happens when the ice melts with global warming? If the ratio of land to water changes on the earth, what will become of our own physical bodies? Are we not also part of nature? Shall we float or drown or perhaps go else where!
I just had a realization today that I have had a preoccupation with waterlogged fields, for years. Probably from before I ever heard of global-warming. I have done many paintings of unexpected objects under the sea; from beds to bulbs, trees and horses! I have done instillations of drowning/floating hand made objects too.
After an unexpectedly inspiring visit, to a certain particularly miserable supermarket, sometime early in the early hours, an image of an instillation came in to my mind of a clean empty supermarket, in the open fridge section there was an arrangement of beautifully hand painted milk cartons. They were paintings of dripping sea and sky in what looked like oil paint, but considering they were painted in recycled milk cartons, they were painted with a lot of care and love. The cartons had plastic screw caps so they looked like they could still be full of milk, maybe they were! The flash of an image I had was a perfect antidote to the previous ‘real’ visit to the supermarket.
James suggested getting lots school children to paint one carton each, brilliant! so we are off the find the empty supermarket and ask allot of school children to paint their own interpretations of global-warming and the sea on a milk or fruit juice cartons. Getting children involved in this collaborative project would be great, I also love the idea of doing something to raise environmental awareness with art, both bringing our attention to how much stuff we are creating to simply be thrown away as well as the huge issue of global-warming!
Peace to all!
Shelters and spaces to dream in
During this saturated cloud of a summer I am hugely grateful for these strong old stone walls. Though in sunnier climes I do recall enjoying a more out door life where shelters could be under trees, in valleys and other places in nature. When we renovated our adobe house in Spain we wanted it to feel and be as natural as possible. I love when inner spaces and outer spaces merge. In the painting Refuge I wanted to get across the feeling of living in nature, well sleeping, dreaming and washing I like to idea that it can still be quite elegant! In the painting, a white bed cover with a delicate floral print and white four poster bed-like mattress sits on the earth, with a similar style jug, towel and wash basin en-suite! This scene takes place under a tree on the brown earth, but the bed cover is not all covered in mud! I love the total impracticality of this! This is one of the reasons I love painting, because it does not have to be real, in the way we often think of reality, and it does not have to hold up a roof!!
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