Hundertwasser (December 15, 1928 - February 19, 2000) was a visionary Austrian artist, architect and environmentalist with a mission to reconnect humans with nature. His work was bright and organic…always staying away from straight lines. You can see the green roofs with trees in the photos above. He also incorporated vegetation on the inside of structures, with trees coming out of windows. His stance on the environment was clear in 1990, when he made this statement:
“There are no evils in nature. There are only evils of man. When man thinks he has to correct nature, it is an irreparable mistake every time. A community should not consider it an honour how much spontanous vegetation it destroys; it should rather be a point of honour for every community to protect as much of its natural landscape as possible.”
To read the rest of this statement and more of Hundertwasser’s philosophy, click here. Â
Over the Easter holiday, my husband and I were able to explore some of the wooded walking trails in our hometown. The Tennessee Valley Authority Nature Loop is a good trail for bird watching and wildflowers. Over the past two years, the Tennessee Valley Authority and volunteers have removed the privet hedge that grew along the trail to allow more wildflowers to bloom this season. For more information on this trail, visit Local Hikes.
Audrey Kawasaki is an artist to watch. At 26, she has already emerged on the West coast art scene and is making her living as an artist. Her “girls” are mysterious and engaging. The focus is on the face…in the bedroom eyes and the pouty lips. It is very sensual work for such a shy girl. She doesn’t like to do interviews and in all the ones I have read, she describes herself as painfully shy and a “social weirdo.” In an interview with Chris Mitchell at Life Lounge, she says “on paper, or on canvas or wood, with a pencil and brush in hand, I can be as loud as I want! I am clear and explicit as ever. There is no fear, no shame, nothing to worry about. I am honest and blunt and direct, and loving it!”
I love Audrey’s combination of graphic images and soft faces on wood. I can’t take my eyes off her unusual work. As a process, Audrey sands down the surface and rounds the corners of the wood board, so it is smooth all around (very fitting). Then she draws directly on the board with pencil and seals the wood to start her oil painting process, leaving the wood grain pattern showing through on most paintings.
Shifting through all the information on environmentaly sustainability can be a daunting task. I found the Natural Path website, which claims to “filter information and allows the cream to rise to the top.” The information comes from health experts, natural path editorial staff and community. Watch this promotional video and check out the website to see what you think.
Choose your content and get free magazines! The concept is to reward customers with a free magazine subscription by watching videos about products and information that interest them. The participating magazines put a banner ad on their home page and you get directed to AdPerk to choose your video selections. Currently, there aren’t that many magazines participating, but it looks like they are adding some new ones soon.
I went through the entire process to receive Ode magazine. The videos that I had to choose from where very interesting and you don’t have to watch them all in one sitting. You can play and pause and come back later to finish up. To make sure you are actually watching the video, you are asked to put in a letter verification code at the end. You get points for watching videos and they add up to your free magazine subscription.Â
This new concept of permission based advertising is a good one. I was only shown video topics that related to the magazine that I selected and I was able to choose which ones I wanted to watch.Â
The People’s Grocery was started in 2002 to coordinate a local food system and provide a source of healthy foods to the people in West Oakland, California. There are about 30,000 residents in West Oakland with no grocery store, but there are 53 liquor stores. Many of these residents have diet related illnesses and do not have a source for healthy foods. Brahm Ahmadi, co-founder and executive director, calls it “food justice - the principle that all people, regardless of economic and social constraints should have access to the best foods available in our society.”Â
The goal is to keep the wealth within the community. The People’s Grocery grow organic food in urban community gardens to educate and reconnect people with their food source. They also provide healthy cooking classes and a produce box distribution program, so the residents can get fresh foods in their homes.
This is the featured story on the Global Oneness Project, which is a “web-based video initiative exploring how the simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.”
They work by these principles:
- We are responsible to each other, the earth, and future generations
- There are enough resources for us all, if we share
- Free exchanges of information allow for greater, collective creative potential
- Love, care and compassion have the power to transform the fabric of society
This year, we are trying to grow some of our own produce. I have planted several vegetables using organic soil, so we will see how we fair in a month or so. The top left image is a broccoli plant. The rest of these images are from blooming plants in our yard. It is nice to take a moment to notice what is happening in nature.
 
