K. Nicole Kindred – Sustainability Consultant

My most recent photo project – a humorous look at our obsession with new products and technology.

I first thought of it when I didn’t have TV and started laughing at the idea of putting up an iPod instead. I thought it was funny.

She responded by writing the following letter to the Audobon Society:

Dear Audubon Society,

As you are all aware of, the oil spill in the Gulf is devastating. My mom has already donated a lot of money to help, but I have an idea that may also help. I am a decent drawer, and I was wondering if I could sell some bird paintings and the profits to your organization. My mom is in touch with an art gallery where I live. She is going to sell them here. I also am hoping to go to Cornell in the future. I want to become an ornithologist. I know a few species of birds. I also acknowledge that this is breeding time for plovers, terns etc. I will do all in my strength to earn money. All I need is your OK. Here is a picture of a northern cardinal as a sample.

Thank you for your time.

Olivia

11 years and willing to help.

The Audubon Society immediately contacted her parents and asked if it could buy one of the drawings to hang in its Manhattan headquarters. Charity officials then discussed how best to use Olivia’s bird paintings as a fund-raising tool and it was decided, with her permission, that her watercolours of birds would be used to raise money for several groups, including the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, the Weeks Bay Foundation and the Sierra Club.

Anyone who makes a donation to these groups is being asked to email Olivia’s mother (nadinebouler@hotmail.com) and Olivia will then draw a bird with pencil, paint it, and post it to the donor.

To learn more about the project and view more of Olivia’s pictures, visit the Facebook Page – Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations.

Source: Guardian UK

PLANT-A-TREE takes a stand against uncontrolled building to protect the historical, cultural and landscaped patrimony of earth and the health of its citizens while promoting the birth of new green spaces that serve to balance the destruction caused by urban development.

This campaign uses stickering and other guerrilla art tactics to spread the message. Stickers like the icon above are placed in cities around the world.

After viewing the greatest nature images of all time, head over to the Flickr blog to check out some dangerously cute photos. These are pictures of foxes, skunks, bears, and other ‘dangerous’ animals before they are all grown up.

The artist, Portia Munson, has found a way to turn heaps of plastic kitsch and junk into beautiful mounds of stuff that both uplift and mock our contemporary consumer culture.

Her art installations are a contemplation of and comment on our manufactured perceptions of nature. Our culture is defined by the objects we mass-produce, consume, and throw away. Portia collects these objects and assembles them into congested installations, in essence using the refuse of consumer culture that usually ends up in landfills and yard sales as her resources.

 The Pink Project:

Green Piece; Sarcophagus

The Garden

The Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver are coming to a close. While these games were meant to be the greenest Olympic games in history, the lack of snow forcing officials to helicopter and truck snow up to the mountains for a number of events probably negates that claim. The Tyee released an article on the Greenwashing of these Olympic games stating how these games used 5,600 vehicles, burned 20 million litres of petrol, and carved up nature. See article, Brown Edges to the ‘Green Games’.

However, despite all this, there have been some interesting ‘green’ exhibits around town during the Olympics.

One of these exhibits is located outside of Science World (or what is now Ruski Dom during the Olympics). This exhibit has taken a number of giant globes and decorated them with various sustainability themes including conservation, green building, water and electricity.

Caleb Charland is a Maine-based photographer who combines a love of scientific experiments and photography. His artwork combines his scientific curiosity with a constructive approach to making pictures.  By utilizing everyday objects and fundamental forces, Caleb illustrates his own experiences with wonder.


Some examples of his work can be seen below. For more examples, please visit his website. 

Source: PetaPixel

Martin Aveling is a wildlife artist originally from the UK. He developed his passion for wildlife art in Africa, stimulated by the Continent’s sharp tropical light and dramatic colour palette. Through his paintings, Martin strives to raise the profile of endangered wildlife around the world and to generate support for conservation. Martin has travelled to Indonesia on an award from the Society of Wildlife Artists thus fulfilling a long-lived ambition of seeing orangutans in the wild.

To learn more about recent projects that Martin has worked on, visit his blog at http://avelingartworks.blogspot.com

Flatpack is an innovative and experimental opera composed by Tom Lane and, in this production, is being staged by Mammoth Music Theatre, directed by Rebecca Lea. The Opera explores issues encountered in everyday modern life and how our consumer decisions and domestic interaction with others are indicators of more profound life choices and personalities. Practically, this focuses on a selection of scenes taken from the lives of a cast of characters, which relate to furniture, living and lifestyle. The marriage of music and drama and the important role of passion, adventure, humour and love are consistent with the traditional elements of the medium. Where it differs is in the setting, its specific content and its performance. The opera also seeks to be as inclusive of the public as possible: by performing Flatpack in a public place, during the official opening hours of IKEA in Wembley, UK, the hope is to attract audience members previously unfamiliar with opera, to catch them unawares, transforming a conventional furniture shop into an unforgettable experience.

The Vancouver Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibit by artist Reece Terris. The installation, called Ought Apartment, consist of a tower that rises from the main floor to the full height of the central rotunda, in which sections from six apartments are stacked one on top of another. Each apartment is furnished with discarded items from the 1950s (on the lowest level) up to the present decade (at the top). Through this process of “making strange,” Terris invites viewers to consider their relationship to the consumption and construction of domestic space and the role this space plays in locating a public as social subjects.

Walking through the installation is like walking through time. What is most amazing is that Ought Apartment is made up entirely of reclaimed materials – thus showing how easy it is to furnish an apartment of any era with recycled goods.