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| Mike Brown and his self-portrait |
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| Jennifer Elizabeth Crone and her piece, "Look Closer" |
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Oil on Canvas with distressed photographs, texts, and other things, by Jennifer Elizabeth Crone |
This painting took an extremely long time, perhaps the longest stretch of time I've ever worked on anything. I started it about a year ago with a thought I had while riding a train to New Jersey and looking at the naked trees through the fog. After painstakingly, and time consumingly, painting each tree in harrowing detail (which was already the 3rd layer, mind you), I of course put an egg made of text all over the bulk of the trees. At one point this painting was looking quite neon and graphic, if you can imagine. And here is the final work, a forest grown over a forgotten promise, winter covered with the inkling of spring.
After a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck central China last May (killing 69,000 people, injuring hundreds of thousands and leaving millions homeless), the government is planning an extensive reconstruction project that includes building more than 1.5 million temporary homes designed to last two or three years.
Urban Re:Vision hosted a contest to answer this need; one particularly cool submission for which was designed by Ming Tang, whose central feature was to develop a temporary shelter for homeless people that exhibits characteristics of umbrellas and folded fans. The structures can be arranged into various contexts and dwelling requirements. The self-reconstructive "origami" structures can produce potentially infinite scenarios. Composed of paper fibers, water, and cement, the buildings can be used for a variety of construction applications. The lightweight paper house can be pre-assembled in the factory, folded into a small package, and loaded into a truck for transportation. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
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Better Farm has scheduled a three-hour seminar July 9 to introduce students to the fundamentals of Tai Chi and self-defense.
Individuals will become acquainted with I Ching breathing exercises, which are the foundation of the Chinese Internal Chi (including Chi Gung, Nui Gung, Fuhn Hey, and Dim Mak); and prime aspects of personal safety and self-defense. Those in attendance will acquire basic skills including necessary holds and escape maneuvers, as well as the foundation of stances and postures associated with Tai Chi.
To learn more about Better Farm's workshop schedule and to sign up, click
.
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| Large oil on canvas with mixed media and reproduction antique German scrolls and sheet music/Jennifer Elizabeth Crone |
As people debate rising gas prices and the recent approval of more off-shore drilling (favored by many as an alternative to importing internationally mined oil from, say, Libya), they forget one small detail: No matter where we drill, or how often, feeding the Hungry Hungry Hippo that is civilization is inevitably going to use up a finite source. Our hunger, that is, is greater than our fix.
We were born into a cyclical earth system and imposed a finite method over it—one of the great inequalities bemoaned in every sustainability lecture. To be sustainable is to be able to repeat an action indefinitely. You don't need me to tell you our current system works in a completely opposite way. That means we either have to change our way of doing things, or face the fact that it's a dead-end road.
Enter Akinori Ito, CEO of the
, who realized all this and
came up with a very practical solution
.
Ito devised a machine that actually converts plastic
back into oil
. The contraption utilizes a temperature-controlling electric heater that processes polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene. The result is a crude gas that can fuel things like generators or stoves and, when refined, can even be pumped into a car, boat or motorcycle. Here's a video clip about the process:
One kilogram of plastic produces almost one liter of oil in Ito's invention. To convert that amount takes about 1 kwh of electricity, which is roughly 20 cents’ worth. Blest makes the machines in various sizes for residential and industrial use. The smallest machine, which you can operate in your home, will run you just under $13,000.
Of course, what humans need to figure out (and soon!) is a way to live sustainably in a system of invention that is 100 percent renewable. That means no more oil dependency, period. Harnessing the sun, wind, or even the tides could work; and is even something
attainable within 40 years, according to one Stanford researcher
. Ito's idea is at least a giant step in the right direction, and a welcome addition to the world of reusing, reducing, and recycling.
To see sample machines and learn more about the Blest Corporation, click
.
David Sedaris, NPR humorist and best-selling author of
and
When You are Engulfed in Flames
is scheduled to speak at the
at 7:30 p.m. May 5, 2011.
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
Tickets, ranging in price from $25 to $35, are available
.
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| "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner" by Jennifer Elizabeth Crone, oil paint, sheet music, and pages from John Irving's The World According to Garp. |
