This painting I did from a photo my dad took while traveling in Africa. A small, poor village with bright colors and happy people. It is interesting how we romanticize those lives different from our own. Perhaps we all could use a little more simplicity and color in our world.
I am leaving soon to Colombia to start my own travels. Perhaps to search for a simpler more colorful life myself. Hopefully some new painting will emerge from the beautiful people I meet.
It was accepted into the SD County Fair and it received a People's Choice Award. Yay.
I have spent the past 5 months (Mar 7-July 27) at a community called Arcosanti in AZ. Arcosanti is an amazingly diverse and fascinating place to live with many artists and architects making it an ideal place for me to stay and learn about sustainable living while taking time to get creative with my art and crafts.
My first visit to Arcosanti was Sept 3rd, 6months before I knew I would have an internship here for 5 months working with the construction and agriculture department.Arcosanti is a testing ground to develop more self-reliant and sustainable cities that are condensed to preserve land, use renewable energy, and localized agriculture. Conceived by Italian architect Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti is a proposed vision for a better city born 40 years ago.
Located an hour north of Phoenix, Arcosanti sits on 4,000 acres of natural preserve with beautiful landscape, frequent lighting shows and stargazing from atop the buildings.
Arcosanti is famous for their bronze and ceramic bells that are sold worldwide and help to fund the project.
Here is a view of the Agua Fria River from a few miles awayThe surrounding area is rich in Native American history and artifacts. Below are some petroglyphs of The Indians and perhaps pronghorn or tethered goats. Not sure why that dude is upside down?A white peacock that lives down in camp checks me out as I feed the chickens and gather eggs.
The Greenhouse
I spent most of my time here working on Phase I of the Energy Apron/ greenhouse project. I worked under the construction department and helped to tend this greenhouse and harvest and organize a CSA to sell the produce to residents. I also carefully documented harvest pounds, temperature, water usage, natural pest control and compiled a report assessing our success as compared to various studies in natural and organic farming such as John Jeavons and New Alchemy. We did pretty darn good outproducing New Alchemy and matching John Jeavons (who claims you can grow enough food for a person for a year (300lbs) on 100sq ft.)
Our pretty greenhouse lots of tomatoes, basil, Dill and red leaf lettuce!
Squash and watermelon grew up these neat upcycled bicycle wheel racks
The goal of the Energy Apron/Greenhouse project is to eventually have 5-7 acres of greenhouse that will provide food year-round for the city and trap heat. This heat will be siphoned through heat duct tunnels that already exist under the building and help heat it during winter months. Nothing like this has been done on such a large scale and if it is successful will be a great experiment in energy usage for large buildings.
I hope to take all I have learned here in sustainable building and agriculture and add to this knowledge in my next journey to South America looking for more sustainable communities.
Arcosanti has had a long tradition of clay crafts starting of course with their bell making. I have the privilege of learning from the artisans here and below are some the the clay crafts I have made.
Clay pots
Silt cast bell I carved decoration into using tools developed by Paolo Soleri
The tee is produced by Grameen Knitwear in Bangladesh. Grameen Knitwear is part of the network founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. A portion of the sales from each tee will be contributed to the hessnatur Scholarship Program at the Grameen Shikkha project, which helps to eradicate poverty through education.
Celebrating 40 years of work by Alums to make Arcosanti a catalyst in rethinking urban life towards sustainable, efficient and socially enlightened cities.
A Poster I designed for Arcosanti's 40th Anniversary with the weekends celebrations.
The final destination- a home that works with nature to provide our needs
In my last blog I went over a lot of the technical aspects so here is the romanticized but true tale of my 25 day internship with Earthship Biotecture.
Not two months have passed since I left my Earthship friends in Texas that I find myself back with the same crew but now in a new land. Down south, Todos Santos, Mexico where a beautiful home is to be built for an equally beautiful family, a brother and sister who hope to build more, as well as dream of building an off-the-grid city over land that is threatened by the mining industry who will destroy the water supply here.
The photo above is what we will end up creating. You may not fully understand what it means until I complete my tale so let me start from the beginning....
Part I Feb 7-14 2010
Once upon a time there was a girl who was camping alone in the wild desert of Baja where she fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing and the stars above.
She soon found herself no longer alone for there was a whole crew of Earthshipers building a house by her tent.
These strange people rammed dirt into old car tires as insulation for the walls. Look at how many tires they have pounded and this is only 2 days later.These Earthshippers also worshiped the skys catching the rains that landed on their abode and keeping it below ground in containment systems where every drop was frugally used many times before it was returned to the earth again.Everyday with her new friends they would retreat to the endless beaches to cool in her waters.After a hard week of working with her new friends they set out east to play. Along the way they found how death was celebrated in this landWith death comes beauty there is no one without the other.
Next to this still place, a bounty of life older than our own twisted into the skys so high all we could do was look up in wonder.
A bond was made with my friends and I that day and with a new friend we were sad to leave.
But back to work it was for us because we have a lot to accomplish in so little time...
Part II
Feb 15-21
Anna, the sister of Patrizio, whose dreams of an earthship home were becoming a reality, crouches to inspect a wall made out of cans. The Earthshippers had the power to transform trash into treasure creating shelter and thermal mass to capture the suns warmth.Eight days later and the shell of the home was already finished by 60 helping hands. Spectators would drop in from the skys to see this phenomenon happenThis project is so special a film crew created a documentary on how to build an earthship so that it can be shared with everyone. As Reynold says "an ant can build it's own home- why can't we?"By the third week the Earthshippers have started to absorb the suns light converting it into endless energy to power their homes- brilliant!Reynolds, the visionary of these homes, and his wife Chris bask in the Warm Baja Sun Another weekend and another adventure to see whales, and sea lions, hundreds of Jack fish turning the ocean to a wall of glitter in an off-grid town nearby. Life is plentiful and life is clean the way it aught to be.
Part III Feb 21- March 5th
On this day, Feb 27, the moon rose above the mountains at the same time the sun was setting into the ocean. This same day we got word of a tsunami warning from an earthquake in Chile. Hundreds of lives were lost like the recent disaster in Haiti. Reynolds spoke of efforts to create temporary shelters that also supplied the 5 basic needs- warmth, water, energy, food and shelter for situations like these. With a new night comes a new day with despair comes hope.Adding the final touches, Rory is pretty much the poster boy of this amazing crew. Wherever in the world you see a well made earthship Rory has been there.
Every Earthshipper has an amazing story - read about girls storyFrom trash comes treasure there is no one without the other.
\Glass bricks, once trash now swirl around a window that will be the front of a long greenhouse. You see the Earthsippers realized that: "To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves."—Gandhi
The soil is wehre all things come and all things end a perfect cirlceThe finishing touches go on and a splash of color!
An entryway to a home made with lots of love
Although seemingly strange and new the Earthshippers ideas were as old as time- working with nature to provide our needs instead of conquering her we reach a place of wholeness.
In the end of our Journey Patrizio and Anna have a beautiful home that can utilize the earth's energies, the sky's water, and sun's power. And now as an Earthshipper I not only made life long friends and memories but I carry the knowledge to create more homes like this, to respect the earth and utilize her precious resources in a way that keeps her healthy and plentiful for future generations. THE END
A project to create packaging for an organic drinkable yogurt line. I conceptualized the name, branding, researched exotic superfood fruits with special health benefits all packaged in a completely biodegradable container made from ecolean.
This painting I did from a photo my dad took while traveling in Africa. A small, poor village with bright colors and happy people. It is interesting how we romanticize those lives different from our own. Perhaps we all could use a little more simplicity and color in our world.
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