While You Were Away

If you've ever seen the Japanese animated movie Spirited Away, you know the girl falls into a parallel universe of dreamlike spirits, and when she emerges, she discovers her family's car covered in leaves to suggest the passing of time. It was like that for me last night. When did the cherries come in on the cherry tree? Hadn't I just planted the herbs in the meditation garden which are now going to seed? And don't even ask about the window boxes.
The family returned to the backyard last night-- its sanctuary and its chores. Cherries were picked, plants were watered, the bird feeder fortified against squirrel attack. It was a lovely moment of calm reminding us to literally stop and smell the roses.

A Book About Death: CW Post

Pop artist Ray Johnson is best known for being unknown. A man who dons a placard and boycotts his own one-man show, who uses the postal service as performance art, and who creates complex collages with inconic references and inside jokes, Ray Johnson's art career entwined visual and conceptual art with theater. That's me with him in the second photo in 1984, at a 'cutting party' where he cut the layers of clothes off of people for artistic effect. He dropped hot dogs from helicopters, walked on a roof with a ladder, even his death, a suicide in the waters of Sag Harbor, had all the makings of a Ray Johnson performance.
One of Johnson's pieces was the creation of an unbound book called A Book About Death, where his postcard-sized images addressed the topic of death in his usual mix of truth and irony. To honor his legacy, artist and curator Matthew Rose and a band of fantastically creative folks have hosted A Book About Death postcard exhibitions around the globe, an open call for images borrowing Johnson's theme and format.
There is a new open call for work to be submitted for an upcoming ABAD exhibition at CW Post in Brookville, Long Island, a stone's throw from Ray Johnson's residence in Locust Valley. The deadline is October 15th, so you've got some time to break out your paints, your scissors, and your pencils and enter a work of your own. Click here for details.

Renovation: Unexpected Therapy

I needed to clear my mind from the whirlwind of fundraising and step away from my computer, so the entire family retreated to Potic Cottage, our small spot in the Hudson Valley. After a couple of days of birdwatching and kayaking, it was time to turn my attention to home improvements. We had taken most of the winter off, so it was long overdue. After a roofing leak was repaired, it left unsightly peeling paint in the spare bedroom, eeewww, which revealed a laminated wall board underneath, double eeeww. With spatula in hand, it was time to go. And to my surprise, it felt good to roll my spataula along the wall, paint curling up in long streamers, more like the guilty pleasure of peeling sunburn than renovation. The result, clean but not good looking. I'm hoping that with the proper primer or with white pine nailed on top, it will be much nicer. Until then, I'm looking for some big paintings to distract visitors.
Undeterred, I straightened out the upstairs bathroom, adding small shelves and towel hooks. And how do you like my toilet paper holder? Rustic, no? I capped the improvements by putting my bed on its proper frame. What better way to celebrate this frenzy of nesting? By enjoying last year's improvements of a screened-in porch and a fire in the Malm stove over a glass of red wine.

It's Official!

Drum roll please. . . our backyard is now a certified wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. Establishing eco-friendly landscaping and setting up feeders for birds are two of the easy ways to help stave off the detrimental effects of poor town planning and suburban sprawl. A nationwide campaign to 'green' American backyards makes a lot of sense as birds across the country are losing habitat and not just those living in the Gulf. Acting locally doesn't get much closer than this.

Why Can't a Building Be More Like a Machine?

Back in the day, buildings had to engage their climate in order to be efficient. Porches, overhangs, and the site, all had to work together to address the needs of the inhabitants. Then along came modern heating and ventilation systems, and quickly buildings no longer took environmental needs into account. Inefficient buildings account for 48% of all energy consumption in the United States, so it makes great sense to set goals and incentives to decrease the carbon footprint of our buildings.
This is not some fantasy initiative. Bouler Architecture's Oak Beach project generated more power in its first year than it consumed, making it better than a zero energy structure, but as it stands, it takes a special, forward-thinking client to take on such a goal. Local building codes, however, should take note. With a combination of alternative energy systems, comfort doesn't have to be lost to be efficient. Creative engineering which addresses the microclimate of the site can alleviate the need for turning on the AC or the heat. Towns should consider giving tax breaks to encourage alternative energy sources and eco-friendly landscaping elements, as well as setting incremental guidelines to encourage homeowners to invest in greening their homes. With the cost of off-shore drilling at $700 million dollars a rig, spills notwithstanding, it's hard to believe that making a building more like a machine isn't a cost-effective way to move into the future.

The Angry Landscape: The Gulf

With things with Olivia's fundraiser well underway, I was able to set aside some studio time this weekend to do a collage sketch for my upcoming show in December. Always looking for inspiration, I've been studying Asian prints, especially Taoist images of man dwarfed by nature. And as I inevitably pull for the underdog, I've been hoping to give my landscape images the teeth to fight back. Having started the Angry Landscape series a few weeks before the oil spill, I decided to include an image of the angry Gulf, swallowing a house in one gulp. It's been cathartic for me to provide nature with the ability to fight back against humanity.

Frida Kahlo: Artist

In thinking about the many functions art serves to a culture, one must include healing wounds. Artists often take their pain and infuse it into their work, serving as a cathartic experience for both artist and viewer, hence the cliche of the tortured artist. One of my favorite surrealists of the twentieth century is Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Her tragedy is well-known. Having survived a severe trolley accicent where she suffered extensive injuries, including a crushed spinal chord and an impaled abdomen, Kahlo found an outlet for her grief and pain by making art. The results are powerful and raw, the kind of personal revelation seemingly missing from the other surrealists. Unlike the cerebral works of Magritte and Dali, Kahlo makes her pain our pain.
As Olivia's fundraiser has grown to portions beyond our wildest imagination, it signals that art which heals the soul can take many forms. Her images, both sophiticated and childlike, have given solace to those whose hearts ache for the birds suffering the Gulf area, including her own.

Sunrise in the Gulf

James took these early morning shots of Bay La Launch, Orange Beach, Alabama. He captured the small fish creating a ripple while feeding on the surface of the water. I'm making one of these my screensaver, and welcome you to do so as well. It's an important reminder of what we need to save.

The Spill: Beyond Words

Zero Energy House

I'm guest blogging today on Bouler Design while Nadine is in the Gulf viewing the devastating effects of the oil-spill first hand. Her daughter Olivia has been walking the walk since April when a broken oil pipe allowed thousands of gallons of oil a day to gush into the sea, threatening the fragile eco-system. But Bouler Architecture has put sustainable building at the core of its philosophy since they started business. The zero-energy house at Oak Beach on Long Island is a great example how we can build smarter, not just to reduce our use of fossil fuels but to actually produce more energy than we consume.

For the architect, James Bouler and his client Jill Korman, efficient design was key. They sought to maximize the potential of the site for solar power by demolishing 50% of an existing structure and rebuilding using a geothermal pump, photovoltaic solar panels, an EDPM white roof, energy performance rated windows and Icynene insulation. The house has been finished for a year and has exceeded all expectations, producing more energy than it used and earning it the highest energy-rating on Long Island.
Jill's brief to the architect was simple: build me a comfortable house that is considerate of the planet using as few resources as possible - and Bouler Architecture delivered this functional and aesthetically pleasing design.


10 kw solar panels capture the strong South Shore sun; even in winter the house is energy efficient.


Careful placement of the roof lines and windows allows for passive solar heating and cooling, blocking the summer sun but allowing the sun's rays to heat the poured concrete floors.


Before the geothermal pump was hooked up and the radiant heating started this still kept the house a comfortable 60F in winter.


The angle of the windows in the barrel roof shades the sun, while the clerestory windows on the north side allow for ambient light


Salvaged and reclaimed wood from the original beach cottage was reused throughout the house - either decoratively as in this stair post, for framing the new house or as scrap lumber.

The Oak Beach house is a model for the implementation of green technology and great sustainable design, an irrefutable argument for environmentally-responsible building - modernemama

Birds of a Feather

What is it about the bird which inspires awe and art. With Olivia's project taking flight, literally and figuratively, I wondered about other artists who have painted birds. Of course James Audubon is important as his illustrations cross from didactic to artistic. Another that came to mind was Fred Tomaselli's great bird collages, where he combines smaller elements and crafts them into a cohesive image. that came to mind was Picasso. His Dove of Peace, which he drew multiple ways, has taken on an iconic status.

Lido Beach: The Next Step

Bouler Architecture's Lido Beach project moves forward. Here are the final renderings of this 4,000 square foot waterfront home. Being fueled by photovoltaic panels and a geothermal system, along the passive system of overhangs to prevent solar gain will work together to create a home that treads lightly on the earth in terms of its carbon footprint. By using the Oak Beach project as an example of efficiency, we hope this house will also produce more energy than it consumed.

Blogger Visits

Check out this wonderful post by Modernemama who took the trip with her Guy over to Captree to check out the family compound designed by Bouler Architecture and for a toast of prosecco over the anticipated success of her kitchen renovation, should she survive her MIA contractor.

Banding Birds

One of Olivia's dreams was to band a bird, so we jumped at the chance for her to band one of her favorite birds, the barn owl. Don Riepe, director of the northeast chapter of the American Littoral Society, invited Olivia to join his group in banding barn owls in Jamaica Bay, Queens, and boy, did she have an adventure. After a few attempts to locate the sleeping birds, the fourth try struck gold, and Olivia was able to observe the beautiful birds up close as they were banded for tracking purposes.

Banning the Bottle, Or How I Learned to Love Stainless Steel Waterbottles

I admit-- a case of water is a convenience. Grab a bottle and go-- but is it really that much more convenient than a reusable stainless container? Hear me out.

• Plastic leeches into the water, which we then ingest.
• In the majority of cases, bottled water isn't more pure than your tap.
• There are great and inexpensive purifiers if needed.
• Plastic is made with petroleum, requiring billions of barrels of oil a year to produce.
• Only 30% of all bottles are recycled.
• The energy used to package, transport, dispose of, and recycle bottles is unconscionable.
• And nowadays you can find well-designed ones like my new Keith Haring bottle.

These are the reason why I am banning water bottles from my house and my classroom. Wish me luck.

Backyard Sanctuary

As a healthy ecosystem seems perilously close to being a thing of the past, please consider acting locally. The National Wildlife Federation is holding a challenge of turning our backyards into safe havens all across the country. I was surprised to find that our suburban backyard was able to gain certification of a wildlife habitat by the NWF with one or two tweaks. The checklist is incredibly straightforward-- seeds or berries, trees and shrubs, nesting location, water source, organic fertilizer-- it is quite easy to meet the standard, leaving me to wonder why shouldn't we all get on board. The Audubon Society also has information on their site on how to make your backyard bird-friendly. With the marsh areas of the Gulf chewed up with oil, perhaps we can do our part for bird populations in our own region.