Losing the Green War

Crab swimming in oil tar balls in Orange Beach, Alabama: photo by James Bouler

How can this be? On the cover of this Sunday's New York Times, Abu Dhabi sets a goal of a zero-carbon footprint city in 2007 and builds it. The week before, NYT columnist Thomas Friedman describes how China has transformed its factories to manufacture clean-tech products. Meanwhile, our Senate can't pass clean energy legistation-- even with the oil spill in recent memory. Despite the $300 million invested by the oil industry in lobbying our legislators, I still had hopes that this issue wouldn't be reduced to the usual 'us vs. them' mentality and get tangled in gridlock. I hoped that with so much hanging in the balance-- manufacturing jobs, national security, and the ecology-- our representatives would see it in our nation's best interests to move the issue, but alas with midterm elections upon us, once again setting appropriate incentives to move the US off oil will have to wait again. One can only wonder if we can afford the cost of waiting while others pass us by.

Save the Puffins!

Not to be outdone by big sister Liv, Jackson started his own fundraiser this summer, raising about $350 to date, which he donated to Project Puffin. His drawing now graces mugs, totes, and tees, one of which is modeled by Pop-Pop, his first customer. If you have a soft spot for puffins (who doesn't??!!) or know someone who does, consider saving the puffins for part of your holiday shopping list.

Alex's Lemonade Stand: A Poignant Reminder

While at the World Heritage Cultural Center event in NYC this past Saturday night, our family had the great fortune to meet Alex's Lemonade Stand's Elizabeth Scott, Alex's mother. Alex Scott is one of the most amazing children I've ever heard of, and her story is told best on her website-- about a young child who raises millions to help children battle cancer while fighting the disease herself. I was humbled by Alex's story and her mother-- a poignant reminder of what to do when life hands you lemons.

Before and After

Potic Cottage: Before

Potic Cottage: After

Crow's Nest, Hog Island, Maine: interior Before

Crow's Nest, Hog Island, Maine: Interior After
Even while rusticating, where we reside can have an impact on our experience. Just ask Thoreau. House Thinking by Winifred Gallagher and At Home, a new book by Bill Bryson are just two of many texts that explore how our homes evolve and the impact they have on our psyche. Both of these Bouler Architecture 'before and after' projects were on strict budgets and wanted to tread lightly in their environmental impact. The top one is our weekend place, Potic Cottage, in the Hudson Valley--a one bedroom cottage originally 665 square feet. The other, Crow's Nest on Hog Island, Maine, houses Audubon's summer ornithology camps. Through a combination of economical design and creative use of materials, these projects were able to transform the space to be most hospitable.

Gehry: Audacity of Form

An Update From The Gulf

While Olivia and James were visiting Seattle, they visited the Seward Park chapter of the Audubon Society for some birdwatching with bird expert Woody Wheeler and to hear an update on the Gulf spill. I asked James for a recap.

Olivia and I travelled to Seattle last week for the TEDxRedmond convention. While is Seattle, Olivia did a presentation at the Seattle based Seward Park Audubon Center. Dr. Tom Bancroft, a scientist with Audubon, called in from Washington for a question and answer session after Olivia’s presentation.

Dr. Bancroft stated that the Gulf Oil Spill, as feared, has devastated the wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. He stated that, in a conservative estimate, 8,000 birds have died. This number would not also count the eggs that did not hatch, or many deep water birds that are too far off land to be counted. He ventured that the real number would be more than triple this estimate.

Scientists are finding oil inside the bodies of shrimp that are captured, as well as oil inside the eggs of crabs. The dispersants used by BP have done more harm than good. The effect of the dispersant was to do two things: dissolved part of the oil into a small molecules that are dissolved into the Gulf water and the other effect was to coagulate the oil into a rock like clump, where it sinks to the bottom of the gulf to forever be a part of the eco-system and ingested by bottom feeding aquatic life.

The oil is continuing to wash ashore. There are cleanup crews that gather the oil when they find it.. but it is difficult to gather it all, since it is coming in at so many different locations. If the oil is not discovered quickly, it is covered by sand due to the wave action of the gulf. If covered, he has seen the oil bubble up in different areas, in some cases staying on the beach and in other cases being washed back out into the gulf.

The marshes were already in peril, due to the trenching that the oil companies do to bring the pipelines from the oil rigs in the gulf. They trench right through miles of marsh to get to land. Louisiana loses a football field size of marsh land each day, due to the trenching and the fact that Mississippi River has been diverted and does not deposit the sediment that nourishes the marsh to keep it healthy.

The only silver lining in the oil spill is that Dr. Bancroft is seeing some cooperation between the local and national governments on the spill clean-up and marsh land restoration. He estimated that, while we do not know for sure, it will be decades before the gulf recovers, and even at that time, there will be buried oil deposits that will continue to infiltrate the Gulf eco-system.

While is Seattle, I was able to read the latest National Geographic Magazine, October Issue, 2010. It is one of the best accounts on the oil spill: both in how it happened and what has been the result on the eco-system. I highly encourage people to read the article. In my opinion, the real work in the Gulf is just beginning. Olivia listened to Dr. Bancroft’s presentation. I will admit that it was difficult for her to hear all of the facts. She told me after her talk that she is ready to continue her work to save the Gulf and the many birds that are affected.

Yesterday in my emails I received another update from the National Wildlife Federation, another organization Olivia's fundraiser supported. They report 2,500 brown pelicans have perished, perhaps placing them once again on endangered lists. The work cleaning up the Gulf is far from over and although hearing such news about the wildlife is devastating, it pushes us here to continue fighting until that habitat is restored. It's going to be a long fight.

A Book About Death: Palumbo Picasso

Only Louise Millmann could rope me into a performance piece. The latest A Book About Death Exhibition installment will be at CW Post University's gallery, in November and my submission is in the mail today. The opening on November 3rd, will include performance pieces as a tribute to Ray Johnson's work as a conceptual and performance artist. Johnson, whose 'happenings' were actually called 'nothings', staged everything from ladder carrying, clothing cutting parties, art protests, and fan club meetings as part of his performances, but it was his 'foot-long' hot dog drop over Long Island that captured our fancy. Millmann's dramatic alter-ego Viv Maudlin, is at the ready to serve up a creative event, so it was time for me to introduce Palumbo Picasso, my riff on Paloma, whom Johnson deified through the Paloma Picasso Fan Club and incorporated into many of his portraits. As to what Maudlin and Picasso do, you'll just have to show up and find out.

September's Summer Sunday

As I soaked in the last Sunday of summer 2010 by weeding my scandalously overgrown meditation garden, I felt an unfamiliar sense of calm. Not feeling particularly reflective or anticipatory, my mind became quiet for the first time in many months. I wondered, Am I actually living in the moment? It was a fleeting thought, but there nevertheless.

Form and Function

Here are some final images of the Islip Fire Department project, another downtown renovation/retrofit by Bouler Architecture. The original building, a Mediterranean style from the 1920's, sorely needed to modernize in order for the fire department to house its fleet of trucks and to accommodate the volunteers. Even the bell tower was restored, bell included. Hopefully the trend of tearing down old structures to pave the way for the new can be quelled in light of the successful results of renovations like this one.

577 Main Street

Retrofitting a building is an eco-friendly option instead of tearing things down. With retrofitting, however, comes a slew of design challenges, not the least of which is how to fit a new function into an old structure. 577 Main Street, a Bouler Architecture project, turns Islip's former town hall into a modern office building. The brick building, which also once housed a couple of jail cells, offered unique design elements. For example, by incorporating the exposed brick in the interior, the modern pendant light fixtures and sleek furnishings read more like a city loft rather than a sterile corporate environment. With Verace just two doors down, Bouler Architecture was able to update two historic and important structures in downtown Islip while maintaining the street's character.

Conservation and Disney's Project Green

Olivia with the cast of Camp Rock; far left is Beth Stevens, Disney's Environmental Director; center is Vikki Spruill from the Ocean Conservancy.

Olivia and Jackson were on hand for the filming of a public service announcement for Friends for Change Coastal Clean-Up event and discovered all sorts of hidden trash on the beaches of Tampa. From soggy blankets to torn-up tarps, about 30 burlap garbage bags were filled with garbage.
Disney World has adopted several visible ecofriendly practices: paper straws, lidless drinks, brown paper towels, and an increased recycling program. But what was behind the scenes was even more impressive. The conservation efforts behind Animal Kingdom, from breeding a near-extinct species of kingfishers from Guam to rescuing oil-soaked sea turtles from the Gulf of Mexico, were evidence of a serious committment to the environment on a global scale. One collaborative project included Kenyan farmers, whose crops were being trampled by elephants. The farmers, unable to restrain the elephants, needed to find a way to keep the animals off their property without harming them. Disney scientists were able to discover how an elephant's fear of bees could keep them at bay. By working together, the Kenyan farmers and the scientists were able to create a border of bee hives that not only kept elephants off the farms, but generated a money-making crop of honey. This was just one of the many projects shared with us while we toured their facilities.

Matisse at MoMA

I've always been a huge fan of Henri Matisse's work so I was pleased to find myself today at MoMA to see Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917. Their composition and color are about the sheer joy of experience, and to see some works in person which I had never seen before, was an inspiring way to end the summer this Labor Day. The images, completed during WWI and the cubist era, had a richness that surprised me, especially Interior with Goldfish. The images that struck me most were his interior scenes, with glimpses of Parisian street scenes out the window. The surface of the canvas, with layers of paint peeking out from underneath each other, were darker than his earlier fauvist work and served to bridge one era of his work to the next. The show runs until October 11th.

Meet the Sea Tuckers!

What a day for a fundraiser! The Seatuck event yesterday was a sunny affair, with families of all ages turning out to support this local nature preserve. The postcard exhibition grew as the day progressed as artists added to the display, and author Paul Rodriguez was on hand to read from his book, Goldysocks and the Five Bayous. A portion of sales of Rodriguez's book go straight to helping the bayous of Louisiana. The highlight for us was the performance of the Sea Tuckers, who, under the direction of Jon Pereira and Jesse Neuman, played a series of songs inspired by New Orleans jazz. Thanks to all who volunteered, donated artwork, and attended this event.

Seatuck Set Up

The entire family went over to Seatuck today to check out all the art that came in-- I teared up when I saw all of the bird drawings that flew in from all over the country and all over the world. It was so fun to hang drawings from people of all ages and abilities-- from the crayon to the photograph, it's clear that many talented artists are out there and thinking about birds. James and Seatuck director Enrico Nardone ironed out some of the postcard sales arrangements-- keeping the show up until three before dismantling so people can enjoy it in its totality. Olivia immediately busied herself hanging the postcards, looking at all the notes and considering how she wanted to group them, while enjoyed looking at a handmade book Olivia received from artist Lori Gillen and her art group. In the meantime, Jackson snuck around the estate, a lovely slate roofed piece of architecture that has been restored to pristine condition after a terrible bout with vandalism several years ago. Newsday's Jennifer Maloney is covering Saturday's event, with a photographer snapping shots of the scene.
When we got home, we were delighted to see another artistic package from a bird lover in Alabama. What a wonderful wrapping of collectable stickers, which we saved quite carefully, and inside were two breathtaking pieces of art incorporating collectable stamps into the image.
Needless to say, snail mail still brings a palpable excitement in its arrival.