Lumen show is now up and had a really nice opening.  The show can be seen at Middlesex County College in the Studio Theater Gallery. 20600 Woodbridge Ave. Edison NJ. The show is open 11 am - 5 pm Mon-Friday Jan 21st thru Feb. 11.
Here are some pictures of my piece "Contained Garden" before I set it up at the show. Now it looks like an overgrown empty lot in the desert. But this gives you an idea of the piece. There should be some pictures from the exhibit up on Asha, the curators website site soon.

We can love trees...

This was a really sad story I saw earlier in the week. Taken from Associated Press

A 240-year-old American elm tree that has graced Yarmouth, Maine, since before the American Revolution will be cut down on Jan. 18, ending  one man's half-century effort to stave off the ravages of Dutch elm disease.

CAPTION

By Steven Senne, AP

The tree, known as "Herbie" would have succumbed in the 1950s if not for the care of Frank Knight, now 101, who calls the 110-foot tall tree "old friend."

  See video above or clickhere.

Over the years, Knight, a former town warden, has nursed Herbie with insecticides and fungicide injections to battle the dreaded disease,  writes David Sharp, of the Associated Press.

But the battle is now lost and the tree will be cut down in two weeks.

"His time has come," Knight tells the AP. "And mine is about due, too."

Just added a new web gallery to my site... for Bodies of Dirt. Though this is an unfinished project in my mind, but  I think there are enough images to warrant a new section.

I also added the images from Platte Clove.

2010... A new year and hopefully a better one.
I finally got some organization into my life and am going to be working on my Contained Garden installation today. Usually I go out foraging for plants in empty lots and roadsides for installations, but since it is Jan 1st...and there has been lots of snow on the ground, I will try to sow some seeds I collected and have gone to Home Depot for plants. I have always been fascinated by the defense mechanisms of plants.  When you have to be rooted to one place, you tend to come up with some violent and imaginative ways to defend yourself (rather than running away) Cacti and succulents are some of the more interesting ones. Their spine configurations resemble something prehistoric and otherworldy.  I will incorporate some of them into my work, and they are a good plant for my cats, since they love to eat any plants I bring home.

This article is from Wikipedia.... I have been reading about bioluminescence and have often wanted to work with certain fungi for a project.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in the form of light emission. Adenosine triphosphate(ATP) is involved in most instances. The chemical reaction can occur either inside or outside the cell. In bacteria, the expression of genes related to bioluminescence is controlled by an operon called the Lux operon. Bioluminescence has appeared independently several times (up to 30 or more)^[vague] throughout evolution.^[1]

Bioluminescence occurs in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as microorganisms and terrestrial animals. Symbiotic organisms carried within larger organisms are also known to bioluminesce.

Attraction

Firefly larva

Bioluminescence is used as a lure to attract prey by several deep sea fish such as the anglerfish. A dangling appendage that extends from the head of the fish attracts small animals to within striking distance of the fish. Some fish, however, use a non-bioluminescent lure.

The cookiecutter shark uses bioluminescence for camouflage, but a small patch on its underbelly remains dark and appears as a small fish to large predatory fish like tuna and mackerel swimming beneath it. When these fish try to consume the "small fish", they are bitten by the shark, which gouges out small circular "cookie cutter" shaped chunks of flesh from its hosts.

Dinoflagellates have an interesting twist on this mechanism. When a predator of plankton is sensed through motion in the water, the dinoflagellate luminesces. This in turn attracts even larger predators which will consume the would-be predator of the dinoflagellate.

The attraction of mates is another proposed mechanism of bioluminescent action. This is seen actively in fireflies, which use periodic flashing in their abdomens to attract mates in the mating season. In the marine environment this has only been well-documented in certain small crustaceans called ostracod. It has been suggested that pheromones may be used for long-distance communication, and bioluminescence used at close range to "home in" on the target.

Repulsion

Certain squid and small crustaceans use bioluminescent chemical mixtures or bioluminescent bacterialslurries in the same way as many squid use ink. A cloud of luminescence is expelled, confusing or repelling a potential predator while the squid or crustacean escapes to safety. Every species of firefly has larvae that glow to repel predators.

Communication

Bioluminescence is thought to play a direct role in communication between bacteria (see quorum sensing). It promotes the symbiotic induction of bacteria into host species, and may play a role in colony aggregation.

Illumination

While most marine bioluminescence is green to blue, the Black Dragonfish produces a red glow. This adaptation allows the fish to see red-pigmented prey, which are normally invisible in the deep ocean environment where red light has been filtered out by the water column.^[4]

The end of an old year in favor of a new year... has me thinking of the cycles of life, change, resolutions, and inevitable consequences. I will be exhibiting an installation called "Contained Garden" at the end of Jan for a group show called "Lumen" put on by Asha Ganpat. The artwork will be presented in a dark gallery space and the only light will come from the artwork which will all be self-illuminated.

Here is my artist statement for the piece:

Contained Garden is a terrarium installation that includes living plants, dirt, vines, dried spines, human spinal column and human calvarian cut skull.  The installation is illuminated with grow lights from above and lights placed within the terrarium. The effect is an overgrown surreal landscape reflecting the beauty and abjectness of nature. The skull and spine are overtaken by grasses and vines as life overtakes death in an endless cycle of mortality. Vines and roots spill out of the terrarium, seemingly growing from below the wrought iron stand, as if nature cannot be contained, even in art. The soft subtle sounds of the woods at night emerge from the terrarium beckoning the viewer to come closer.

In my wanderings over the internet I came across a site of quotes regarding nature:
www.spaceandmotion.com Quotes
"Deep Ecology is concerned with the Metaphysics of Nature, and of the relation of the Self to Nature. It sets up ecology as a model for the basic metaphysical structure of the world, seeing the identities of all things- whether at the level of elementary particles, organisms, or galaxies- as logically interconnected: all things are constituted by their relations with other things ... Applying this principle of interconnectedness to the human case, it becomes apparent that the individual denoted by “I” is not constituted merely by a body or a personal ego or consciousness. I am, of course, partially constituted by these immediate physical and mental structures, but I am also constituted by my ecological relations with the elements of my environment- relations in the image of which the structures of my body and consciousness are built. I am a holistic element of my native ecosystem, and of any wider wholes under which that ecosystem is subsumed ... From the point of view of deep ecology, what is wrong with our culture is that it offers us an inaccurate conception of the self. It depicts the personal self as existing in competition with and in opposition to nature [We fail to realise that] if we destroy our environment, we are destroying what is in fact our larger self." (Freya Matthew) (Fox, 1995)
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. " (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869 - 1959)