Introducing Spirit of Water

I am thrilled to introduce Spirit of Water, a community art and rainwater catchment project initiated by volunteers in a partnership between Fabric of Life and Beauty of Water. Spirit of Water has now begun and will take place over time, as our collaborative process is as important to us as our end results. We are excited about both.

We were honored to inaugurate Spirit of Water yesterday with an onsite blessing by Unangan (Aleut) Elder Alice Tu, shown seated in the photo above. Thank you, Alice, your own delightful spirit was a blessing in itself.

Today we held our first community brainstorm session, which was geared toward youth. Led by Edmonds artist and teacher Mona Fairbanks, we shared ideas and investigated one proposed working space, the outside back wall of the Fabric of Life shop.

In two hours together we came up with so many great ideas for the design! I can hardly wait for the next session, where we'll brainstorm with some of the movers and shakers of our community.

Please let us know if you'd like to join this unfolding project.

FABRIC OF LIFE WEBSITE ♥ BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Essays on Beauty

"...beauty may be contentious and difficult to define, but it’s also one of the great goods of human life. It is something we all crave..."

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has published seven commissioned essays on beauty. I did not find these provocative, rather they comforted me.

As Hasan Bakhshi writes, "The appreciation of beauty is a fundamental part of what it means to be human."

Enjoy! And thanks, Chris Fremantle for this link.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Local Happenings

I enjoy focusing on the global level, as I've written of here before. Yet I appreciate being grounded and local, too!

Last night I joined pals from Sustainable Edmonds at an event for Sustainable Works hosted by Green Drinks. It was a clear evening and I enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound on my bike ride home.

Speaking of the sound, People for Puget Sound organized a 10-10-10 work party at the Edmonds Marsh. My sister's grade school age kids eagerly joined me and an impressive gathering of volunteers for some good old mud.

In August I had the pleasure of participating in the "How To Bring About Large-Scale Behavior Change" workshop led by Joe Brewer and hosted by Sustainable Seattle. My guest blog post is here.

Meanwhile Beauty of Water projects continue to evolve and emerge in their own sense of rhythm. I have learned not to force collaborative art processes. "Spirit of Water" in partnership with Carol Schillios and the Fabric of Life is one of the collaborations I am excited about. More info on this wonderful project will come in the fullness of time...

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Sound with Water at Arts in Nature Fest

Last weekend at the Arts in Nature festival I got to be a kid again. The "Sound Cabin" hosted by Amber Kai Morgan and Garrett Kelly of Hollow Earth Radio was a blast! They had hung an underwater microphone in a tank of water, and provided inspiring tools like leaves and shells for making surprising sounds, using the water as part of the instrument. It was really fun!

Now I'm wondering about including realtime sounds of water in the multifaceted installation we're in the early stages of developing in Edmonds, north of Seattle. Join us if you can.

Throughout the day the elegant Cabiri aerial dancers, two pictured here, from the Anunnaki Project, delighted onlookers.

Thank you, Nature Consortium, for a lovely day!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Beverly Naidus and the Beall

I recently had the pleasure of traveling by bicycle and ferry to see Beverly Naidus, shown here, eco-artist, professor, and author of several books including Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame, at her home on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound near Seattle.

Beverly has begun a new, multi-faceted work called "Eden Reframed: An Eco-art Project for the Beall Greenhouses" in partnership with local non-profit SEEDS and other community members.

After a refreshing salad of greens I picked from her garden, graced with a handful of raspberries and toasted filberts, in other words, nirvana, Beverly took me on a tour of the Beall property, which held commercial greenhouses for many generations, as this 11-image slideshow reveals. The precise site for the project is featured in several slides -- watch for a pile of rubbish in the brush.

The soil at the Beall is contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic and lead, most of which arrived by way of a formerly functioning Asarco smelter. There is also pesticide and petroleum contamination, making remediation additionally challenging.

Artists have gravitated to the Beall for many years, yet this project is unique. Combining sculpture, ritual, video, oral history, permaculture and more, collaborators will work together to heal this land and reclaim it within the community. Utterly inspiring, thank you, Beverly!

Please visit Beverly's Eden Reframed: An Ecoart Project blog for more photos and updates.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE