Conversations about the Earth: Peruvian/Mother Nature

Quechua people

Subsistance agriculture,Gathering,
Seasonal disruption,Unusual precipitation (rain, snow, hail),Extreme heat
Mountain,
Food,Destruction sacred sites,Disrupted ceremony

Quechuas (also Runakuna, Kichwas, and Ingas) is the collective term
for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a
Quechua language (Southern Quechua mainly), belonging to several
ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia and Argentina.

They have an interesting and very strong outlook on mother nature
which I find to be very interesting. I want to base my project off of
their beliefs on mother nature by illustrating how they love and are
thankful of mother nature. 
http://www.conversationsearth.org/index.php?temp=media&id_story=26

Atsuko Tanaka

Atsuko Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese avant-garde artist. In 1955, Akira Kanayama had introduced Tanaka to his colleagues in an experimental art organization which he had founded called Zero-kai (Zero Society); she had soon joined this association. Tanaka’s pieces can be seen as abstract works that rejected conventional notions of how works of art should appear or “perform.”  Tanaka's works, which include abstract paintings, sculptures, performances and installations, generally feature objects from everyday life: textiles, door bells, light bulbs and the like. Her piece, Stage Clothes, produced in 1956, consisted of gigantic stick-figure frames draped with fabric and light bulbs, and an immense red dress with sleeves 30-foot (9.1 m) long sleeves. This turned out to be a multi-part ensemble that she wore at a Gutai performance. She had peeled off each layer rapidly in a costume-changing routine.

I chose to represent Tanaka similar to the way she represented herself in her piece, Stage Clothes. Tanaka literally inserted her body into the work of art, making herself a part of the performance. So I chose to insert her into abstract circular forms that are very similar to her abstract circular paintings.

Conversations With the Earth (Gamo Highlands)

Kattenstoet

linocut

Conversations with Earth - Evee Erb

I chose to respond to the story of the indigenous Kichwa people of Ecuador. In 1993, an Ecuadorian contractor for a carbon offset foundation negotiated a 350 acre pine plantation to be constructed in Mojandita, a Kichwan community. The community would work together on the plantation, and would benefit from the sales of mature pines. However, the contractor failed to provide adequate training for such rigorous, high-elevation work, and also required the Kichwa to pay for expensive tools and supplies, and paid the Kichwa only half of the agreed upon amount. After ten years, there were hardly any pines that had reached maturity, so there were none for the Kichwa to sell and profit from. The Kichwa are very close to nature (which they refer to as "Pachamama"), and perform regular rituals to honor the earth. In the Summer of 2003, a candle from such a ritual had caused a fire, which spread through over half of the plantation. The contractor insisted that the Mojandita residents pay for the damages, however they backed down once the Kichwa threatened to move against the company. Today, local vegetation is regrowing throughout the previously charred plantation site. However, there are many other carbon offset plantations sprouting up across the globe, presenting the opportunity for the exploitation of indigenous peoples and their land.

The Kichwa are subculture of the larger South American Quechua ethnic group , who specifically live in Ecuador (their dialect is also referred to as Kichwa, and is a Quechuan language spoken only by approximately 2.5 million people). Similarly to the Kichwa, other Quechua groups have been facing a struggle for land rights and ethnic discrimination for centuries. As with all Quechuan ethnic groups, handicrafts play an important role in their culture (particularly weaving and pottery). As such, I am creating a ceramic piece for this assignment.

My sketch acts as a sort of rough blue print... I am going to use several different techniques to build up the portrait using many different layers of slip, colorant oxides, and glazes. There is a portrait of a Kichwa woman, and the negative space of her hair will fade into the background and become the barren, charred plantation landscape. In the center will be my drawing, which will be on a clay slab that is supported upright from the back (similar to a picture frame). On the sides of the piece are two thrown and altered forms that will be attached, serving as little planters in which sprouts will grow, framing the sides of the piece. In this way, the piece will have three-dimensional elements, but will still be seen from a visual plane rather than as a sculpture. I have researched different methods of weaving with pine needles, and may incorporate this into my design as well...

The process of the Mojandita landscape being burned relates to this piece as well, due to the face that as ceramic pieces are fired, certain chemicals and natural compounds burn away from the clay and surface treatments. As such, it can be difficult to predict exactly how the piece will turn out, though I have started compiling different glaze recipes that I want to use that fit into my color palette, which will consist mainly of greens, ochre, brown, and soft red tones. Though much South American pottery is made using an iron-bearing red earthenware clay, I'm going to use a lighter stoneware clay body in the hope of being able to get more precise color results while I'm testing the glazes.

Conversations with the Earth, Audrey Estok

http://www.conversationsearth.org/_PhotoEssay/Doko/index.html

I would like to create a series of illustrations, including maps and statistics illustrating the uses of the Enset plant that is very important to the Gamo People of Ethiopia.  The plant is being wiped out due to climate change, and the lack of rainfall in sough west Ethiopia. In the end I would like to put these things together into a small book or pamphlet.

Conversations with Earth Sketch- Joy Kim

Papua New Guinea- Manus Islands
Livelihood: fishing
Crisis: sea level rise, flooding, extreme storms, disturbing wind currents
Ecosystems: rainforests, island, aquatic
Cultural Effects: population displaced, food, disrupted habitat

What I want to do: Create a 3-D illustration that describes the status of the population and the environment.

Conversations with Earth Sketch

Environment- Gurani People and Deforestation

On the southeast coast of Brazil there is the Guaraqueaba Forest, where three American companies have ‘purchased’ a forest as a way to offset their carbon footprints. Basically, they are promising not to cut down these trees, in a rather stupid concept called ‘avoided deforestation’. They are not fighting their carbon footprint by adding more trees or reducing it. They are buying forests with trees that have already absorbed a certain amount of carbon- it’s not like the trees are actively absorbing the carbon as the companies are releasing. They don’t own the land- they just pay, promise not to cut down any of the trees, and receive ‘carbon credit’, which the entire process is not allowed in many developed nations, which signed the Kyoto

Anyway, there are people who live in this forest. They are the Gurani people. They may not have any land rights but they have lived there for generations and have lived off the island: hunting, fishing, harvesting, farming, etc. But now that their land is ‘protected’ they are having a hard time getting by. A group called the Forca Verde (Green Police) arrest, and prosecute when the Gurani people do what they’ve been doing for centuries: cutting down the local Palmetto trees to live off of. The Green Police ignore all the people who are cutting the trees down illegally for the illicit food market. They are taking bribes from the big American companies to prosecute the local residents, to dissuade them from fighting back since it brings the government a good chunk of money.

I did some more research on the Guaraní people. There is a lot of mythology in their culture, and I was struck by one line from the photo essay: “all the indigenous wisdom comes from the forest”. I began thinking about some sort of Mother Nature-esque spirit watching over the Guaraní people and seeing all the problems that is happening to her forest, sort of an almost Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas type spirit.

I’m going to do collage again- a series of three images focusing on the Forest Spirit’s and its reaction to the whole ‘avoided deforestation’ business.

LIVELIHOOD CRISIS CONDITION MITIGATION IMPACT ECOSYSTEMS CULTURAL EFFECTS

Fishing,Hunting, Carbon market,REDD, Rainforest, Disrupted ceremony,

http://www.conversationsearth.org/index.php?temp=media&id_story=13

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/gms-money-trees

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%AD_people

Conversations with Earth Assignment Research

In the village of Kumik, in a remote Himalayan valley of northwest India known as Zanskar Located at the bottom of a melting glacier, effects from global warming and greenhouse gases have began to destroy the environment, forcing the people to migrate from their ancient village.

Cultural Effects: Disrupted habitat, food, population displaced

Livelihood of People: Sustenance agricultural, pastoral

Crisis Condition: Disappearance of habitat

Ecosystem: Mountains

Strong thousand-year-old Himalayan culture prominent in Kumik.

-       Himalayan textiles

-       Hand –made, dyed patterned colorful patterns fabrics

-       Prominent colors: Dark greens, browns, reds, yellows, earth tones

Wallpaper/wrapping paper

-       Graphic depiction of Himalayan landscape

-       Use of Himalayan textile designs eating away at surroundings to act as the deterioration from the melting glacier

happy family kaiqi gao

Wangari Maathai: Melissa Hecker

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Lucrezia Borgia

Medusa

Fuyuko Matsui

Asdzaa Nadleehe- Changing Woman

Asdzaa Nadleehe- Changing Woman

For four days, the mountain Ch'ool'i'i was covered with a dark cloud that slowly descended down its base. One day, First Man decided to investigate and set out chanting a optimistic song. He ascended the mountain and at the tip, right when lightning flashed and a rainbow showered him with vibrant colors, did he find Changing Woman. Here is Zolbrod's description of the actual discovery:

 He looked down at his feet where he heard a baby crying. But he beheld only a turquoise figure. In it, however, he recognized the likeness of a female. It was no larger than a newborn child, but its body was fully proportioned like a woman's body. (Zolbrod 1992: 175)

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma97/dinetah/change2.html

Queen Nzingha a Mbande; Allison Mackey

Josephine Baker

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Schehereazade Final

Joan of Arc (Lauren Sessa)

Mary Antisarlook- Reindeer Queen

Belgium

Boudicca