Between the LongShadow

Between the LongShadow              digital              ©Greg Patch

"spiral fan"

"spiral fan" began in late January with playing with conceptual designing. It started out of the processing with "life is good waiting for moss to grow".  In "spiral fan" and "life is good waiting for moss to grow"  I'm experimenting with yogurt/moss growing, incorporating it as an element in my art work. In "Spiral Fan" I've simplified the yogurt/moss formula to just yogurt and the moss with its' root/dirt and am using a different genus of moss without adding hemp seed powder and am using a smaller ratio of moss. This moss is a more lush variety growing in the cracks of the concrete steps leading down into my backyard.
  

The moss in "life is good waiting for moss to grow" has not taken, creating an interesting color/texture with moss form protruding out of the yogurt. A combination of bringing it inside w/out much light and not sufficient watering it lays either dead or dormant. It may not have particularly liked yogurt! 

In this work I didn't create a bedding. I simply drilled holes in the desk surface and applied the yogurt/moss. The roadside desk is foundational and the fan created from the dead/dried fan like fronds of the backyard Windmill Chosun Palm.

With my work I'm allowing my daily environment experiences to enter into the work in an expression through the process of our/my art making. It is myself in simbiosis with my environment; animal/plant, air, earth, fire & water, all the above and the below and the meeting of my own ego and survival driven energies balance with the interchange.

recycle bin

grounded, sexy, and lasts longer than a Valentine dinner...

recycle bin                               digital                                ©Greg Patch

"in the works..." #4

left "in the works..."
aside, while waiting for a surface to appear for it. it appeared in the same pile I'd collected that were part of the same roadside desk that "crossroads" and "life is good waiting for moss to grow" utilize. each piece will finalize as hanging apparatus are determined. there will be 5  paintings in all that speak with the old desk...

previous entries for "in the works...";
#3 was made on 1/15/12
#2 was on 1/5/12
first entry made on 1/4/12

sea shell calcite spiral orbs on concrete

sea shell calcite spiral orbs on concrete                                     ©Greg Patch

Garden Drawing/Painting 2/23

"HONEY" at Greenville Art Museum

Am honored, grateful, and just a tad excited to have been selected by juror Catherine Coulter-Lloyd, Curator of the Maria V. Howard Arts Center to have "Webh Ground 1" be included in this group show running from March 15 - April 8 at the Greenville Art Museum in 

Greenville, NC. HONEY is Co-Hosted by East Carolina University and the Greenville Art Museum.

Webh Ground 1         Beeswax/Natural Pigments         16" x 24"

from the call for entry prospectus; "HONEY, "a dynamic, juried exhibition embodying and celebrating the role of the honeybee. In light of the international Colony Collapse Disorder crisis and global concerns over war, economic collapse and a worldwide food shortage, the fate of the honeybee mirrors the fate of humanity. Philosopher Rudolf Steiner noted the bees as an indicator species in developing his ideas on biodynamic farming and caring for the earth. This call for entries seeks artwork related to these issues and honoring the majestic apis mellifera."

For a clearer, more concise format of this 9 works series please vist my website 

gregpatchart:

http://bit.ly/xGcBw9

2 pt video I made on my creative process with this series of 9 works;

youtube video #1. http://bit.ly/eTEBet

youtube video #2. http://bit.ly/ylF23U

to access blog entries made, search "WebhGround Series" to your right. 

enThanks Honeybee.

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Chickweed is a very tasty nourishing spring herb addition to salads and snacking on a forage in your garden and in the meadow.

Stellarria, after its' star like flower, enriching the fallow raised bed.
There's Blessed Thistle Centaurea benedicta in there also doing its part to heal and enrich the soil
along with other plant, animal and spirit soil essentials.

One can smell and feel the Spring cleansing, rebirthing energetics of Chickweed as it nears the taste buds!
As always try to be very select in wildcrafting in not picking more than 25% of existing plant colonies, do not gather close (if possible further than 100 yards away from) to highway's fumes or power lines, ask permission from landowners and the plant colony, and give thanks to those people and plants for their symbiotic gift to you/us.

"Chickweed fresh herb (Stellaria media) is a mild food herb that is diuretic, anti-inflammatory and a vulnerary. Internally it is used for urinary irritation including interstitial cystitis as well as gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers. Topically Chickweed is utilized for inflammatory skin and mucous membrane conditions such as erosion of the cervix and vulvodynia.
Topical use - Fresh poultice of the crushed herb as needed
Extract - 60 -100 drops QID" 
© Herbal Therapeutics, 2003 8th edition by David Winston, Herbalist AHG & Ethnobotanist, p. 71

from http://www.stevenfoster.com

Chickweed Stellaria media          ©Steven Foster Photography

earth/flour drawing/painting 2/21/12

work done 2/20/12

close ups

stopped in this morning at the local food cooperative Tidal Creek to get a few things and asked at the juice bar for a couple cups of carrot pulp leftover from what she was fixing for a customer. "a little cucumber and greens", the friendly juicer told me, "are in it."). Mixed this with water & Buckwheat flour (varying dilutions) for pouring line and splattering though out the entire garden tying in all the plant growth and earlier drawing. Other markers were some of the fallen Yellow Jasmine Gelsemium sempervirens flower in the yard and more green/ery with spring growth Chickweed plant Stellaria media growing in one of the fallow raised beds the landowner has. (more on Chickweed as a medicinal and food "weed" soon). Other markers are a tomato top and hand crushed brown & white egg shells from my compost bucket, dried Loquat lf., dried Pineapple Guava lf. and unidentified (the unknown to me) dried grasses and leaves from the yard. Some finger drawing, hose water drawing and shadows as they moved across the garden create more depth. The garden plot wholistically tied in with surrounding brick walkway, lawn and other garden space and the garden soil is enriched by the art work.

As the Sun shadow passes over the garden a new work is described...

& the Mourning Dove returns.

earth/flour drawing/painting 2/20/12

Mourning Dove enJoying the cornmeal and warming morning Sun 

earth/flour drawing/painting 2/19/12

after a day of warm 66˚ & sunny weather there were small fissures in the flour. with a night and morning of steady rain the drawing/painting takes on new dimension and imagery re-defining. the wetness brings growth in the vegetation and materials darken, coloring brightens and gray-dations disperses.

earth/flour drawing/painting 2/17/12

over view

recycled dark potting soil w/perlite, tendrils and roots of deceased fern to existing garden plot with recycled brick edging w/shards of brick and ceramic ware, existing Strawberry Fragaria spp. and Yarrow Achillea millefolium plants and other dirt matter. a rich textural and form describe the basic under drawing/painting. 

using organic buckwheat, cornmeal & unbleached whole wheat flours
develops into the drawing/painting.

Trachycarpus fortunei

one of the two young "Windmills" that gifted me with their old fronds for "a land to stand on" and another work still in its early stages. some variants of these palms will grow up to 66'. they are cultivated as far north as Scotland and Alaska. thinking energetically/medicinally it may be effective in insulating from the cold and salt air.

Trachycarpus fortunei (Chusan palm, named after the Chinese island of Chusa) is considered in Chinese medicine to be a mild essential herb with haemostatic and astringent properties. Here in the USA it is commonly called Windmill Palm or Chinese Windmill Palm. In TCM it is referred to as Trachycarpus wagnerianus 
from http://www.tcmassistant.com/;

Properties Nature Neutral.  Taste Bitter, astringent.  Organ Liver, Large Intestine, Lungs, Spleen.  Toxicity Non toxic. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachycarpus_fortunei Trachycarpus fortunei has been cultivated in China and Japan for thousands of years, grown for its coarse but very strong leaf sheath fibre, used for making ropes, sacks, and other coarse cloth where great strength is important. The extent of this cultivation means that the exact natural range of the species is uncertain.

Actions Harmonizes the Blood. Stops bleeding.

Green Walls

from treehugger.com ~

 Patrick Blanc's Madrid Wall

a green wall at a Chelsea Flower Show

 

London's new green wall, Van Goph's "A Wheatfield with Cypresses" funded by GE

Caroline Dear

www.carolinedear.co.uk Artist living and working on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. I work with the land and the plants around me. I am interested in making work which questions our ever changing relationship with the natural world.


http://carolinedear.blogspot.com/

plant lines

noticed these daisies forming a live rope along the edge of a
sheep track.....

"a land to stand on"

a land to stand on                 42" x 60"                mixed medium

this photo taken with not right lighting shows the piece on my studio floor with only a few
things needed for completion; will ask/seek/decide on hanging apparatus and fine tune some of the applied beeswax/natural pigment front and back, threads, etc.

"a land to stand on"

has paint applied and much of the paper removed...

very dry Loquat leaves

last summers dryness was especially hard on this young Loquat sp. It's red leaves hanging in a cluster
of stillness as this sunny cold 24˚ Feb morning adds more light to the deterioration and re-placement of the tree's elements.

mixed medium                                         35" x 27"

materials:

recycled 1" thick honeycombed cardboard

recycled brown wrapping paper

earth pigments

turmeric

wheat paste

green tape

Khadi paper

beeswax

reconstituted used natural soy candle

thumb tacks, pin, fuzz balls and other items

             digital                                               ©Greg Patch

"a land to stand on"

"a land to stand on"

the butcher block paper will be removed once the fronds are painted and become material for another work(s). the fronds draw the height at about 42" and the Mahogany board creates a width of 60".
a mixed medium piece with Beeswax and natural pigments, Mahogany/tung oil and Palm sp. leaf (looking for id), recycled screws and several drill bits.
the Beeswax is from our troubled bee populations, the Mahogony I liberated from my landlord's, (thank's Darren!), and my small stack of various pieces of wood and the Palm fronds were trimmed as dying lower fronds last month from a couple trees in the back yard.

screw lines drawn

bolt                                                                 ©Greg Patch  

some new lay out

the cardboard is 1" thick and light for this work. I love this cardboard! the other inch is with folds of paper and tape.

35" x 26" x 2"

Cheesecloth Grid 5

Cheesecloth Grid 5           12" x 16" x 1"        natural earth pigment & og cheese cloth on Khadi paper