took this photo sketch on the recent trip to RI at Purgatory Chasm Park in Middletown of a bowl carved by spinning waters in granite. "pergatory" is a bit of a Christian negativism toward spinning and chasms as being hell instead of signs of spinning waters and holes in the Earth created by the behavior of the elements/energies... similarly we may experience Mercury retrograde as a time of things going "wrong" ethically, physically and/or spiritually in communications and flow in general. instead we can act to see/understand it as influencing a time for us to reflect on our growth since the last Mercury retrograde...

the photo morphs as we reflect on it by looking at it. animal and symbolic writing appears as pareidolia
and the circle will be unbroken...

                                              Japanese Pagoda

the tiers with odd numbers are strongly favoured by Chinese numerology and Buddhism. they represent yang and the positive principle. Pagoda is an auspicious symbol of education and protection in Feng Shui.

a side view of the Earth pigments with snow and flower box "minimal installation" struck me today along with two other flower boxes on the N railing and E railing of the porch as...

pagodaesques

East

West

North

"Yellow Dock Rumex crispus Field theories"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Decorated_horse_jawDSCF6970.jpg

  a carbon dated horse jaw artifact found in a cave in Wales is estimated to be @10,000 years old. the herringbone like wave patterns are typical of design artifacts found around the globe from many cultures, ancient and modern. 

the proto Indo European word "Webh" is the root word for Web, Wave and Weave and describes a knowledge and understanding of the connectedness in movement and stillness of all things.........

Mamey, Pouteria sapota

Mamey sapote Pouteria sapota

from http://www.fromthefarm.com/fruits/tropical-fruit/mamey-sapote-0#

Recently bought a Mamey fruit at our local co-op, Tidal Creek. 
It was intro for me and was so tasty that I planted the seed and rind, having most of the pulp in my belly, in an "organic" fruit growing medium w/perlite and vermiculite. I am, half like, mimicking the entire fruit falling from the tree and creating a nourishing environ for the seed to feed on in the ground through the germinating/sprouting process. 

http://www.redlandorganics.com/products_services.htm
Mamey has been grown in FL sine the 1880's in US Florida

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaxaca,_Oaxaca#Food_and_drink
Oaxaca Mexico
..."Tlacolula and Ejutla an indigenous drink called 'tejate' is still prepared and sold in the local market. Known here as the drink of the gods, it is prepared with corn, cacao, cacao flower and the seed of the mamey fruit."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_sapota

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_sapota

Nutrient value of raw mamey sapote fruit (3.5 oz or 100 g of fruit).¹

Constituent	Approximate value	Constituent	Approximate value	Constituent	Approximate value
Water content	62%	Carbohydrate	33.8 g	Phosphorus	28 mg
Calories	134 kcal	Total dietary fiber	2.6 g	Potassium	344 mg
Protein	2.1 g	Calcium	39 mg	Sodium	10 mg
Fat	0.6 mg	Iron	1.0 mg	Vit. C	20.0 mg
Cholesterol	0.0	Magnesium	30 mg	Vit. A	410 IU
1, Data taken from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2005. USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 18. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_sapota

Pouteria sapota

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Abricó" redirects here. This may also refer to the apricot (Prunus armeniaca).

The mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) is a species of tree native to southern Mexico. Today, the tree is cultivated not only in Mexico, but also in Central America, theCaribbean, and South Florida for its fruit, which is commonly eaten in many Latin American countries. Mamey sapote is a large and highly ornamental evergreen tree that can reach a height of 15 to 45 meters (60 to 140 feet) at maturity. Like most fruit trees, it is mainly propagated by grafting, which ensures the new plant has the same characteristics as the parent, especially its fruit. It is also considerably faster than growing trees by seed. The fruit is about 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10 inches) long and 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5 inches) wide and has orange flesh.

The fruit is eaten raw or made into milkshakes, smoothies, ice cream and fruit bars. Some consider the fruit to be an aphrodisiac.^{[citation needed]} Some beauty products use oil pressed from the seed^[1], otherwise known as sapayul oil^[2].

The brown skin has a texture somewhat between sandpaper and the fuzz on a peach. The fruit's texture is creamy and soft. A mamey sapote is ripe when the flesh is pink when a fleck of the skin is removed. The flesh should give slightly, as with a ripe kiwifruit.

The mamey sapote is related to other sapotes such as sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), abiu(P. caimito) and canistel (P. campechiana), but unrelated to the black sapote (Diospyros digyna) and white sapote (Casimiroa edulis). It should not be confused with the mammee apple (Mammea americana).

Mammea americana

It has different names depending on the country: mamey, zapote colorado (Costa Rica), and zapote rojo (South America), among others.

Mamey sapote
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Sapotaceae
Genus:	Pouteria
Species:	P. sapota
Binomial name
Pouteria sapota (Jacq.) H. E. Moore & Stearn

[edit]See also

• Sapodilla

[edit]References

1. ^ Chadwick, Molly (11 January 2011). "Emerald Forest® Botanical Hair Care With Rainforest Sapayul Committes to More Natural Products With Introduction of Paraben Free Shampoos And Conditioners - Yahoo! News" (in English) (HTML). Encinitas, CA: PRWEB. Retrieved 25 August 2011. "Sapayul oil comes from the seeds of Sapote, a fruit indigenous to the Central American rainforests and an ancient Mayan secret for beautiful, soft, and shiny hair."
2. ^ Anita, Grant (14 December 2006). "Organic Sapote Seed Oil (inci: Pouteria Sapota, Zapote, Mamey Sapote, Zapayul, Sapayul)" (in English) (HTML). anitagrant.com's photostream. Flickr. Retrieved 25 August 2011. "Organic Sapote Seed Oil (inci: Pouteria Sapota, Zapote, Mamey Sapote, Zapayul, Sapayul)"

[edit]External Links

• TradeWinds Fruit: Mamey Sapote
• New Crop Resource Online Program: Sapote                                

Garden Drawing/Painting 2/23

new peace

making art brings me to a sense of peace and have recently been using "peace" in place of "piece" for the individual works i'm speaking or writing about. it's part of my feeling aligned to what comes to my vision reality in the peace.

with the seasonal change am acknowledging a small dying/transforming Sweetgum leaf along with continuing grid work sketches gathering in my studio. It's a harvest! 

more on new work

since starting this piece a few days ago the topic "infinite" has been coming up for me talking and listening with others. How do you pick a healer to work with? The possibilities are infinite. How do you get to the right posture in yoga? There are infinite possibilities. The weather? Again, within certain seasonal expectations, infinite. Brushstroke?, breast stroke?, stroke?, sitting quietly?, ... 
                                   ∞
I started the layering of color blocking areas left to right, then top left to bottom left, right to left, etc. That got tired for me, rushed, static art, frozen fingers, wrists, arms, a pain in the neck and a dead battery in my camera, indigestion, etc. With all the possibilities manifesting I began realizing this infinite topic reoccuring thing and swung into swirling infinite signs flowing all over, trying to stay on the 22" x 30" paper with out creating static edges, honoring the irregular bevel of of the papermaker and my own liveliness. This is it. 
Will be away from this new work for a few days. 
 

The Omo People

                              

a progressing transformation note 6

progressing transformation  ©Greg Patch

some finishing touches added/subtracted, am looking at hanging methods for display at Porters Neck Yoga & Spa 2 weeks prior to the Solstice art ceremony/performance 6/21. This art piece will undergo a transformation within a Fire Ceremony/Celebration. Look for announcements from PNY&S and other participants; yoga, art, music, etc. ...and more to follow as with all transformation.

The Grid Book / Hannah B Higgins

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11683

Emblematic of modernity, the grid gives form to everything from skyscrapers and office cubicles to Mondrian paintings and bits of computer code. And yet, as Hannah Higgins makes clear in this wide-ranging and revelatory book, the grid has a history that long predates modernity; it is the most prominent visual structure in Western culture. In The Grid Book, Higgins examines the history of ten grids that changed the world: the brick, the tablet, the gridiron city plan, the map, musical notation, the ledger, the screen, moveable type, the manufactured box, and the net. Charting the evolution of each grid, from the Paleolithic brick of ancient Mesopotamia through the virtual connections of the Internet, Higgins demonstrates that once a grid is invented, it may bend, crumble, or shatter, but its organizing principle never disappears.

The appearance of each grid was a watershed event. Brick, tablet, and city gridiron made possible sturdy housing, the standardization of language, and urban development. Maps, musical notation, financial ledgers, and moveable type promoted the organization of space, music, and time, international trade, and mass literacy. The screen of perspective painting heralded the science of the modern period, classical mechanics, and the screen arts, while the standardization of space made possible by the manufactured box suggested the purified box forms of industrial architecture and visual art. The net, the most ancient grid, made its first appearance in Stone Age Finland; today, the loose but clearly articulated networks of the World Wide Web suggest that we are witnessing the emergence of a grid of unprecedented proportions—one so powerful that it is reshaping the world, as grids do, in its image.

About the Author

Hannah B Higgins is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of Fluxus Experience.

Reviews "[I]t is...an informative and sometimes provocative meditation on the place of geometry in human life." —Bryan Hayes, American Scientist

Endorsements "The title of this book does not begin to describe how subversive its intentions are. Higgins's review of the deep history of the grid rescues it from whatever claims modernism has made to its form and function, and more precisely identifies the grid as a tool of human cognition, which has happened to have a profound effect on our visual culture throughout history." —Lorraine Wild, award-winning designer, cofounder of Greybull Press, and member of the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts "Here is a natural storyteller, with scholarly depth, apparently motivated by delight. Where another information historian might have breezily justified your cultural comfort with the net, or else made a jargon-laden assault against it, Hannah Higgins has found the right pitch. Whatever grids you are on, this brightly edited book might help you know them better or see them differently." —Malcolm McCullough, author of Abstracting Craft "Hannah Higgins's new book on grids is a confident synthesis of art, architecture, geography, geometry, urbanism, and social history. Its elegant prose and easy erudition recall the work of Lewis Mumford; its intellectual energy and subtle humor, the writing of Roland Barthes." —Stephen F. Eisenman, Professor of Art History, Northwestern University

Webh at Work

The webh in its many dimensions is drawn by the line and shape of an existing finished closet, the unfinished legs of my new work table, the ladder to the loft/bed, floor boards and the perpendicularly dimensional lines created by negative space and ladder rungs combine in space to enscribe webh...

Ocean sands and seaweeds satellite image of the Bahamas

http://bit.ly/hxNoVA

A view of the earth though the eyes of Landsat-7 satellite.
Ocean Sand, Bahamas
Image taken October 29, 2000

Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas. The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert. 

Text Source: NASA Image courtesy Serge Andrefouet, University of South Florida. 

from http://bit.ly/i2Yj2C

STUDIO LIBERTINY’S VASE MADE BY BEES

by Emily Pilloton, 04/24/07

I’m a self-proclaimed Droog addict, and have touted the “je ne sais quoi” of the always-engaging and wryly humorous Dutch design ad nauseam. And this bee-made vessel by Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny of Studio Libertiny is no exception. Making its debut at Droog’s booth in Milan, the vase was made by 40,000 bees over the course of one week. Studio Libertiny constructed a vase-shaped hive that the bees then colonized, building a hexagonal comb to encompass the existing form. And in the usual dry yet oh-so-clever Dutch manner, Studio Libertiny calls this process “slow prototyping,” a more time-consuming, yet much more poetic alternative to CNC rapid prototyping.

Egypt

the cradle of civilization

EmPower 

Aligning with inner

and outer 

perfection of nature.

discovering the power 

of alignment, 

through a process, 

time,

space,

honoring our unity 

of oneness,

layering of color, 

& line

creates me whole,

in gratitude,

peace,

love.

                                                                       © Greg Patch  2011

Spring 2011; Two Art Events showcasing our relations with Nature in US

...an encouraging synchronicity...

in Madison, SD at DSU's Karl E. Mundt Library Art Gallery opening Feb  1...

at Osilas Gallery, Concordia College, Bronxville, NY opening Feb 6...

artist Alan Sonfist

Frottage of the Hemlock Forest    mixed media    6' x 6'     1969      

Alan Sonfist is an artist/designer who engages with natural landscapes to evoke the hidden narrative of the Earth. His vision and green art projects cross borders to inspire ecological sensibility and conservation.

Frottage, or rubbings is a technique used for millennia. The Surrealist Max Ernst is given credit for developing the use of the technique in 1925 when he became fascinated by an old wooden floor that had developed time worn patterns that fascinated him with the strange imagery he saw in the patterns of wear with the grain of the wood. 

Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action | Video on TED.com

Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action | Video on TED.com

Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you'll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results.

About Janine Benyus

A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Janine Benyus' concept of biomimicry has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire… 


http://www.janinebenyus.com


Janine's new website http://www.asknature.org will allow inventors, scientists, artists, academics and the public to discover systems in nature that can help illustrate solutions to particular design situations.

as the critter moves