Etching with aquatint and color pencils, 6" x 11", 2009
Artist Statement
When I was attending elementary school as a kid, I used to learn that Korea has four distinctive seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter. It is same to New York, too, where I live right now. Since I don't remember when, however, transitional seasons like spring and fall have been getting shorter and shorter. When I ask people around, spring and fall are many people's favorite seasons for their gentleness, calmness and their beauty. For me, especially spring, when everything is back to life again after long, cold winter is just amazing. However, I began to feel that it is very hard to say when the spring is any more. Winter lasts longer and longer, and finally when I do not need winter coat, all of a sudden it is summer, which lasts until winter starts again.
Unusual weather phenomena have been happening for years now all over the world and this summer I see people get sick because of the extreme temperature difference between indoors and outdoors due to severe summer heat and excessive usage of Air Conditioning. It all makes me very concerned that weather is actually changing and people still act according to their own comfort. I made this piece wishing that we do not need to tell our children that we only have two distinctive seasons. Spring Has Gone, the title, is the right opposite statement that I wish to carry.
Artist Biography
Born in Ohio, Aram L. Kim grew up mostly in S.Korea until she came to New York to attend School of Visual Arts and go on living as a freelance illustrator after graduation. Her art has been shown in several galleries in New York and published in various magazines covering from economics to children's stories. She is now working on illustrated books to be published soon.
In 2009, a temporary "park" opened on the East River waterfront in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Through the help of private citizens, local businesses and the support of the public parks committee, Woolley mounted a group of eco-friendly art panels that advertised nature to this public area which housed no plants or trees.
Artist Biography
Weston Woolley, 31, was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. As an adult he moved to New York and Los Angeles, experiencing urban life in all its glory and detriment, discovering and pursuing his passion for visual art. Though Weston prefers oil painting, he embraces all media. When asked what drives him to continue to pursue a life in art he responds, " We all live in a creative universe. I truly believe when we tap into that source, our lives become enriched and aligned. Simply, it makes me happy."
Neeraj Riddlan obtained a BFA from Delhi College in 2002. He currently works as the Senior Digital Illustrator in TERI. He uses various styles in his artwork ranging from polished digital images, to caricatures, to comics. You may find other works including professional and freelance pieces on his website listed below.
This piece is a documentary by the scientists Jena Webb and Nicholas Mainville, who have been studying contamination in the Andean Amazon since 2001. The film goes into detail about their work in the communities affected by oil exploration and mercury pollution. In conjunction with this film, they produced a play to explain their research findings to several communities along the affected bodies of water.
Artist Biography
Jena Webb completed her bachelor's degree in Biology at McGill University with honours. She then went on to conduct research on mercury contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon for her Master's degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Québec at Montréal. During her academic career she has held positions as assistant to the associate editor for the journal Science of the Total Environment, researcher for the Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health and Neurotoxics Working Group, researcher for Community of Practice in EcoHealth – Toxics in Latin America and the Caribbean (CoPEH-TLAC), and core coordinator for the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecohealth (CoPEH-Canada). She recently graduated from a PhD programme in Geography at McGill University for which she conducted research on the levels of mercury in fish and human populations and PAHs in local communities exposed to petroleum wastes living along three rivers in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. Her research interests include petroleum contamination, ecosystem approaches to health, the Amazon, Latin America, indigenous communities, food quality, and metals.
This video is a sample collage of recordings from Stockholm, New York City and Paris. The music played as intro/outro, and to the text transitions dividing the city soundscapes, are compositions produced from these very samples. Pulse, intensity, rhythm and tonal harmony are intrinsic qualities of the city. Urban ecosystems deserve a more complex investigation than the dualistic scheme "wanted"/"unwanted". Acoustic Ecology is a rather new aspect in urban research, but it reflects the core problems of urban development through a holistic and interdisciplinary approach.
Artist Statement
The world is urbanizing rapidly with more than half of the global population now living in cities. Improving urban environments for the well-being of the increasing number of urban citizens is becoming one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. Urban well-being is complex and includes access to transport, housing, health, safety etc. but also have strong cultural and aesthetic dimensions. Even though it is common that city planners have visions of a 'good aesthetic urban milieu', such visions always focus on the visual dimension. . The qualitative perspective of sound, such as sonic diversity and acoustic ecology are neglected aspects in urban planning. Whenever environmental acoustics is on the agenda, the topic is noise abatement or noise legislation – a quantitative attenuation of sounds. I wish to turn this perspective around. I want the general public to appreciate sounds, urban planners to use it as a tool for recreation, inspire inhabitants and to encourage more creative solutions for the problems with noise pollution in urban ecosystems.
Since August 2009 I have collected samples from various urban environments. My recordings explore the acoustical aspects - the audio spectrum - of key cities and their ecosystems. With my work I intend to create an awareness for various soundscapes. I want to acknowledge the importance of a more complex and creative approach to sound issues in urban ecosystems. With my research, recordings and video productions I wish to promote sonic diversity in urban development - integrating architecture and art with human activity and wild life.
Photography, polymer medium, and acrylic paint on canvas (approximately 40cm x 60cm) (Sale inquiries welcome; Contact the artist directly)
Artist Biography
Lauren Crawshaw recently completed BA Honours at York University in Environmental and Health Studies. During her undergraduate degree, she volunteered abroad at community-based conservation areas in Kenya and Cambodia, and has spent this summer working for an international organization that emphasizes an ecosystems approach to development work. She looks forward to fall of 2010, as she will be commencing a Masters degree in Public Health in Epidemiology with a Global Health Focus at the University of Toronto.
My work involves the creation of sublime, tranquil worlds based on the inherent diversity and exquisite beauty and fragility of natural forms, paired with mythological archetypes and allegorical imagery and iconography of ancient civilizations. I carefully arrange intricate, detailed motifs and symbols into patterns superimposed upon animal, insect, and plant forms, harmonizing simplicity, complexity, and symmetry. These make up interior structures and systems, a layer revealed beneath their luminous, translucent forms submerged or growing within dappled environments of layered washes and spray effects.
Painted with acrylic and interference colors, all of the paintings exude a captivating quality of changing light. Trees and plant life shimmer and glow, sway and resonate. Some works produce an effect not unlike illuminated stained glass windows or fine embroidery. In some instances, as light changes over the course of a day, so too does the effect produced by the paintings. As the sun sets on a cloudy day, the effect produced in Lotus renders it almost a three-dimensional holograph; some petals appearing to even grow toward the viewer. The tree in Golden is heavy with blossoms, with sunbeams bursting outward behind it. As the viewer shifts position, light passes over the surface, and the form appears to disappear almost completely. This ethereal quality, richness of surface, and vivid juxtaposition of glowing color and contrast may be seen to communicate an allusion – the illusion of nature's permanence.
As we face the devastating consequences of global warming in a world perpetually saturated by the mass media with negative values; consumerism and the acquisition of material wealth, through the exploitation of the most precious of our natural resources; our water, earth, and air, – the implications for the future of our planet are cause for grave concern.
It is my utmost desire to convey and instill a sense of enchantment with the subject, of deep honor and reverence for nature, for my work to serve as an illuminating catalyst for positive change. As I 'embroider' the delicate fragility of my subjects, I strive to inspire a shift in values, a deeper regard for the preciousness, vulnerability, and interdependency of nature. Just as the symbolism of the ancient Egyptians immortalized their reverence for the afterlife, I strive to reflect an environmental consciousness, by creating transcendental, visionary art that serves to deepen awareness, heighten spirituality and foster our evolution.
Artist Biography
Educated at York University in Toronto, Eldridge holds a Fine Arts Degree with an honors distinction. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and exhibitions, and online international exhibitions including The Hive Gallery, L.A., Fenario Gallery, Oregon, the Toronto Art Expo 2009, and the Interdimensional Art Show 2009 alongside visionaries Alex Grey and Andrew A. Gonzalez. Her work has been published internationally in the book Dynamic Media: Music, Video, Animation, and the Web in Adobe PDF, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics packaging, and in web, prop, and print marketing materials for Nucraze, a jewelry and accessories company.
