Friday, February 26, 2010

Wonderments

Under the leaf litter lies a world of mycorrhizae, nematodes, bacteria, earthworms, mites, moles and beyond. These organisms perform myriad functions including soil-decomposition, nitrogen-fixation, and adding nutrients to the soil.

This complicated web allows plants, animals and fungi to live together. How did we figure all this out? It started with a question and a dedication and passion to find an answer. Having a magnifying glass and a microscope also allowed us to be able to see all those tiny processes unfolding.

Let's look at the other side of things: something massive. How about the axial tilt of the Earth? The fact that the Earth rotates on a 23.5 degree tilt causes all sorts of interesting things to happen. As the Earth moves through its orbit around the sun the Northern and Southern hemispheres face the sun at different extremes.

For those of us lucky enough to live North or South of the equator, we have seasons. The further we are away from the equator, the more change we see between summer and winter.

Isn't this stuff amazing?

As we live our life we are somewhere in the middle of the minuscule and the massive. We don't need to be experts to understand these things, either.

-This post was copied from an email sent to me by the Wilderness Awareness School. Last summer, I spent a week at this school deepening my understanding of nature...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Claire's Summary of Terry Winters—Linking Graphics, Prints 2000-2010 (Cooley Gallery at Reed College)

I thought the exhibit was interesting because Terry Winters uses math and science in his art, unlike other artists. Everyone saw different objects and meanings in Terry Winters prints, whereas the nude art from hundreds of years ago that we saw at the Cooley Gallery is recognizable to people and the meaning is clear (if you know things like Greek mythology like Gregory did). I liked watching people from our class look at a piece and move on, but then take another glance and come back to it to scrutinize a color almost completely hidden under other layers of the print or contemplate the meaning of the print after hearing someone else say, “I see a water slide!” or “Look! It’s a irrigated farm through a wet camera lens!” I think this exhibit was more engaging to everyone in our class because the art was like a series of puzzles. People were drawn to a piece because of what they thought they sawvbut when the student next to them said, “No, look it’s a (blank),” they continued to examine the piece instead of moving on through the gallery.

I liked “Process Color.” What drew me to this one is the vivid colors that seemed like if the print was on a block of paper pulp that was five hundred feet tall the color would still continue to the bottom. The knots that so often occurred in Terry Winter’s art and were plentiful in this piece reminded me of a garden of cabbage roses growing abundantly on the prints. The effect the colors had, some lying on top of each other, others blending together in a fresh wash, topped with delicate prints, seemed Japanese to me. The aspects I liked best were under curving black lines and the whole print was stamped with a star-like shape. As a result, I thought the colors and roses looked far away.

The set of prints called “Intervals” also drew me in. These prints were not as busy to my eye. I liked the simplicity of the white embossments that the looked like the fast revolving toys at OMSI set on crisp, clear November afternoon, sky blue paper. I also like how they were “classified” by the identification section at the bottom of the paper. (This leads me to think the “fast revolving OMSI toys” are a concept of science.) As a set of six, the pieces felt right to me. They had order by identification (an idea I liked included in art) and a feeling of calm, perhaps from the simpleness of white on blue after the surrounding frenzies of black lines.

Terry Winters attempts to capture science and mathematics in his art by having prints of things that look vaguely familiar from spending time in a science lab and numbers and patterns strung throughout his prints. I think Terry Winter’s style is interesting to look at and definitely amazing. So much experimental work went into each piece, from transferring an idea onto paper through a printing method. I wonder if the final prints of pieces are ever exactly how Terry Winters first imagined them. His style overall is around the neutral to me, on a scale of hate-love. I certainly enjoyed looking at his art but I didn’t think, “This unbelievably outrageous,” or “I could have this framed on my bedroom,” or “I want to see everything his has ever made.”

In the natural world, I believe there is an indirect joining of science, mathematics, and art. Science and mathematics make up the natural world, explain why, name how. Today, global warming equals science. Plant coloration is often constructed of patterns, like pineapples, cabbage, irises, lettuce, and shells have Fibonacci pattern markings. I think many people who believe in God probably think he created art by making the world. But personally, I believe art is indirectly linked to mathematics and science in the world because so many people use the natural world and things that happen because of the natural world as inspiration for their art. I do not believe in a god, I believe in evolution, so I do not think the natural world is a man in the sky’s masterpiece. I do believe art is related to the natural world through the beauty people see and try to capture through their art.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Cooley Art Gallery-Terry Winters

Terry Winter's art had a lot of recurring themes and that gave me the impression that he was experimenting and learning as he created his art. Some of those themes are the knots, which I didn't like but he used a lot, the dots or squares connected by lines, and the netting or webbing which I loved and he seemed to find a different way to twist in every piece he used it. Some of his pieces, like the layered one with red and blue, were so layered and complex it seemed that every time you looked at it you saw something different. I like this in art, I like it to require you to think and have to dissect it in your mind. I was also impressed by Terry Winters ability to put things from real life, like the knots, into the prints and make them look like they fit into the abstract image. This was a great exhibit to see and I hope to see pieces by him somewhere else.

Abigail

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Book Covers

Please cover your new text books!

Here is a 1 minute video tutorial: brown paper bag cover

Thursday, February 4, 2010

caprisun

if anyone can for wastereduction mounth I signed the school up for recycling caprisun juice boxes instead of throwing them away they will go to a man who uses the pouches to make purses pencial pouches ext. I tried to sign up but you need the school tax payer i.d. for the school foundation if anyone can get that for me that would be great. by doing this we can earn $0.02 for each juice box.
sadie

deforest by Haven, Claire & Lisa

Fluffy by Cierra, Jaleh & Junior

Deforestation by Levi, Trevor, Alex & Julian

Video by Heath, Rowan & Nathan

Help the Forest by Amy & Janai

Deforestation by Kaia & Ananda

World Deforestation by Isaac, Travis & Perrin

Deforestation by Max & Tajanae

Time to Change - Logging




Abby, Sadie, Zara

Deforestation By Alfie And Ruby

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Field Study Summary

On tuesday we went to Magness tree farm. It was really funny when we were at the station with Bill wood Nathan convinced Bill that his name was Jamal. It was also really fun to go on the hike and see the over grown christmas tree farm. because my dad was in a boy scout troop that went to Magness tree farm and did stuff with them. The weather was really nice because for most of the day the sun was shinning and it wasn't to cold. I learned a lot of different things from this. 
Essential questions:
1. I would choose medium thinning because then you make enough money and also not clear-cut the land.
2. some of the uses of plants or trees in general.
-Toilet Paper
-timber
-shade
-fire wood 
-maple syrup
-christmas trees
-fruit 
-art tools 
3. Logging affects the global climate change because when you log you are taking trees away that could be talking in C02. this is changing the environment because right now we are putting a lot of carbon in the air which is causing the global temperature to rise.
-Haven