Sidewalk Chalk Murals for Kids

Drawing in public can freak out a normally well-adjusted adult, sending them shyly scampering at the mere question. On the contrary, most kids will excitedly step into the project. After my career as a window painter and billboard artist, I became so used to people watching me as I paint, that I can easily block them out, as long as they don't start talking. Even then, if I get very focused I can block them out.

That's why I was excited to help my friend Cameron Clark of C3 Productions. Cameron hired me to help with a neighborhood Earth Day event at Northwest Crossing in Bend, Oregon. My job was to facilitate the kid's chalk drawing mural.

It was a fun project. Cameron gave me a bucket of chalk and pointed out a 20 foot long section of sidewalk I would oversee. I drew a border around the area, then segmented out land, sky and water so that the kids could draw something within the Earth Day theme. The plan was for all of the images to come together into one large casual mural.

The kids did it!! I started a few drawings so anyone wanting to fill in the lines would have a start. Quite a few kids made their own drawings. After they finished and walked off I'd add a few bright lines to delineate the work or to freshen it after small feet and other body parts inadvertently rubbed off some of the chalk.

As you can see by my pant legs and shoes, I managed to sit on a drawing more than once!

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Sacred Spaces In the Garden

My garden offers shelter to quail, rabbits, skunks and deer that wander through our 1/2 acre of Manzanita, Bitterbrush and Ponderosa pine near the city of Bend, Oregon. I've put out mineral salt licks, bird feeders and water features to support the wildlife. As you can imagine, I don't have much in the way of animal proof flora. What one animal doesn't eat, another one does. Mint and Shasta daisies resurface annually as none of the animals like them (except us -- we get great tea from our mint). It's ok with me -- I love watching the animals at the feeders and feel connected to supporting their presence in the continually developed surrounding lands.

Decorating my garden with art that can make it through the Bend, Oregon winters is tough. Metal and concrete make it through the extreme weather, so I use them to adorn the garden. During my trip to Oaxaca last February I found a small store that sold recycled aluminum recast into garden pieces. Made in Northern Mexico, the large pieces are light enough (compared to cast iron) to make it back home in my suitcase. I bought this 20" high aluminum cast Guadalupe.

When I got home I primed the piece with spray paint, then painted it in oils. My friend, Terry Scoville, an artisan woodworker mounted it on vintage panels she shaped and cut. My husband just hung the Madonna on the side of the house near the entrance to my studio and I adorned it with a shed horn and seashells I found along with some clay pieces my daughter made. My painted cast metal Guadalupe is a Retablo, presented on the wood panel in the Hispanic tradition of sacred art known as a Santos. See other examples of my ex-voto and santos style retablos on my website.

King Corn: When is Too Much Enough?

Too much of something sounds like paradise when there's a shortage. Which is exactly why there is now too much corn in the U.S.A. food chain. During the mid 1970's the opportunity to "feed the world" was the cause taken up by the United States government. They supported the growing of more corn so well, that corn has become the preeminent grain.

Not that corn is a bad thing. I love eating corn tortilla chips, corn bread, and other dishes obviously made out of corn. I've even made a retablo in the Hispanic tradition of sacred art, titled La Conquistadora / The Corn Maiden. The indigenous peoples from the High Plateau south through the lands of the ancient Mayans, cultivated and revered corn. According to Michael Pollan in his book, Omnivore's Dilemma, Mayan descendants refer to themselves as the corn people. The phrase "I am corn walking" refers to the fact that the very substance of their bodies are mostly from corn.

The problem for us in the North is that corn has infiltrated every level of our national food supply in a way that isn't so obvious. After reading Pollan and seeing King Corn, I visualize us as corn swimming in corn. In the U.S.A. meat animals like cows, pigs and chickens are fed corn, and it has infiltrated most processed foods in the form of high fructose corn syrup and other corn derived flavors and enhancers used in the food industry.

The feature documentary movie, King Corn - You Are What You Eat, a film by Arron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney is about this one food that has become so ubiquitous in our food chain that they dubbed it King Corn. Here in the U.S. we eat so much corn that the very carbon our bodies are formed of is according to carbon isotope studies, mostly corn (you'll see this test in the movie).

The Bend Film Festival Indie Reels in Bend, Oregon featured the film King Corn (April 22, 2008), along with a guest appearance by Curt Ellis. I went with my movie-buddy Judy Shasek.

In the movie King Corn, we follow Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney to Iowa where they buy an acre of land and grow corn. During his presentation after the film screening, Curt Ellis said that their intent was to learn about food and because there is so much corn, they decided on that grain. Following corn from the soil to the dinner plate, they share insights into the history and economics, environmental and health impacts related to the preeminence of corn in the average national diet.

By the time we've watched them take the first bite of a corn cob fresh from their field and spit it out in disgust, we realize that there is more to corn than we may think. Despite the way the subject plays out, King Corn doesn't try to scare us as much as to make us aware of what's going on in a folksy, affectionate manner. As easy going in tone as King Corn is, there is work to be done and if you visit the www.KingCorn.net website you can click on the"Take Action" tab to learn how national legislation affects the food on our plates.

I've been a fan of good food for all of my life and thanks to movies like King Corn, there is hope that other Americans will discover the connections between food and their quality of life on all levels.

Sharing that message, my daughter and I helped Elliot Sawyer with a little film about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup in the diet. Elliot Sawyer is a young film maker in Bend, Oregon with a message. He's out to get everybody healthy and make them laugh at the same time. He produced and directed the Anti-Nutri Funnel piece. He also acts in it along with Judy Shasek, my daughter Isabella Barna and me. It was fun to act in this piece. In real life we eat very little of the bad stuff. Click here to see Anti-Nutri Funnel.

Authentic Color Vs. Color Trends

I love fashion, but slavishly following fashion is not good for our planet. Fast food and fast fashion are responsible for environmental degradation. Yes, I love to get a good bargain and will buy the occasional item or accessory from a Big Box Retailer. But I'm aware that disposable personal and home decor fashion leaves huge carbon footprints. Globally and personally, we need to reconsider choices that lead us away from a sustainable economy and environment. The closer my choices are to expressing my authentic self, the less likely it is that those choices will result in buying a bunch of stuff I quickly decide I don't want, leading to another set of purchases that don't fulfill me. That kind of decision making doesn't support a happy life or a sustainable global environment.

How does this relate to choosing paint colors, flooring, furnishings and other home decor?

The process of choosing colors can put you in touch with your authentic self.

Here's why. The more conscious you are when you make a choice, the more authentic that choice is, and the less likely it is that you'll soon discard your decision. When the process of choosing colors for your home engages your deep desires, not only your aspirations, you are connecting with your authentic self. Like any thing, this won't work for everyone. But it is a way to access deeper meaning that works for me.

Color is non-verbal. The colors we are drawn towards speak to us about our lives. The soft browns of a favorite coffee drink, the colors of the soil and plants around a favorite place, the warm tones of skin, hair and eye colors we are most familiar with are all things subconsciously feeding our desires for a particular color.

So, how do you know what colors you really want? Look at the colors you desire. When the voice pops in your head that tells you what you "should" want, tell it to go away, and reach for a sample of that paint color that you are sure you "shouldn't" use, but you are fascinated with anyway.

Consider this color sample thoughtfully. You may not end up using the exact color in your decor, but at least you will have acknowledged your desire before you make your final choices.

The more authentic your choices, the less you'll feel the need to rely on fashion color trends that have little to do with your life. And if a color trend does resonate with you, you'll be making a conscious choice rather than buying something because it seems like the thing to do.

The increased consciousness you bring to the purchasing process will have a ripple effect. Each purchase we do or don't make has a result that is felt in both our economic and natural environment. Increased consciousness leads us to consider the effect of our choices on the greater community. And I believe that a change of consciousness is the first step to sustainability.

Note: One company that I admire for their continual openness to environmental/economic sustainability and a more conscious life, something they title Leading the Examined Life is Patagonia.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Art & Science for the Good (Food) of Our Planet

Walking through the aisles of a natural foods store I'm lulled into thinking that buying the latest salty snack with the word "organic" plastered all over the plastic sack will save the planet. Yes, it's better than eating a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) conventional product that's similar, but there's a lot more to saving the planet than falling prey to some marketer's labeling of an ultra-processed packaged edible as "organic food."

So what does this topic have to do with the creative life? More than you might think at first glance. Creativity and our willingness to embrace positive change are integral to changing the course of planetary environmental degradation. I got started thinking about this while drawing the chili pepper plant growing in my house. Though it's officially spring in Bend, Oregon, it is in the 20's and snowing today. Growing in the sunshine of our upstairs window, this perennial plant is an abundance of bright green leaves teamed with a few dozen slender, brilliantly red & green, small chili peppers.

I let the chilies ripen red and dry on the vine, then I crumble them over salted, roasted peanuts for an afternoon snack. Sometimes I put them in a salsa or red chili sauce. The unique thing about this chili plant is that it is native to New Mexico, the home of my paternal grandmother's ancestors. I like eating a food that enriched the lives of my ancestors for generations. You can buy seeds for this and other native plants at Native Seeds/SEARCH. Native Seeds/SEARCH is a non-profit that is striving to preserve the genetic diversity of our country's South West heirloom and indigenous food and utility crops. No matter how "organic" our food is, if we continue to lose biodiversity, our food supply can be easily jeopardized by diseases or other unforeseen problems.

Native Seeds/SEARCH describes themselves thus: "The Native Seeds/Search Seedbank houses, for future generations, the seeds of crops and wild plants traditionally used as food, fiber and dyes by prehistoric and more recent cultures inhabiting the arid southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. . . approximately 2,000 different accessions of traditional crops grown by Apache, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Gila River Pima, Guarijio, Havasupai, Hopi, Maricopa, Mayo, Mojave, Mountain Pima, Navajo, Paiute, Puebloan, Tarahumara, Tohono O'odham and Yaqui farmers. Over one-half of the collections are comprised of the three sisters -- corn, bean, and squash. An additional 48 species of crops and wild crop relatives wait in frozen storage, including amaranth, tepary bean, chile, cotton, devil's claw, gourds, melon, sunflowers, tobacco, teosinte, watermelon and wild beans."

The "Three Sisters" of corn, beans and squash are the crops that the American Indians considered necessary to support a settlement. Honoring these indigenous crops and that American Indian heritage along with the Spanish heritage of the American Southwest, I painted a Santos style retablo of my Madonna, Guadalupe with the Three Sisters: Corn, Squash & Beans.This retablo is part of my Hispanic Culture Sacred images series.

If you live anywhere in the American Southwest, or if like me, you have a sunny window, I encourage you to look through the www.nativeseeds.org website. They sell heirloom seeds, baking mixes, spices, art, goat milk soap, even Christmas ornaments by Hopi artist Gerald Dawavendewa and others. Another thing they do that is so generous both individually and to our planet is their Native American Outreach program where they give a certain amount of seeds to American Indians for their gardens, along with Adopt A Crop program to keep those seeds viable. They also have a Cultural Memory Bank Project that pairs the knowledge of the geneticist with the folklorist to conserve not only the plant, but how that plant was nurtured and utilized. Art and Science together for the good of our planet. Now that's creativity!

Vote for the Environment - Timber Pro Coatings

Long before the environment became the latest cool and groovy cause to get behind, there were companies that were working for the cause. Timber Pro Wood Coatings in Portland, Oregon is one such company. This small company specializes in what they call Enviro-Safe wood stains and sealers. Their products are commonly used on log homes and natural wood siding and decking. If you want to preserve cedar or wood trims on the outside of your home, seal a wood deck or log home, this is the stuff. I've even had a color consulting client use Timber Pro wood stain on her interior wood ceiling.

I especially endorse this product because my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Sheri and Will Steber, own Timber Pro Wood Coatings and I completely admire them for getting on the environmental bandwagon in the 1990's, long before it was the cool thing to do.

Now, these many years later, they are being honored for their commitment to the environment with a nomination for the Green Log Awards. Check out this link and on the right side of the page you'll see a list of building suppliers in several categories that have been honored with a nomination. Here's what the Green Log Awards says their award is all about: "The goal of the Awards Program is to shine a spotlight on those companies and individuals who ... are Building a greener world, one home at a time. It is the collective contributions of individual companies such as the ones we will highlight today that are our greatest hope for the future.”

Timber Pro Coatings company was a pioneer in the enviro-safe coatings market. They've been marketing green and sustainable wood stains and coatings for years. That's why I cast my vote for Timber Pro Coatings.(The voting deadline was extended to May 5th.)

Here's a clip about the contest from the Green Log Awards website:
Last Week to Cast Your Vote for Your Favorite Green Home Solutions Voting for the 2008 GREEN LOG Home & Lifestyle Awards kicked off April 7th.
With votes pouring in, we are excited to see which companies, web sites and products emerge at the top of the list. With the public votes in, some of our esteemed nominees will be elevated to Finalist status!Voting closes on Monday, April 21st so if you haven’t gotten your vote in yet, do so this week! This is your chance to let the public know which companies have the “best of the best” green solutions and which web sites provide the best green information.

As voting closes, the list of Finalists will be sent to an expert advisory panel at Environment News Service. This panel of judges will determine who the 2008 Green Log winners are!

Vote by category now!

www.TimberProCoatings.com

For another source list of Green Building suppliers, see Oikos.com. In the 1980's (even longer before it was cool), Bruce Sullivan was pitching the planets health. He and his wife Beth Magee developed a web site that is a good source of information regarding anything to do with environmentally sensitive building. Their site is a wonderful resource for green and sustainable products. www.Oikos.com Included on the site is a book store.