Solstice

I've been discovering more affordances for the materials that nature (and people) offer me. At this time of the year there is an abundance of colours, textures, forms, and smells to choose from. They open up many possibilities for creation. Marking the Solstice, I finished the weaving of the last tapestry, prepared the loom weft and started the initial selection of natural materials for the next work. 

Suzane Simard's book Finding the Mother Tree as been traveling with me. In it, I just discover that if you cut the leader shoot "the pines won't know how to grow toward the sky". 

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 20,  2024.

July

"Particular attention should be paid to the material used, for good craftsmanship is built on natural foundations, and nature assures the material's quality. (...) When a certain locality is rich in a certain raw material, that material gives rise to a certain craftware. It is this resources, the gift of nature, that are the veritable mother of craftwork." Soetsu Yanagi (2018). The Beauty of Everyday Things.  

Photos by Monica Pinheiro, free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

April

"(...) black locust produces a fruity and fragrant honey, and its blossoms are used for cooking." More about this tree in Sitzia, T., Cierjacks, A., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., 2016. Robinia pseudoacacia in Europe: distribution, habitat, usage and threats. In: San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., Houston Durrant, T., Mauri, A. (Eds.), European Atlas of Forest Tree Species. 

Photo by Monica Pinheiro, free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

December

"An unplanned exercise in cooperation is taking place, with animal and plant, fungus and microbe, competing and collaborating in complex ways. This is an ecosystem discovering itself, and it is here that the fundamental patterns of life on land are been established." Thomas Halliday (2022). Otherlands: A World in the Making. Photo by Monica Pinheiro free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

"Long distance dispersal may be rare, but in a world where enough attempts occur, only one attempt needs to succeed. What is remarkable is how many appear to have been successful." Thomas Halliday (2022). Otherlands: A World in the Making. Photo by Monica Pinheiro free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

 

November

"Even in the stormiest sea, there is a calm that comes with staying true to your convictions." Harvard Business Review (2022). Energy and Motivation. Photo by Monica Pinheiro free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

March

"If the past has any significance for the present, here is a strong reminder that technology alone is never sufficient to garantee the future. What once served well under past environmental conditions may come to an abrupt end." Helga Nowotony (2016). The Cunning of Uncertainty. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

Mycorrhizal network

"Mycorrhizal networks (also known as common mycorrhizal networks or CMN) are underground hyphal networks created by mycorrhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals." Mycorrhizal network, Wikipedia. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

January

"[A]ll this was an ongoing labor of love. The sustainability of nature (...) never just falls into place; it must be brought out through that human work that also brings out our humanity." Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2017). The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in capitalist Ruins. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

"I comb through the mess of existing worlds-in-the-making, looking for treasures - each distinctive and unlikely to be found again." Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2017). The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in capitalist Ruins. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

"Don't let the beauty of life escape you." Let Nature be "the temple that is. Marvel at the fact that any of this exists - that you exist." Ryan Holiday (2019). Stillness is the Key. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

Phenology: "the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). (...) Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers (...), the date of leaf colouring and fall in deciduous trees (...). In the scientific literature on ecology, the term is used more generally to indicate the time frame for any seasonal biological phenomena, including the dates of last appearance (e.g., the seasonal phenology of a species may be from April through September). (...) In addition to providing a longer historical baseline than instrumental measurements, phenological observations provide high temporal resolution of ongoing changes related to global warming." 

 

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

 

20220105: text was changed from book citation to definition of «phenology», maintaining the photo showing a tree, displaying all 4 seasons at time of capture (December, Cacem, Portugal), with nude parts, white flowers, green leafs, fruits and yellow and red leafs in other parts of the same tree.

Success

"The Natural World definition of success is not keeping offspring alive in a generation. Success is keeping offspring alive for 10 000 generations or more. This is the magic of Nature." But since "you are not going to be here to take care of 10 000 generations from now, what organisms learned to do, is to take care of the place, that's going to take care of their offspring. (...) Life has learned to create conditions conducive to life (...) that's also the design brief to us. We have to learn to do that." in Biomimicry video from Biomimicry Institute. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA.

framing Nature

"If life as we know it is at stake (...) the best approach is to ecologize the economy instead of economizing the environment." We can start "by transforming human systems of destruction into ecological repair." T.J. Demos (2016). Decolonizing Nature. Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

October

"While liberal climate propaganda argues that ecological collapse is the responsibility of human individuals, rather than extractivist corporations, libertarian climate propaganda considers the climate breakdown as a new resource for geomarketing and interplanetary colonisation. And while conspiracist climate propaganda claims climate change is nothing but a hoax to enforce population control, ecofascist climate propaganda takes it as an opportunity to double down on the question who, in ecosystem collapse, has the racial right to survive and who does not." in Maat, Jonas Staal «Climate Propagandas, Video Study» (2020). 

Photo of tapestry (76 x 93 cm) by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

September

"(...) art holds the promise of initiating (...) creative percepcional and philosophical shifts, offering new ways of comprehending ourselves and our relation to the world differently than the destructive traditions of colonizing nature." T.J. Demos (2016). Decolonizing Nature. Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. Image by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

August

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

 

"Human knowledge, ingenuity, technology and cooperation can transform societies and economies and secure a sustainable future. (...) Each individual and organization has a role to play in moving society along pathways toward a sustainable future that will vary across nations, regions and contexts, including through existing institutions and policy approaches." United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC)

March

 

"Halting land transformation and degradation could contribute 6.6 (range 2–11) GtCO2e per year to greenhouse gas emission reductions between 2020 and 2050, and land restoration-related activities could contribute a further 18.6 (range 1.8–35.5) GtCO2e per year over the same period, while simultaneously restoring ecological function and ecosystem services, and in some cases, biodiversity" p.73, United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).