Week 5 posts
We have torn up the fabric of our cities and replaced it
with utter ugliness. The basic landscape of cities and suburbs, is not only
ugly but totally unfriendly to people, except for people in their cars. Think
about The Summit, think about Preston Highway out near the Outer Loop. Think
about trying to walk through these landscapes to get from one business to
another. It is not safe unless you are driving. By my examples I mean to show
that this difficulty is not limited to poorer areas of town. Downtown
Louisville, despite the number of buildings that have already been torn down,
still has areas that resemble the old type of Main Street where people were
what mattered. Every old building that is torn down tears at this remnant.
Historic preservation is important if we are to save our downtowns and make
them livable again. Louisville is making some good progress in this regard and
a part of the reason is the people who speak up when preservation efforts are
threatened. The Courier Journal link is to an editorial written to protest
proposed changes to the preservation ordinance, changes which will make it much
more difficult to protect historic buildings. This change has not been reported
in the CJ as far as I can tell and I am aware of it thanks to getting news
updates from a local preservation organization and thanks to my councilperson
who posted news of it in her weekly newsletter. It should not be so difficult
to find out about these things.
TED talk by James Howard Kunstler in which Kunstler rants
againstsuburbia. Though he is a bit of a curmudgeon, I agree totally with what
he says.
Quote from his blog: “James Howard Kunstler says he wrote
The Geography of Nowhere, ‘Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings
about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts,
mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday
environment where most Americans live and work.’”
India Flint
India Flint is an environmental fiber artist. She dyes
fabric using materials that she finds around her, in her travels, and dyes them
in a manner safe for the environment and portable as well. “I make marks with
bio-regionally gathered, ecologically sustainable plant dyes.” She wraps of
bundles of fabric and plants, heats them, lets them sit, and creates very
interesting pieces of clothing and hangings from the results. She uses what she
finds around her and thereby limits her impact on her environment. When she
travels she brings a pot with her to cook up whatever fabric and plant bundles
she is able to create where she is. The blog post is an example of her
inventiveness. I like to think that my approach to art and to the world as a
whole is at least a little bit like India Flint’s.
http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/2012/01/simple-folded-paper-bag.html
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