chocolate

it all started with ingesting Ecuadorian chocolate...wrote to a friend, accidentally insulted him, have to read about Gran Colombia to learn about the conflict between Venezuela and Colombia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Colombia
realized i have no home land
and then this website
http://www.bizzbook.com/choklad/chocolate.html
I have been facilitating these artists for ArtTrail--
http://cargocollective.com/combicity#

and doing collaborative drawing at my studio.

Trees etc

Went to London and Barcelona recently and will be there again on Nov 6.

http://www.all-that-is-solid.net/exhibition.php

Yao Lu

This morning: Yao Lu is a Chinese photographer who digitally alters his photographs of landfill waste to look like traditional landscape Chinese painting. There are ample links to his works. He manages to combine aesthetically pleasing work with a social conscience.
http://www.prixpictet.com/2009/view/533
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425983444/423818140/yao-lu-mountain-and-the-straw-houses-in-the-summer.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/13/photography-prix-pictet-2009?picture=350200001

Tea and tabs

I need to do more research on tea. All the tea appreciation society needs to do is say 'fancy a cuppa?' and 300 people reply. fascinating. i'm just finishing a blend of loose leaf tea with green rooibos from Vienna. I think tea's appeal is the quiet time to think and the pleasure of something warm in one's mouth and hands, usually accompanied by something sweet. One link led to another and I found these links on flickr that has cuppa related art, such as the illustration by Paula Mills below

http://www.flickr.com/groups/a_cup_of_art/pool/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/tea_rooms_a_cup_of_tea/pool/

I also need to do research on trade in exotic goods --chocolate, coffee, bananas, etc... In this spirit I googled 'banana plantations' I'm interested in how the banana gets from Costa Rica to me.
So I was looking at this link from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations which describes the DNA of two banana pathogens.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ae216e/ae216e0d.htm
in the process it has a map of the areas where bananas are grown.
Probably not the article to read while eating chocolate chip banana muffins.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Banana-Muffins-2/Detail.aspx

Figure 2 (a) Latin American sampling sites of Mycosphaerella fijiensis (a) and M. musicola (b) populations used in the present study.

Radical Nature, flat abs, bobby baker

A sample of my tabs this morning
http://www.ub.edu/guiaconversa/angles/a.php?fer=PORTADA&idioma=7, a link for an English-Catalan phrasebook (We're going to Barcelona on 19 Oct)
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/pastexhibitionsandevents/bobby-bakers-diary-drawings/image-gallery/index.htm Bobby Baker's exhibition at the Welcome Centre which documents her journey through depression.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ --Still trying to read about Phenomenology
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/12887/score-flat-abs-without-sit-ups/ --who wouldn't want flat abs without sit-ups?

Culture Cake

Thanks to S. Foster, who recommended that I look up Bobby Baker, I heard about this event at Chelsea theatre in London--
Saturday 31 October 2009

Bobby Baker
CULTURE CAKE
A one-day workshop

11am - 5pm. Tickets £20.00 (£15.00 concessions)

ODE: culture - def (2) - the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.
ODE: identity - def (1) - the fact of being who or what a person or thing is; the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.

1. Do you have a cultural identity? [ ]
2. Are you bothered? [ ]
3. Are you a practicing artist? [ ]
4. Are you alive? [ ]
5. Do you like cake? [ ]

This workshop is for those scoring 5 ticks. The plan is to explore individual notions of cultural identity - and how these impact on the content, process, practice and production our work. Having identified our 'identities', somewhat briefly, during the day - we will collaborate on producing a cultured, cultural, diverting diversion involving cake - to be presented to visitors at the end of the day in fifteen fleeting moments.

Needless to say I tick all the boxes. I wish I could go but flights to London are prohibitively expensive for Halloween.

Cupcakes, cabbage, etc...

I have about 40 'tabs' as of today --- research for projects, research for last night's dinner, I've split my blogs into one that's only about work and the other about the myriad of research and 'inspiration' that goes into the work.
I spent a lot of time on the Joy of Baking website ---the pictures are gorgeous. What I realized after making cupcakes for the CCP gallery opening is that it is not possible to be a subversive baker without making the decision about the 'ego boost' associated with food and the joy in giving people pleasure. Maeve Higgins' show is brilliant at showing the self esteem dilema with women, who cannot take a complement about their appearance, but will enjoy a complement about their food and emphasize the effort it took to prepare it.

Back to the cupcakes. People do use food products as media which renders them inedible. But is it possible to make something to ingest that is also thought-provoking art. AA Gill manages to write such resonant pieces while consuming food and reviewing a restaurant, so it is possible, I think.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/searchresults.aspx?text=cabbage&page=3
http://www.joyofbaking.com/cakes.html
http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/maeve_higgins_fancy_vittles.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/a_a_gill/article6816906.ece

29 August 2009

You and I must make a pact we must bring salvation back....

Michael Jackson - 29 Aug 1958 - 26 June 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jackson-obit26-2009jun26,0,1970798.story

Map research has led to Sugoroku,
a Japanese board game and Paramapada Sopanam (path to salvation) the latter is the inspiration for Milton Bradley's Chutes and Ladders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-icon-of-the-heavenly-ladder-of-st-john-klimakos-1232957.html