Figure It Out!
Okay, I have a bunch of ideas and interests, and I am on the brink of putting it in some logical order.
For this website, the clean and tidy website, I ought to make a simple list / art resume / CV. Since it is the web, of course you should be able to click on the shows/events and pull up a page of documentation.
That would be good, but it is hard to finish things like that because they are about organizing the PAST. I am dying to have at least one foot in “the future”!
So, let’s see if we can together make sense of this. Stepping into the future: I want my work to engage health, creativity, and community. I want to be a scientist (investigating, documenting) as well as an artist, teacher/facilitator, steward of the Earth, and community hub. Yesterday I was contemplating the name “Paradox Marriage” (“paradoxmarriage.org”), and the tag-line : “Environmental group with a holistic approach to ecosystem health.” (The catch is: the work produced by the group is art.) This includes the health of humans, the health of neighborhoods, and of course, the health of animals and plants, too. I want to start where I am, on Rogers Ave., and let myself dream big. My yard (which is shared by several households) was recently under scrutiny by a city inspector who, responding to an anonymous complaint, informed the two landlords of the adjacent properties that they would have to clean up the reported “unsightly” materials or else face a fine. Well, that’s a great place to start. We’ve got a great incentive now to 1) establish positive communication with the property owners, 2) establish + broaden communication among the tenants, 3) create plans for projects on our land (I say “our” in the sense of everyone who feels they “have a stake in it”) and start working on them. Examples: garden plots, community art (maybe a mural?!), cleaning the soil, re-greening the far back of the lot and encouraging a small wildlife habitat. I am eager to do research about the history of the land and neighborhood, both through official documents and through talking with people. I am eager to meet local resources with expertise in various subjects and bring them to the evolving experiment. Yes! I Am Qualified. . .
So, can you help me figure out what to do to make all of this REAL? What things should I be thinking about as far as tying it all up in a bow?
I can see sending out a letter of introduction and solidarity, just a hey howdy, to all the community groups and good eco-businesses or other people in town who I want to ally myself with. Allies! What do my potential allies need to see, hear, read or experience in order for this dream to become real outside of my head?
I have for a long time thought I’d have an Earth Day sort of event here, with an arts flavor, and use it to christen a project like this. Maybe this is it, and now I have to just visualize and craft that presentation.
Feedback?
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