Ivy

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with the English Ivy that grows around my apartment. It's gnarly stuff, wrapping around trees and sucking the life out of them, creating a six-inch layer of foliage that blocks all other seedlings the chance at life. It's all over the country, but really taking a toll on Forest Park here in Oregon. I've been pulling the seedlings of the ivy when I see them, because the roots are only a few inches long and it's an easy way to try to help. The birds eat the purple fruit and then shit out the seeds to start a new crop. The ivy is all-consuming. Even humans have been unable to fight it back, because other people keep planting it as decor around their property. The ivy creates what are known as "ivy deserts," which I think is a pretty vivid description for the future temperate rainforest if nothing changes around here.

...so, with this all in mind, I've been learning about the attitude of consumerism throughout the United States. I've never been ignorant to the constant barrage of advertisements in our lives, insecurity machines, and constant bullying into spending money "for the economy." Nevertheless, when you really start taking the time to notice the system in its entirety, you realize that you've been battling against it every day of your life. And unfortunately, unlike ivy, you can't just uproot it in order to stop it's proliferation of your brain. Mother Theresa said that the United States is one of the poorest nations she had ever been to, because the people here lacked spirituality. If our spirits were like little plants, reaching towards a life force beyond our capacity to understand, then perhaps the ivy is getting a little too thick in this country.

Oil Spill Birds

I started a painting when the oil spill off the Gulf coast happened last year. The images that were coming back of animals drenched in heavy tar balls were bringing me to tears. This is the image I needed to get out and was finally able to complete:

Oils, 24"x18", raised canvas.