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During the first week of my residency at IU when I wasn’t exploring the city, University, art, museums, ecology, architecture, and landscapes I was experimenting with labyrinth designs.
Some sketches of three different types of kabyrintgs.
This design starts with a simple cross. I need to keep this simple.
Turning the cross/square labyrinth upside down I decided to attempted a seed labyrinth. I think a design less feminine will be better.
ECO—SYSTEMS
size varies
financial gain and passed butterflies.
Image by Nash Baker
Symbiosis Celebration
social sculpture
—from Chemical Plants to Native Plants—
Native Wildflowers, Food, Art, Music and Migration
Fall color tourism contributes $1 billion per year to North Carolina. Houston has fall and spring color migration; we can cultivate them into tourism and build soil health.
“For profit is the fuel that will change society's landscape practices to embrace the planet's ecological systems in Houston. Applying economics and industrial concepts to my work, I see ecotourism as an untapped resource that can strengthen our environmental and economic health. I propose nurturing and marketing Houston’s ecotourism, through a Symbiosis Celebration of migration, that ultimately encourages and celebrates new mutualistic relationships between Houstonians and the planet. Through fostering relationships that regenerate Houston's micro-ecosystems, we will move our reputation from Chemical Plants to Native Plants — we can prosper as the Green Energy City.” — cindee travis klement
“If you dig deep and keep peeling the onion, artists and freelance writers are the leaders in society - the people who start to get new ideas out.” — Allan Savory
In April 2021, I installed the first native plants in Symbiosis, in Lawndale's Mary E. Bawden Sculpture Garden. Within two months, Symbiosis exploded with bountiful native blooms. Plants expected by the Ladybird Wildflower website to be one to three feet tall in Symbiosis were instead two to four feet tall. In June, the endangered native bees started returning. In the first twelve months, I have witnessed seventy new species in the space: from bird nest fungus to Red Admirals, Monarchs and skippers, skimmers, one of the bumblebees listed as endangered, Bombus pensylvanicus, treefrogs, toads and birds.
Building Mutual Symbiotic Relationships to Power Ecological Recovery
In preparation for the celebration I envision cultivating relationships among the City of Houston, local property owners, Houston's indigenous landscape and its wildlife, soil and climate, food, restaurant, music, visual and performing arts, museums and professional sports team communities.
The following steps will contribute to building these relationships:
· The business and private property owners will need to redirect their existing landscape budgets to native plants that support our wildlife.
· These new landscape practice guidelines will align with the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and Resilience.
· New native wildflower and grass landscapes will slow rainwater, allowing it to soak in and return to the aquifer to cool the planet while sequestering carbon and storing it in the ground where it is stable, providing food and safe habitats for our indigenous wildlife.
· The approximately six hundred species of birds, four hundred and thirty species of butterflies, eight hundred species of Texas native bees, one thousand species of moths, eighteen species of dragonflies, thirty species of turtles, including two box turtles, and seventy-two species of amphibians native to Texas will expand their populations in our city.
· Houston's creatives in the food, restaurant, music, visual and performing arts, museums and professional sports industries will respond to the new mutualistic/symbiotic relationships among Houston's landowners and our unique plant and wildlife in exciting creative ways and performances during the celebratory periods.
· The City of Houston will promote, market, and support the above-described new relationships with its services infrastructure, completing the mutualistic relationship that will support Houston's economy and ecosystems.
Why Houston Can Support Ecotourism
Although Symbiosis taught me the speed with which an urban landscape can transform into a wildlife haven, it was not until I was in Fredericksburg that I realized Houston's ecology is an untapped tourist economy. When you combine Houston's rich soil, high humidity, heat and long growing seasons with the indigenous native plant landscapes supported by Houston's urban irrigated commercial and park landscapes, Houston's native plant wildflower and wildlife tourism can far exceed those of the small towns in Central Texas. Another tremendous asset is Houston's central geographic location in the bird and butterfly migration paths between the North and South American continents and our proximity to the Gulf Coast. Texas has the most butterfly species of any state in the United States. Houston's inner city is 600 square miles; our "sprawl" is an asset to urban ecotourism.
As additional support that Houston can be an ecotourism powerhouse, I have read that one of New York City's most popular tourist attractions is The High Line's native landscaping. In North Texas, Plano also uses wildflowers and music to attract tourism dollars.
Funding
I see businesses and organizations all over the city which are starting to take advantage of the ecological benefits of native landscapes. Unfortunately, many other property owners (business and home) are unaware of the economic and environmental benefits of native plant landscaping. They spend $50-$100 per hour for weekly maintenance and $4—$12 per square foot for seasonal plantings, while also incurring high water usage and bills. Suppose the City appeals to these businesses and individuals to convert their existing non-ecological landscape budgets to native wildflower and grass landscapes. In that case, the City can promote a native plant/wildflower and wildlife, food, arts and music festival that will symbiotically support native ecological systems. The supporting businesses can profit from the tourism they generate.
The Texas Can-Do Spirit
Systems thinking to mitigate climate through industry and the arts is a new territory — will Houstonians embrace this new field of thinking? In Texas, that depends on how you ask and present the need. In our recent history, from Katrina to hurricane Harvey, unsolicited Houstonians volunteered to help their neighbors. In 1901, wildcatters discovered Spindletop, drawing people worldwide to build a better life in unknown territory. “Wildcatter” is used to describe one that drills wells in areas not known to be producing fields. The spirit of the wildcatter is deep in our Texas Can-Do Spirit. It is in our nature to embrace a new field of wild.
Why Big Ideas Are Important.
“The climate needs big, public, audacious goals that everyone can contribute to,” he argues. “Cathedrals were not completed in the lifetime of anyone starting them, but communities bought into these projects.” -The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/19/climate-change-cathedral-project/
I Leave aphids be. It may look alarming but It is a necessary step in regaining a balance of good bugs and bad in "Symbiosis". I am looking forward to see which beneficial insects show up to help the planet manage the aphids. Aphids feed through a needle-like mouthpart. After they insert their mouthpart into a plant's tissue, they then use it like a straw to suck out plant juices. The do not kill the host plant. Aphids aid benefical bugs they are food for thousands of different species of predatory insects. As protein Aphids help build a broad diversity of beneficial bugs in nature.
After writing this post I came across one of the most interesting insect control articles.
We have so much to unlearn.
As geologists and environmentalists battle, “are we in the Holocene epoch or have we made our mark on Earth and entered a new geological period, the Anthropocene?”, I ponder weeds.
The term weed, in the Holocene, is a plant that sticks out in a monoculture. From a bipedal primate’s perspective, a weed isn’t like all the surrounding plants: we undervalue it—because it “looks” different. From a human who spells her name Cindee with two ee’s, I have to say I am attracted to weeds and not just because of the ees. Since my first installation in Symbiosis, on February 14, 2021, I have thought a lot about the word, verb, and the thing weed, asking myself so many questions and finding answers in this urban garden.
In nature and in Symbiosis, I observe weeds and now see them as Earth’s first responders to large or small ecological disasters. Weeds are seeds, roots, stems, leaves, berries, and blooms—organic matter. Weeds are vegetative volunteers in the ecological services division of Earth; they provide emergency services for its living organisms above and below ground. Hear me out — when the Earth’s green skin is left bare, tilled, stripped, eroded, poisoned, burned, flooded, neglected, or disturbed by natural or human occurrences, Mother Earth cherry-picks from embryos sleeping in the soil her first responders—our weeds-seeds. Like our own“compounded prescriptions,” seeds are biologically programmed for the site’s specific ecological condition—temperature, moisture, and daylight—to grow fast and spread quickly; they are speed healers. As they mature, I see emergency room physicians administering oxygen masks for underground organisms, protective bandages for the Earth’s epidermis, and poison antidotes. Their organic matter lowers the Earth’stemperatures, thereby keeping soil and its living microorganisms alive. And they provide shelter, food, and nectar for the site’s microorganisms, wildlife, and humans. These ecological first responders are full-service providers, slowing rainwater, reducing soil erosion, replenishing the aquifer, cooling the planet, sequestering carbon, and stabilizing it in the ground for those debating geological periods to come.
From a sculptural perspective, if the shape, texture, or color of a volunteer first responder “weed” does not satisfy my artistic vision, I no longer yank it out of the ground in a knee-jerk response. I stop—look—think, why was it sent in? I take a holistic approach. I weigh the service it is providing our above and below ground micro-ecosystem, the armature that supports the life of the sculpture. I then consider what human adjustments I might implement to holistically balance these roles nature’s first responders are providing to achieve my artistic vision, supporting my sculpture. I consider the needs of other species from the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and insects to the small mammals, birds, and humans whose life work supports my work. I know that the small systems have to be right for the global systems to run smoothly and I see that too much is at risk to resort to pesticides. I create ways that weeds’ delicately shaped blooms can work in my living land art.
From a practical standpoint, weeds are convenient, cost-effective tools in my human-made nature scape, a catalyst for environmental change, Symbiosis. So, while intellectuals debate the ages, I get out of weeds way, pull over to the right and let the weeds do their job.
In Wikipedia, weed is “of unknown origin.” Ironically, weeds are of unknown origins in most landscapes. So I break down the word weed into three parts.
We – all of us, me, you and I.
ee – In the English language, double e’s are a tool to
denote one connected.
ed – denotes verb, performs an action.
Holocene or Anthropocene? In this age of uncertainty, if humans “weed out” weeding, can all species win the battle? — I wonder…
Additional Weed Readings
WEEDS Control Without Poisons, by Charles Walters.
WHEN WEEDS TALK, by Jay, L. McCaman — includes charts with the functions of each species.
I purchased my copies on Acres USA.
Wood-sorrel exhibits nyctinasty, likely helping the plant conserve energy. It forms a taproot and is upright when young, but as it grows, its long, multibranched stems eventually flop over and trail out along the ground for as much as two feet, extending rootlets from nodes along the stem. This root is beneficial in breaking up the clay. Sorrels contain oxalates, a naturally occurring molecules that bind with calcium. If your soil needs calcium, keep the wood-sorrel.
Youngia japonica a member of the aster family and related to the dandelions. Dandelions Taraxacum officinale shows up when soil is low in calcium and compacted. The local bees, butterflies, birds, and I enjoy the blooms while the dandelion roots break up the clay. Their leaves are loaded with antioxidants and used by herbalists for many health issues.
I believe the above plant to be Cudweed. Cudweed is host for the American painted lady butterfly.
Why we shouldn’t rag on ragweed? The seeds of ragweed are rich in fatty oils. Fats are not only Ebut also is for fattening up birds and small mammals such as Eastern Cottontail, Meadow Vole, grasshoppers which eat the leaves, Dark-eyed Junco, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Bobwhite, Purple Finch, Mourning Dove, American Goldfinch, and the Red-bellied Woodpeckers to get them through the lean winter months.
It is an ancient grain for humans and ragweed is a valuable food source for the caterpillars of many butterflies and moths including the striking wavy-lined emerald and the uniquely adapted bird dropping moths. The seeds of ragweed are rich in fatty oils. Birds and small mammals readily consume ragweed seeds to help fatten up for the lean months to come.
I will use this post to document my experiences with weeds.
For several weeks I have noticed the neighborhood birds are not stopping into Symbiosis. I have asked the neighbors and they have noticed the birds were absent too. Today an article came out in the Houston chronicle, Songbirds Take a Break.
March 19th - first bird in garden. An Amerucan red robin foraging for insects, bugs, protein or seeds, poking it's beak into the newly installed living compost.
March 31, 2021 robin hunting for grubs as I install the American beautyberry.
April 9, 2021 robin on the oak stump. I installed rotting native tree stumps to give the birds a camouflaged lookout and hideout.
April 9, 2021 dove
May 22, 2021,
blue jay
May 1, 2021 American red robin
June 19, 2021
June 22, 2021
Todays work- His right back haunch and leg.
In creating a living sculpture, I have to accept change. I can not control the piece nor do I want to. From soil microbes to leaves, petals and butterflies, bees, skippers and caterpillars, I am always looking to the natural processes. I look to see what does the material want to make, what does it need to be. Competition, succession, disturbance, consumption are the sculpting tools of my collaborator, characteristics of the work. I have to let them follow their path to self-design their regenerating community. I bend my creative processes to the design principles developed through the ages on this planet for this place and time. The time is right to change how we landscape. I believe Houston is the right place and Houstonians the right people to plant the seeds.
Competition
Succession
Disturbance
Consumption
Stomach, upper hip bones, and more hump.
He still looks like a hybrid giraffe bison, that is only because his muscles and fur come later.
Another big day of welding..I added a big 96” circumference chest. Put the entire piece on four dollies and started his hump. Below are a few pics from todays work.
Behind my garage is a telephone pole. I use it to bend my rebar. This is a side view where I am going to bend the piece for the chest.
Halfway to becoming a bison chest.
Then I use my weight to even out the shape.
I hang the chest over the back and decide if it is big enough.
Next I weld the ends together .
Recycling some old dollies from past work and deciding on the best plan. Balance and portability is the goal. The brown paper is the footprint of my bisons. Each leg is supported by a dollie.
Thanks to Curtis for getting me the plywood and helping me mount the beast. This is just for while I work on the sculpture and for transportation. It is not part of the work.
Just goofing around
My garage studio assistant is taking a sun break.
Starting to assemble the hump.
And that's a wrap.
In a nutshell, this is what I hope to achieve with my site-specific piece, Symbiosis.
I am rethinking the uses of yard clippings.
In Symbiosis I am stretching my practice and creating a living piece of site-specific art activism that will reimagine a 53.5’ X 48’ traditional urban landscape/sculpture garden and answer the question: how do we holistically restore an ecological balance in Houston? Symbiosis is a collaboration with Lawndale Art Center’s community, neighbors, urban wildlife, and the coastal prairies carbon cycle.
The west border of the garden has five 1 1/2 year old Crepe Myrtle’s a tree famous for murder. The murder refers to badly pruning the tree- down to the knuckles. I was not having these Crape Myrtle’s murdered. Today I used a extractive method of sculpting and clipped- nipped - and cut the existing branches. I shaped the branches/armature of the two end trees.
A sculpture garden has the four seasons of the year and a sculpture garden has the additional change of exhibitions. The pedestals from the last exhibit were still in the garden. 🤔perfect way to highlight the beauty in the wild- the imperfect- the not immaculate urban landscape.
FYI- crepe Myrtle’s are not native however they are a cherished gift to the Art Center. As an optimistic art activist I look at the project holistically to include the desires of the Art Centers board.
When I work in wire, or steele if I cut too much I can always weld it back it add more wire they are forgiving materials. When I clip a branch it is gone- no second chance. .
#artactivism #cindeeklementart #symbiosis #lawndaleartcenter #nativeplants #coastalprairie #sculpture
Create Myrtle cuttings wildly place on a pedestal.
North West Crepe Myrtle after pruning.
Cuttings from two Crepe Myrtle's and the olive trees from a few weeks ago.
South end Crepe Myrtle
Symbiosis is a long term art installation. A piece of dirt in the middle of a large US city, an ecosystem that serves the local art community. Through pairing my intuitive sculptural practice, and natural history research I am sculpting the garden into an ecosystem that balances the needs of the Homo sapien art community and the urban natural world. I spend much of my time filtering through biologist research, inspirational documentaries and interviews of individuals that are leading the way. New Year’s Day I listened to a remarkable podcast an interview of Nora Bateson who is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, The podcast was taped before the pandemic. She knows what she is talking about. Here are two quotes from the podcast that gave me pause and reminded me how grateful I am for my opportunity to make a difference through Symbiosis at Lawndale
“ In my little fantasy there is a great big pause button, and we can say hold everything, let’s regroup, let's turn this titanic around”
“One way or another the systems that we are within are going to change.”
A very enlightening podcast regarding how change and regeneration happens. It is haunting to consider this came out before the Covid 19 quarantine of 2020. Everything Nora talks about addresses the things I am thinking about. She is most definitely an influencer. I will continue to follow and monitor her work.
You can find the interview at The Regenarration podcast on Soundcloud Solve Everything at once.
Checking on the garden I found a moth that was still alive laying in the Pond. I rescued him and laid him out to dry.
Through art, I am finding new ways to see Houston’s urban landscapes. The bushy bluestem is a coastal prairie native and a volunteer at Lawndale art center, the location of my 2021 site-specific sculpture installation.
For creating movement and living soil, bushy bluestem is a fabulous material to consider. At this point, I do not know if it will make the cut of materials for the sculpture; however, it does have some attractive characteristics as a material for living soil, and aesthetically I think it is beautiful. The spikelets of silky feathers curl out of a sphere of fine hairs. It is tall and graceful, peering five feet off the ground. In my mind, I can see a cluster of them suited in costumes of golden cotton candy swaying across the stage of coastal prairie under the spotlight of our earth's closest star. Their rhythm succumbs to the breeze that sweeps off the coast. They create the perfect; kitchen of seeds for birds and small mammals, cozy nesting materials for birds, winter food for prairie chickens, field sparrows, and juncos. I can hear a symphony of songbirds serenading the morning as butterflies flit, and flingle and native bees start their day. With close inspection and a little luck, you may even discover a Skipper or Satyr larvae starting a new life amongst their stems. #symbiosis #cindeeklementart #livingsoil #sitespecificart #texasart #bushybluestem #houstonart #texassculpture #contemporaryart #nativebees #bees #wildlife #livingsoil
Changing how we see urban landscapes in Houston.
Termites - to quote @gjklement,” termites are the ultimate grazers” last week, after we harvested our turkeys @roamranch, we went on a hike along the pastures to Indian Cave Creek. Along the way, we saw an abundance of armadillos eating termites. This trip was my 6th trip to the ranch and the first time to see any armadillos on the property, much less numerous armadillos or notice any termites. It is a sign the soil is regenerating - it is a good thing. Armadillos play an essential role in the Texas landscape both in agricultural settings and in urban population centers. They eat Termites keeping them in check. The termites are essential in building functioning ecosystems. As an art activist, I want to change the way we see nature. #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativeart #cindeeklementart #bioart #cobservationart #artactivist #texasartist #houstonartist #womansculptor #art #sculpture
How do you build soil health without having the luxury of animal impact. It is one thing to build soil health on a bison farm. The microbes in the the the bison, turkey, pig and chicken dung builds the life in the soil. In the sculpture garden at Lawndale I am going to use LEAF MOLD COMPOST. This product is produced primarily from recycled leaves, with a little grass and horse manure mixed in, a touch of fruits and vegetables. After a long slow compost it will be rich in beneficial microbes. It will help save water and promote healthy soil. I was going to wait until early spring before we replanted the garden. However, Sunday Lawndale is having it's Sunday brunch fund raiser. And this is in the day if Covid 19 so the event is outside. I noticed that the heavy rains of late have compacted several areas in the beds and washed away some soil. It will be an opportunity to to talk about living soil,
I spent time researching different types of compost and mulch. Natures Way Resources compost native plants, is locally owned and located in the Houston area. The owner is a soil scientist. I had a long conversation with him today and he really knows living soil. I can't wait to see life return to the garden.
Here you can see how the soil is wearing away without having plants/roots hold it down. You can also see how the rain hitting it had compacted the ground. When the soil becomes compacted it stops absorbing water. .
The goods
The tools
I have often wondered how my monotypes would look with a kinetic showdown piece. This is the first print I have tried with the kinetic sculpture. I think it is worth exploring.
This is a screenshot of a message I received on Instagram In the above post. I am please to make an Apis Dorsata and help spread the word regarding the bee problem in India -
Apis Dorsata - ghost #2 watercolor monotype print 30” X44” detail of a 458 sq.ft work that addresses the plight of native bees worldwide. ”rock bee” its common name is responsible for every third bite of food in India.
Apis Dorsata - Rock bee. 30” X 44” watercolor monotype
Apis Dorsata - Rock bee. Ghost
30” X 44” watercolor monotype
Apis Dorsata - Rock bee. Ghost 2
30” X 44” watercolor monotype
Art/computer work that has interfered with my welding but I never miss an opportunity to collect native plants. I have converted an old kayak rack into a plant drying rack. Stacking up and drying out.
Drying native grasses
ps. I now have the equivalent of another silo full of work in my studio………. bursting at the seems. Anyone need a keystone animal environmental installation?
