Happy Soil Day.

Happy National Soil Day. Notice the length of the root system of this turf grass-just a few inches. 👎

🤔

The image I posted is not soil to be celebrated.It is what I call mindless conformity 🤨AND - now for the good news- 🌱☘️🍀☘️🌿

It is an opportunity to help save our planet and that we should celebrate.

Let me explain- this is the typical ground cover that covers 99.99% of the homes in the United States. It is a mono-crop of turfgrass. Monocrops are not healthy for soil. Mother Nature needs diversity to be healthy. To go against nature, homeowners have to apply chemical inputs to keep their monocrop turf grass looking perfect. These fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides kill all the living matter. They also kill our insects and valuable Keystone species.

In contrast, healthy soil, especially on the coastal prairie, is a sponge for soaking up rainwater and keeping our planet cool. Houston was a coastal prairie covered in native grasses that had massive roots systems. Some extended 18’. The coastal prairie has the capability to absorb massive amounts of moisture/water. They also act as a filter to clean the water and retain water. Water held in healthy soil is how the planet cools itself. Healthy soil also sequesters carbon out of the air and puts it back into the soil. The coastal Prairie plays a large role in the global environment. Houstonians have paved, asphalted, and covered in turf grass 600 square miles that makeup Houston. Reimaging urban landscapes is an opportunity to save our planet. Turfgrass covers more acreage in the US than farmed land. 🤠 this is an easy way to comply with mother nature. I am using ny art to find ways to reimagined urban landscapes to work with mother nature Healthy soil= healthy people. Happy soil day. #cindeeklementart #artactivism #bioart #soilart #art #conservationart #soil #regenerativeart.

Recording natural history - ”Mute Testimony”

Recording natural history

Mute Testimony.

3” X 6” X 4”

bronze

phot by Nash Baker

A fossil is our planet’s recorded history, the memoir of a life in a place, time, ecology, and evidence of global warming. It is Endangered Knowledge.

Many processes in art and the natural world lead to fossilization, including casting or mold making. I crafted a mold of a fossil that one of my children found at my son Griffin’s 8th birthday party in El Paso, Texas. It was a fossil hunting party at Cerro de Cristo Rey. (The intersection of two countries and three states, a special place.) A prehistoric relic, now a family treasure, I thought it would be meaningful to make a mold and cast it in bronze for each of my two children, a reminder of their childhood. A mold-of-a-mold a fossil-of-a-fossil. I found the redundancy poetic.

My son is now 31 years old. I have probably walked by the fossil once a day since Griffin was eight years old and did not think twice about it. Casting, it has forced me to think about the form and its value as an object of art. Evidence of aquatic life resurrected from the middle of the Chihuahuan desert— This poetic symbol of desertification will find meaningful ways to wander across disciplines into future environmental works.

Hearing, “this desert was once an ocean.” did not use to phase me. Thinking about the mineral remnant of a sea creature surfacing in one of the driest terrains in the US gives me pause; it makes me consider how we can live our urban lives and preserve natural systems.

I cast three additional fossils to share with others who are interested in natural history; two are finished in a natural patina and one in a contemporary finish — polished stainless steel.

Traces of ancient life tell story of early diversity in marine ecosystems

Stainless Steel finish changes everything 🤔 more to come