Nature, Humans, Same

Hi everyone! I hope you all are safe.

I apologize for not writing in sometime. I did not fall off the face of the earth, I promise. I have just been reading and thinking a lot. Oh, and painting, lots and lots of painting. I decided to paint my kitchen cabinets and IT TOOK SO MUCH LONGER THAN I THOUGHT. I have paint where one should never have paint. Okay anyways, as I sit here drinking coffee out of my Montana huckleberry mug and munching on my Perfect Bar (it tastes like delicious cookie dough but it’s so good for your body, try one!) I am reminded of the book I almost have finished called The Secret Wisdom of NATURE by Peter Wohlleben. This guy gets me every time with his depth of thinking and knowledge about nature. This book is about nature in general so he discusses animals, water, trees, ants…even down to the organisms that live deep down in the earths crust. I love his titles to each chapter too, the second chapter is Salmon in the Trees. However, I am not going to talk about that chapter; too bad you’ll have to buy the book and read it yourself! I do want to talk to about the first chapter though because it sets up the framework for the rest of the book. This is the first paragraph, “Wolves are a wonderful example of how complex connections in nature can be. Amazingly enough, these predators are able to reshape riverbanks and change the course of rivers.” Now when I read this I thought, Oh Jesus, he’s gone off the deep end, and then my mind spiraled back to me watching all sorts of documentaries about wolves (they are one of my favorite animals) and NEVER remembering wolves digging at rivers to change the course. You can laugh, I have brain farts all the time, it’s fine. MOVING ON, this chapter blew my mind by the end because no one has ever talked about nature in such immense detail in seventeen pages. To sum it up, it talks about wolves and how farmers destructively hunted them from 1926 until sometime in the 1930s when they were no more to be found in Yellowstone National Park. The problem that came from this was the overpopulation of Elk. They love saplings and saplings can thrive along riverbanks because of water being of strong supply. So all these lovely elk starting eating ALL of the saplings. Now the problem was that saplings are good for the river side because their roots help to hold the bank in place. Without plants holding the riverbank in place, mud slides and collapses can happen on a regular basis. Also, what else loves saplings? Beavers. These lovely creatures are not fast like elk so the elk would get to the saplings before the beavers could. Which resulted in the depletion of beavers. Now forests along with the riverbanks LOVE beavers because if they build a dam, it allows more water to get farther back into the woods to help replenish them. Now the elk herds were also being jerks to bears. Yes, BEARS! Bears love berries…what also loves berries? ELK. Due to the overpopulation of elk, bears were losing one of their main food sources, which made them extra hungry. So they started hunting elk calves, which are their babies and can be very easy targets. The problem with this is that the elk populations started getting older and older because a majority of the calves would become victims to bear. Now back to the wolves, the good thing about them is, they would rather prey on the older, weaker elk instead of the young, which kept the circle of life flowing as it should. Do you see that extreme and violent turn of events that happen just because of one animal leaving its ecosystem? It is insanely complicated! Holy crap!

While I have been reading this book, I have been thinking a lot about my art. When viewers ask why I choose nature as a gateway to get people living in their present by heavily texturizing surfaces and deliberately making handles and forms we are not used to seeing in a utilitarian world. I always say it is because nature is that one place, I have to steadily remain present. A person can’t be out in the middle of no mans land and be thinking about what they are gonna do about a problem at work. You must remain focused and navigate your way through. At the very least, every person needs to be aware of their surroundings to not get lost or be eaten. I grew up in a hunting family so I was taught tracking, how to be quiet, how to navigate, how to listen and know the difference between random sounds in the forest or foot steps of animals. It was great, and I loved it. However, I think my reason for picking nature as a prime subject in my work is shifting. The older reason will always be there because that is why is it important to me personally. But I think it is turning into realizing how much events that happen in the raw wild wilderness is so similar to human ecosystems. I get really frustrated when people blow my work off because it is just another artist working from nature when that is not what I am doing at all. I am investigating the processes, the ecosystems, why certain plants grow a certain way in a particular place and what causes it. What makes a biome different from one another and what stands out the most to me as a key factor into why a certain area looks or grows the way that it does. The fact that trees send messages to other trees when they are in danger or that mother trees send nutrients to their saplings if they are sick. The same thing happens to us. I remember my mom always taking care of me when I was home. When someone says hey I spilled something or there is a snake over there or watch your step. We are usually trying to protect each other, whether we realize it or not. My neighbor Steve, always tells me when he sees a water moccasin in his yard so I can look out for myself and my dogs. I love knowing that nature is alive and working on the same basis as humans do, most of us just don’t understand the language yet. So the next time someone asks why I am so interested in nature, I am going to say because do you realize just how alike we are? It should be taught that nature is our equal, and we are not superior.

That is why I wish humans would be more like trees sometimes in the sense that trees grow but never grow into each other. They respect the others space in terms of never penetrating its neighboring trees with their own growing limb. Take this epidemic we are going through. Some are advised to stay home, some are required to quarantine but I don’t understand why we must fight amongst ourselves as if we know what is best of each other circumstances. I value people who can think for themselves and come up with the their own opinion through their own research. So I completely respect both sides of the line. If someone chooses to stay home because they think that is best. Great. If you chose to stay home because you have small children or routinely go to their grandparents home and want to keep them save. Great. If you think you just need to do your civil duty and stay home. Great. If you want to keep exploring the world. Great. If you think washing your hands and staying apart is enough. Great. If you want to keep going to work. Great. The part that I loathe is when others call others stupid because of their decision. It should be the individuals decision, always. It should never just be because the government tells you whatever you need to do. Look through history. The government hasn’t always known what was best. Decide for yourself. If we continue to take what others opinions are as our own and keep doing whatever and however they say. Then soon, we may end up as those forests who are clear-cut just because someone else thinks that they know what is best.

p.s. It take me at least two hours to write these posts so no I am not a bum and only wake up at 11 a.m. to drink coffee. :P Stay safe and healthy my friends.

WANDER