It is Labor Day weekend, so I have time to relax and experience the IU campus landscape.
Peck + Scratch
Peck + Scratch Installation
Eight chickens and two roosters were installed in Symbiosis, April 1, 2023, from 11:00-5:00
There's more than eggs when it comes to urban chickens. Peck and Scratch is a throwback to when every family had a symbiotic relationship with these quirky feathered friends. It was common knowledge that chickens are miraculous energy transformers; they effortlessly clean up weeds and bugs from living soil while providing families with a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to chemical pesticides and herbicides. Plus, their waste is invaluable - it replenishes the soil with much-needed nutrients for plants to thrive. In addition, the protein-packed eggs they lay contain all the amino acids necessary for promoting brain health for early childhood development.
By offering a cozy environment, refreshing water, and a lush habitat, we're showing gratitude towards our curious and joyful friends and providing them a safe home away from potential harm. Instead of supporting factory farms, our chickens deserve to thrive in an ecosystem filled with living soil and all the essential components they need to lead happy, healthy lives.
It's time to think outside the (takeout) box and invest in the power of urban chickens.
When Inspiration finds you
As a social sculpture artist, I'm passionate about how our civilization interacts with the land. Despite our advances in technology, something just isn't right. I'm always searching for inspiration to inspire nurturing abundance of life in our landscapes. However, our current landscape practices, with overly groomed flowerless shrubs and chemical inputs, are far from desirable. Recently, I stumbled upon a book called "When Violence Is The Answer" lying in the street, dirty, torn, and rain-soaked. Although the word "violence" is harsh, the analogy of violent treatment of humans to our current landscape practices is thought-provoking and valid. The artistic possibilities are limitless on this journey of ecological awareness and expression. Should I incorporate it into a sculpture or read it?
The Baby Whisperer
“The Baby Whisperer” 30” X 44” watercolor monotype Horses are truly a marvel of sensitivity and emotion. My daughter-in-law recently visited a stable where she used to ride, and while my son shoveled manure for their garden, she had a beautiful moment with one of the mares. Even though she had never ridden that particular horse, it became clear that the horse had been affected by its owner’s recent pregnancy. This experience reminded me that wildlife deserves much more credit than we often give them.
This observation also underlines how crucial it is to build connections with all creatures in order to restore and maintain a healthy ecosystem. I want to express my gratitude to Griffin and Alex for providing a stunning photo that inspired me to reflect on these profound ideas. They continue to motivate me each and every day.
A few weeks later I created two more pieces. One for my daughter-in-law's parents and one for my son.
The Water Cycles — The truth about climate change.
Cooling the planet is about water. I can not count how many times I have listened to this Youtube.
CARBONsink rises — how to get rid of your turf grass.
“Carbon by the Yard” was a temporary relief in the shape of the Carbon element symbol, “C”. This simple gesture brought attention to the fact that gas lawnmowers emit eleven times the emissions of a new car.
In 2022, I transformed “Carbon by the Yard” piece into “CARBONsink ” using solarization and regeneration instead of herbicides to transform the turfgrass into biology. I then seeded it with wildflowers. The new piece soaks up rainwater, stores carbon and supports pollinators.
It is important to note that the EPA estimated that non-native turfgrass monocrops use one-third of all public water. In the US, this translates to 9 billion gallons of water daily.
These two social sculptures highlight how our colonial landscape decisions impact our carbon footprints.
DIY- check out the steps to install your own CARBONsink.
Use the power of water in conducting heat into the plot. Proper hydration will pull heat from the surface deeper into the soil, enhancing the effectiveness of solarization.
Contemplation
I am filled with humbleness and gratitude for all those who supported my artwork 'Contemplation'. What a proud moment it was to see the piece receive the People's Choice Award at such an important event. I could not have asked for more as this donation went on in support of restoring Texas White House, and now that it has been sold - 100% of its proceeds will go towards furthering this cause! It truly fills me with joy knowing how meaningful art can be when we look back into our state’s history.
After the award was handed out, it found its way to one of Johnson's daughters. In support for preserving Texas history, I decided to donate all earnings from that sale towards restoring The White House - a gem located here in our Lone Star state! It has been my honor and privilege to take part in protecting this treasured landmark over time.
Symbiosis - Hairy water clover incorporates time and movement
Since the beginning of my artistic journey, I have consistently explored elements of time and movement within both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. With "Hairy Clover," an element in Symbiosis this exploration takes on another layer of complexity - exploring how the water cycle creates motion that stores carbon, ultimately building the planet's energy.
Marsilea species are an extraordinary group of ferns, displaying a fascinating phenomenon known as nyctinasty - the daily movement of leaf orientation. During daylight hours they reach out to capture sunrays and then at night fold inwards into vertical positions due to pulvinus joints located towards the base of each stalk which adjust based on water flow into motor cells. This adaptation ensures that these plants remain attuned with their environment by regulating transpiration through stomata opening and closing cycles - remarkable!
I have read that this Texas native is endangered in many states. :(
Symbiosis- Goldenrod Winter’s String Section
Goldenrod is more than just a weed- it’s the ethereal string section in natures visual symphony capturing the eye with its undulating dance.
From late summer to early fall, these radiant yellow spikes flourishe in roadside ditches and fields. As winter moves in their color fades to dark shadows against winters gray sky.
The sturdy stalks provide shelter from icy winds so precious birds can rest through cold days ahead as Goldenrods' undulation brings joy throughout all seasons instead!
I'm still struck by goldenrod's graceful dance on even the slightest breeze. It truly is a remarkable sight that gives me much joy throughout all seasons.
Call of The Crane
“When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.”
– Aldo Leopold on the call of the sandhill crane
During my Christmas day stroll with family and Tobi, I came across a crumbling old stump harboring an exquisite feathered creature. The majestic bird looked to be either a Whooping Crane or Sandhill crane - the two largest birds of North America.
While North America has many struggling ecosystems, it's so important that we remember the stories of hope and recovery too. The Sandhill crane is one such story - once endangered, their numbers have rebounded thanks to determined humans working to save them. Getting to know these creatures better can only inspire more hope for future environmental recoveries. I'm looking forward to learning more about the whooping cranes on my trip south this February with Curtis. If you know any other inspiring stories of environmental recovery please share them with me?
We need these stories of recovery our society needs to believe we can do this.
Symbiosis Celebration — Performance Art — incorporating economics and fashion.
My research into fast fashion for my bison sculpture’s new location in an old Forever 21 has me dreaming of a unique, symbolic sculpture for my latest social sculpture endeavor, Symbiosis Celebration. I searched the resale online sites for a used/vintage acrylic bag. A simple bag, sculptural in shape, that I would fill with the large bills and dead butterflies in the Eco-System piece in my 2022 portfolio. However, as I explored acrylic vintage bags and thought about how to intertwine fashion to elevate my Symbiosis Celebration work, an idea was born. I discovered the Hermes-designed clear acrylic tote that originated during the 1996 Paris terror attacks as a tribute piece and in response for the lives lost in that tragic event and the follow-up tote for the 1997 'Hermès Souvenir de l’Exposition. The underside reads ‘Un Voyage au Pays de Merveilles’, which translates to ‘A Trip to Wonderland’.
The trip to wonderland' is the inspiration for my new work - but with a new Anthropocene symbolism behind it.
I will wear the iconic clear vintage purse filled with drop-dead gorgeous dead butterflies and large bills to the Lawndale's upcoming brunch, where my living sculpture Symbiosis is and where my idea for urban eco-tourism was born; this recycled wonderland bag promises to draw attention with a new purpose and all thanks to its meaningful content and viral hashtag potential! When Symbiosis Celebration takes off, truly the world will transform into Wonderland the Hermes team dreamed of.
On a side note, my brief research into Hermes revealed they are and have been a leader in eco concious slow fashion.
Camouflage, fire ants and anole
When maintaining “Symbiosis” and when I observe urban landscapes, I see the beauty in decaying plants and the tiny creatures they protect. This brown anole is a garden beneficial, keeping fire ants and other insects in check. Without camouflage, they are prey for birds, snakes, and some spiders. As an artist I find beauty through systems thinking and a balanced ecosystem.
Can you find him/her mimicking a dried, twisted leaf?
Golden-reined Digger Wasp - fascinating and gentle despite its sinister appearance.
Tipping Point
Our past actions formed the precarious state of our environment. What we do today shapes our future. This piece suggests a caring and protective relationship between natural systems and urban development has extraordinary potential. I believe the human species has the creative capability to make our cities lush and diverse carbon sinks. My work investigates these possibilities.
Symbiosis Relationships 10/2022
“Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) is a debilitating protozoan parasite that infects monarchs. Infected adult monarchs harbor thousands or millions of microscopic OE spores on the outside of their bodies. When dormant spores are scattered onto eggs or milkweed leaves by infected adults, monarch larvae consume the spores, and these parasites then replicate inside the larvae and pupae. Monarchs with severe OE infections can fail to emerge successfully from their pupal stage, either because they become stuck or they are too weak
to fully expand their wings. Monarchs with mild OE infections can appear normal but live shorter lives and cannot fly was well as healthy monarchs.
Although recent research shows that tropical milkweed can lower OE replication within infected monarchs (due to high levels of cardenolide toxins), this might not benefit the monarch population. In
fact, this could actually promote disease spread by allowing moderately infected
I PROJECT MONARCH
HEALTH
monarchs that otherwise would have died quickly following eclosion to live longer and spread more parasite spores.“- monarch parasites.
Symbiosis Relationship 9/2022
Despite its vivid alarm coloration, the Great Golden Digger Wasp is not an aggressive species of wasp. They tend to mind their own business and can be found sipping on flower nectar during the summer, but in the early spring, females prepare to lay eggs.
Females will dig into loose soil and create many deep tunnels. When established, she then covers them to hide their existence. A female will track a small insect and sting them to paralyze them, but not to kill them. Once the prey is immobile, she will clutch it using her antennae and mandible (mouth parts) in order to fly it back to the tunnels. While in flight with her prey, it is not uncommon to see birds like robins or tanagers attempt to steal her meal from her by chasing her until she drops it. No other known species of Digger Wasp is known to be harassed by birds in this way. If the female is successful in returning to her tunnels with her catch, she will place the paralyzed prey aside to quickly inspect a tunnel. If it looks like it's still intact, she will pull the paralyzed insect, head first, down into it. She then lays an egg on the insect, exits the tunnel, and covers it over again. She repeats this process for each tunnel. Unlike other wasps, she does not actively defend her nest. Once hatched, the wasp larvae will feed on the living, yet immobile, insect until they are developed enough to leave the tunnel lair in the summer. Eventually, the parasitism of the paralyzed insect kills it.
Scientists are studying the behavior of this unique species. Great Golden Digger Wasps seem to display a type of internal programming. If their insect prey is moved away from the tunnel while the female inspects it, she will emerge, relocate it, bring it back to the tunnel entrance and start the inspection all over again. Every female exhibited the same repetitive 'start inspection again' behavior when tested in that way.
Females have also shown that they do not keep a tally of how many insects they catch versus how many tunnels they create. If some meals are stolen by birds, they do not realize that they are short on insects compared to tunnels.
With such gorgeous orange and black coloration, mild demeanor, and interesting behaviors, the Great Golden Digger Wasp is one to admire, not destroy. Perhaps a careful observer will discover even more fascinating things about this species.
Rumblings - Osmosia aglaia
Osmia aglaia is 1/10,000 bee species. It is a N. American west coast bee, and exceptional in pollinating raspberries and blackberries. I am sad to report they are currently studied for industrialization.
Symbiosis Celebration — Social Sculpture
Symbiosis Celebration
Social Sculpture
Proposal
By
Cindee Travis Klement
Proposed to Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs June 8, 2022
Fall color tourism contributes $1 billion per year to North Carolina. Houston has Fall color migration,
we can cultivate it into tourism and build soil health.
—from Chemical Plants to Native Plants—
Native Wildflowers, Food, Art and Music Festival
“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 into Lawndale's 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.
Since Hurricane Harvey, harnessing the power of public opinion to mutualistically build Houston's landscapes into healthy ecosystems has been the focus of my art practice.
In our web meeting, I explained that in my artwork, Symbiosis, sponsored by the City's Initiative Grant at the Lawndale Art Center, I integrate holistic, regenerative biological systems into an urban landscape. I was inspired to create Symbiosis because I have read that our cities are fast-forwarding evolution. If this is true, integrating holistic, regenerative biological systems into urban landscapes will fast-forward ecological recovery. In Symbiosis, I use systems thinking to find a balance between humanity and Houston's wildlife; already, since the installation began in 2021, we are seeing a return of the lower food chain, which is critical for supporting birds and other wildlife that control the insects harmful to humans.
In the systems thinking state of mind, I also realize that 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 the work, I propose that ecotourism is an untapped resource that can strengthen our environmental and economic health. I am writing to you with a proposal to start a wildflower festival, a Symbiosis Celebration, that ultimately encourages and celebrates new mutualistic relationships between Houstonians and the planet. Through fostering symbiotic 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.
Building Mutual Symbiotic Relationships to Power Ecological Recovery
I envision this festival 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 festival.
· 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 U.S. 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 (business and home) owners 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.
When
With Houston projected to double in size by 2050, if we start now, benefits will compound. The timing of the festival should fall during one of the migration periods.
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.
The Next Step
Recently I went to a free event at the Ion; the people giving the talk are in the business of researching the economics to support new business ideas. They also create "stacks" or PowerPoint presentations to gain financial support for new ideas. Their fee is $6,000. Unfortunately, it is beyond my budget.
Is this sort of analysis provided by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs or another City of Houston office to determine the new cultural or social events that would benefit our city?
The support of the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs is critical for social sculpture to transform the city from Chemical Plants to Native plants and earn the title of The Green Energy City.
Monotype- leafcutter (petalcutter)
Leafcutter (petal cutter) Megachile and the Blanket flower
Watercolor and pastel monotype
30” X 44”
Leafcutter bee flying to its nest just after cutting a petal from the Texas native Gaillardia pulchella aka blanket flowers. They use the petals to protect walls and to seal their nests. In exchange for the petals, the leaf cutter pollinates the blanket flowers bloom. It is one of my favorite relationships in “Symbiosis.”
Symbiosis - Pipevine Swallowtail eggs.
I saw a blue swallowtail flitting across the garden, looking for a suitable host plant for her eggs. Below are images of Eggs under the same leaves the following days. This post will be ongoing. As I see Pipevine Swallowtails, I will document them here.