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Adventures in making art and living sustainably.

Radical Change Design for Green Earth Design Competition

By Shira | Jul 23, 08 04:03 PM

I just submitted this design to the green earth
international graphic design competition.

Here's my little artists statement. I'm not used to doing these!

Being "green" means living sustainably with the earth and all of its inhabitants. To do this, we must reconnect with nature on a deep level. As we become one with the earth, radical change will happen.

rad·i·cal 1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference. 2. forming a basis or foundation. 3. existing inherently in a thing or person. 4. Botany. of or arising from the root or the base of the stem.

humans are so...creepy

By Shira | Jul 16, 08 05:30 PM

considering euthanasia for wild horses
gps for tracking hunting dogs
celebrity chef suffocating chicks on TV
running cars on cow fat
sheep as dialysis bags

Resistance is Fertile: It's Time to Start Guerrilla Gardening

By Shira | Jul 15, 08 05:38 PM

My latest article is up on MediaRights.org. Here's a taste:

In more recent years, guerrilla gardening has exploded in cities like Chicago and New York where waves of development have too often ignored the need for green space. In neighborhoods on the cusp of gentrification, like where I live in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it is very common to walk down a block and see three or four empty, fenced-in lots that have been bought by developers, but which are just sitting there, collecting trash. For this scenario, guerrilla gardeners have come up with the perfect weapon - the seed bomb.

And a great video on the topic...

More on Click!

By Shira | Jul 15, 08 01:14 PM

My name on the wall of the Brooklyn Museum!
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

Ari and I went to check out the Click! show at the Brooklyn Museum. Seeing my name and photo on the gallery wall was a little anti-climactic, but thrilling nonetheless. While the methodology behind the project is very interesting, the gallery execution felt a little flat. It would have been awesome, for example, to see the results animated on flat-screen TVs, alongside snippets about crowd-sourcing, curation and the nature of photography.

The show is getting some press coverage...

From Proles vs. Pros: An Experiment In Curating by Robin Givhan:

This exhibit may have been particularly suited to crowd-based curating because photography is a medium that people experience every day, whether it is a particularly artful photo in the newspaper or an artsy black-and-white snapshot of their newborn they're e-mailing to relatives. There's a sense of ownership and accessibility with photography that doesn't exist with sculpture or painting. That connection is one of its pleasures; it doesn't seem so precious or elitist.

And 3,344 People May Not Know Art but Know What They Like By Ken Johnson:

How people arrive at consensus in the art world is worth studying. So is the tension between experts and nonexperts, which can extend to the highest reaches of the culture industry. So it is possible that Mr. Surowiecki’s ideas might yet prove fruitful for the business of art. But it will take a lot more persuasive reasoning to convince anyone with a serious interest in artistic quality that “crowd-curating” is a good idea. The best you can say for “Click!” is that it’s a good conversation starter.

Here's a podcastof the panel at Governor's Island. I ask a question at about 44min. 30 sec.:

And there's a book of the show available through Blurb:
Buy the book!
$3 off discount code

Reverend Billy: Americans Stop Shopping

By Ari | Jul 15, 08 11:28 AM

Tell it, Reverend Billy!

A headline in the papers said: Americans Stop Shopping. Can you believe this? It goes on to say: Discretionary retail spending is down six quarters in a row, big boxes in receivership, independent shops springing up...

So, the market is no longer a great shadow up in the elevator shaft that crashes down on us every time a rich person needs to leave home. The President told us that shopping was how we fight for our country - that we deserved this nationwide hypnosis - but then Americans Stop Shopping, and oh the freedom from that pain throws us forward into a delicious waltz of little everyday gestures, oh this feels good. Americans Stop Shopping, did anyone see this coming?
Yes, the corporations did. They were afraid we might stop at any moment but then we kept shopping for years and they started buying homes in the Hamptons, oh but feel that? Feel that shopping stop? Could we be fascinated again with the pharmacist couple that survived the chains? Were they Tony and Mary? Are the old first names returning to our shouts? Look at that! It’s a miracle. Our hands are changing - ungrabbing - returning to us from the credit cards and plastic-lid to-go cups...
Americans Stop Shopping and why does it make no sense to sit in traffic now - is it really just the gas? Because - see that? We are leaving our cars and trucks up on the interstate and wandering off across fields, suddenly I meet you after all these years! I remember you and I remember myself - from before all the shopping started. You know what? I’ve got a question for you.
Can you believe this headline? Americans Stop Shopping? We shopped too much because we were afraid of death but now that we stopped - the forests rise through the super mall roof and birds cry “I am here! I am here!” Americans Stop Shopping? Can we believe we are consuming less? - if we believe it then we can do it. Amen?

Amen! Find out more about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Uncle Samantha at Capitol Pride 2008

By Ari | Jul 14, 08 03:47 PM

Jonathan & Laurel with Uncle Samantha
Originally uploaded by bcvflickr

Burgundy Crescent folks using a character I drew, Uncle Samantha, to reel in volunteers at Pride in Washington DC. Apparently she's good at her job - they got a lot of volunteers!

Previously: Uncle Samantha

I Met the Walrus

By Shira | Jul 9, 08 06:45 PM

happy fourth!

By Shira | Jul 4, 08 09:48 PM

fireworks in the distance
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

Hope for the future: The power of the positive

By Ari | Jul 2, 08 10:01 AM

I'm really happy a lot of the time. I'm also very hopeful about the future. Seriously, I sit around thinking and drawing and writing about all the wonderful things human beings are doing, how beautiful the future could be, and how glorious and resilient our environment is, all the time. Like for hours every day. This happiness and hope is what keeps me actively working for peace and justice - it's a huge motivator. It's also just really nice to feel happy and hopeful, which can be hard when you're educating yourself about injustice (which can be depressing).

I could focus on the horrors happening today and work against them or to stop them, and that's what I've done for years. This is a very negative, painful way of operating though, in my experience. It makes me worry if I'm even having an impact, and focusing on the bad stuff all the time can make me feel hopeless and helpless. It's also not a very attractive life, the tortured, self-sacrificing activist living a life of deprivation, with a burden of horrible knowledge - who wants to join in on that? "Join our struggle" doesn't sound like much fun.

So instead I look to successes, read about other activists and activist history. I begin to see how our action today is part of a long legacy of human movement toward peace and justice; I begin to see I'm not alone, that the world is full of folks who aren't only striving for a better world - they're building it right now, and we can all join in.

Here are just a few organizations and books and online communities who are working around these ideas of positivity and looking at the big picture. Every time I discover another group like this I feel another spark of hope and happiness, and I hope they do the same for you:

Anyone else out there into the power of the positive - or have other strategies for keeping motivated? How do you keep hopeful and happy in a changing world that still needs a lot of work?

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel

By shirari | Jun 30, 08 06:26 PM

Get ready for an hour and twelve minutes of non-stop queer vegan rambling! Wait, that didn't sound particularly attractive. Rest assured it'll be worth a listen - in this third installment of Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast we talk about our recent trip to Israel, Amsterdam, and Iceland, and how we attempted to take best advantage of the fuel used to have a experience that was as low-impact and culture-rich as possible. You'll hear about a kibbutz that turns soda cans and other trash into eco-friendly buildings, bikes by the boatload, naked showers with Europeans, friendly ducks interrupting breakfast in a tent, a town where street art is loved and not hated, and delicious, delicious falafel.

Shira's voice is kinda quiet in this one, sorry about that! We're still working out the technical kinks here. If you're actually downloading and listening to these, please comment and tell us what you think! Thanks to those of you who've written to us or commented already, we're so happy folks are giving these a listen.

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel »
June 30, 2008 - 72 minutes - 32.9MB

Show links: