Starting, finishing and beginning

This Fall, I will welcome Heidi Hutner to join a couple Gulf to Gulf webcasts on the relationship between education, activism, and climate change. Heidi is the director of the Stony Brook University Sustainability Studies Program. She will join us Nov. 5th at 3:00 PM EST and Dec. 3rd at 11:00 AM EST.

In August 2014, I began teaching a class in Foundation Drawing at Stony Brook University (SBU). I have always enjoyed teaching and my new students have been delightful: serious, hard-working and willing to tackle the difficult assignments I have challenged them to complete. They are also, mostly science students, many of whom are exploring art for the first time.

Nonetheless, they are producing good work.

In this case, my students were given the task of portraying a landscape with coat hanger wire. It required them to learn to handle materials with care and describe their observation with a single, continuous line.

At some point this Fall, I gave my students several difficult theoretical texts to read, consider and comment on that discussed the nature of any culture, as a means of sustaining or resisting political control. That day, I went on to explain that if we are critical of culture, as artists, we must understand that change begins by questioning the nature of our (human) perception. Therefore, I have pushed them to relinquish what I've called their automatic translation of observation into simplistic photography and instead, learn to observe on the basis of the more complex physiological potential of what I've called the "technology of (human) perception." We do that with a number of assignments both in class and out. These young people are at the beginning of a long process, in which art may or may not remain important in their lives. My task is simply to encourage them to try to see in depth.

The exercises I am giving these students recapitulate much of the aesthetic thinking that went into my PhD dissertation, "Trigger point theory as aesthetic activism," which was sent out to my Viva Examiners at the University of Plymouth, UK this past week, in preparation for my oral defense, which will take place early 2015.  The thinking in that writing attempted to layer a variety of points of view and approaches to data about localized sites, in order to develop strategic restoration plans for large bioregions. In that writing, in addition to statistical analysis and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, I also considered philosophical presumptions challenged, for example by ecofeminists. That strategic approach is a methodology that solves problems dualistically: from simultaneously observing  large global patterns and from observing what scientists call the more "fine-grained" details of specific and local situations. As I now enter the final phases of my dissertation process, I can begin to step back and reconsider the larger patterns I researched for five years.

The largest pattern I think we're all facing, that was implicit to me in all my dissertation writing, is in how geopolitics are being catalyzed by the causes and effects of climate change. As an artist, I want to see that larger pattern and apply my formal tools, the "technology of (my) perception," to change the patterns I see. Art. of course, doesn't work exactly so directly. We experience life, in the sense John Dewey wrote about, and then we work through a complex process from which 'something' emerges … which then affects others … and eventually, sooner or later, affects change to the culture. Artists may be helpless about the timetable for that change but we CAN shed light on what change looks like, whether the evidence is reflected in Hong Kong or Gaza.

As a person whose family were among the early founders of the state of Israel, going back to the late nineteenth century, and whose father was especially open to the plight of local Arabs there, I have had a special interest in events in the Middle East and engaged in several FB threads during the most recent war, struggling as many were, to understand the horrific consequences of patterns unfolding beyond our control. Yesterday, I heard an illuminating conversation and wrote about it on FB:

"By far the best discussion I've heard on Israel-Palestine was recently on WNYC radio: https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/405279

What I found excellent about this discussion were two points: 

1. A critique of the lack of context in most of the summer discussions during & after the war; specifically, the role of the Protocols of Zion in the radical anti-semitism that is fueling both Hamas and ISIS. The discussant argues that this legitimates an unrealistic focus on the "moral failings of Jews." He argues that in the context of media narratives, particularly in Europe, that context fuels anti-Zionism. 

2.An analysis of the absence of a larger geopolitical framing of conversations, in public and private that would include the larger Arab world demographic narrative over the past 100 years. 

I would also argue that that very lack of adequate framing excludes the greater global biogeographical narrative of climate change and over (human)- populations. I tried to point that out last summer in several FB threads and in this blog."

This is, I believe, is part of the depth of perception of the unfolding tragedy of what happens when climate change meets over-population meets simplistic narrative conclusions. The world is running out of the resources that have sustained our present culture, It is so much easier to ascribe blame and resort to violence and exclude critical narratives than to deconstruct these complex points of confluence and then reconstruct hard answers.

As I enjoy the luxury of increasing distance upon finishing my dissertation and consider the experiences of my students who are just starting a life that includes art, I can also step back further to meditate on all these questions and implications. I am just at the beginning of seeing how educating young artists might be part of this process.

The next two Gulf to Gulf sessions this Fall that will discuss these critical confluences between art, education, activism, climate change and restoration, with Heidi Hutner, Director of the Environmental Humanities, Sustainability Studies Program at SBU, will include Dr. Eugene Turner of LSU, Dr. James White of INSTAAR and myself.

Hope, 1 of 3

I am pleased to announce the release of 4 new "Gulf to Gulf" webcast events. These are not intended as polished films but rather raw conversations about how we can deal with climate change.

"The Search for Anthropocene Solutions" (https://vimeo.com/84840975)

"Assessing Predictions from 2007" (https://vimeo.com/84718229)

"Leverage 36% Green from Memphis?" (https://vimeo.com/85037535)

"Women and Global Warming" (https://vimeo.com/85042661)

Gulf to Gulf "The Search for Anthropocene Solutions"

A "Gulf to Gulf" performance "The Search for Anthropocene Solutions" January 20th, 2014. Ecological artist Aviva Rahmani: ghostnets.com, with Dr. Eugene Turner,…

"I periodically find myself over-whelmed by how difficult the struggle is, how grief-stricken I am by collateral damage, as climate change takes human life around the globe. At those times, like today in a Noreaster, listening to deaths interspersed with accounts of dissolving starfish and slaughtered elephants in a world inured to loss, I take heart in knowing I am one of many in an army of determined Hope for the earth's future. I am therefore more than pleased when we can contribute sober considerations to that future.- Aviva Rahmani 2-13-14

The following is more information on each of these webcasts:

These conversations are deliberately raw, except for recording corrections. They are opportunities to reflect with the participants, on the implications of each research session. We are proud that since they were initiated in 2009, they have been accessed from over 75 countries. We consider them to be an on-going public think tank to come to terms with the impacts of climate change from Gulf to Gulf, across the planet. Additional information on each webcast and participants:  "The Search for Anthropocene Solutions" January 20th, 2014 with investigative reporter  Dahr, Jamail, artists Erika Blumenthal and Aviva Rahmani, Fisherman Addison Ames, and Dr. Eugene Turner, Distinguished Research Master and Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA:(http://www.oceanography.lsu.edu/index.php/people/faculty/eugene-turner/), Addison Ames a fisherman in the Gulf of Maine and joining from Qatar, ecological artist Erika Blumenfeld (erikablumenfeld.com), and her husband, investigative journalist Dahr Jamail, author of "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Will-Resist-Soldiers-Afghanistan/dp/1931859884/ref=pd_sim_b_1) and "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq" (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1931859612/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20) (dahrjamail.net/). Participants talk about problems in the Gulf of Mexico due to the Macondo oil spill. "Assessing Predictions from 2007" January 8th, 2014 with Dr. Jim White, Professor of Geological Sciences, Fellow and Director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, CO: (instaar.colorado.edu/people/james-w-c-white/) and Addison Ames a fisherman in the Gulf of Maine. Aviva and Jim discuss their work together since 2007 and predictions they have made about the impacts of climate change. "Leverage 36% Green from Memphis?" November 12th, 2013 with Dr. James White, Professor of Geological Sciences and a Fellow and the Director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, CO: (instaar.colorado.edu/people/james-w-c-white/), Dr. Eugene Turner, Distinguished Research Master and Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA: (http://www.oceanography.lsu.edu/index.php/people/faculty/eugene-turner/) and Virginia McLean President of Friends for our Riverfront in Memphis TN: (friendsforourriverfront.org/). Participants discuss the places and ways in which re-greening the earth may be possible. "Women and Global Warming" October 2nd, 2013 with Dr. Jim White, Professor of Geological Sciences, Fellow and Director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, CO: (instaar.colorado.edu/people/james-w-c-white/) and Chris Cuomo, Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies, University of Georgia and Curator at eco*art*lab (ecoartlab.wordpress.com/). Participants discuss ways to talk about climate change and how, if possible, to reach the people who can actually make an impact regarding climate change.

New Year coming, tasks to tie up

‘If we can re-green the earth by 36%, we can survive global warming,’ - 2013 James White, paleoecologist, Fellow and Director of INSTAAR, University of Colorado at Boulder, on the occasion of Fish Story, Memphis, part of Memphis Social, curated by Tom McGlynn

However. Is 36% of the earth available to re-green and how?

“The earth was lost by increments, it can be restored by increments,” - 1997 Wendi Goldsmith,  CEO and founder of the Bioengineering Group with Aviva Rahmani, ecological artist, Affiliate, INSTAAR and researcher at the University of Plymouth, UK, on the occasion of completing bioengineering to restore the Ghost Nets salt marsh.

(Rahmani 2013)

In 1997, after several years of collaborative preparation, Goldsmith daylighted the Ghost Nets site: a "pocket (rocky intertidal) marsh," typical of the upper half of the Gulf of Maine. At some point, one of us said, "the environment was lost by increments. It can be restored by increments." Years later, after I had attributed that quote for years, to Wendi, I thought she said, no, "you said it." Then she corrected me, that she HAD said it.

I think the confusion arose because her quote was synchronous with my developing trigger point theory. The two ideas converge. Wendi had the part about increments of restoration. I have contributed the part of where and how we choose to target and prioritize those increments.

White has calculated how much restoration is required of us. It is also correct that, so far, we don't have enough places to restore to mitigate climate change. However, with as many people as now inhabit the globe, if everyone adds an increment that could be a trigger point, the impossible may become possible. At least, that is my holiday wish for the earth.

Fish Story update

I've been adding images of my visual progress towards the two events below, on FB each day for the past couple weeks. The FB screen shot above is from an album posted yesterday, of what I saw on Beale St, at A.L. Green's service and at Graceland. My impressions both seem on a continuum of what I saw on the Wolf River Saturday and in contrast to the green and subtle sounds I saw from the canoe I shared with Gene Turner, with whom I've been working since he joined me Friday. Tomorrow, before the participatory mapping @ Crosstown Arts, we will start installing at the Memphis College of Art.

Tuesday: 6:PM CT May 7, 2013 @ Crosstown Arts, Memphis, I will speak for a few min of intro, then give out instructions for an interactive, role-playing "Anthropocene Game" about environmental dynamics that affect fish habitat (and human survival). After the game, people will be asked to find a place to sit down, close their eyes and consider what might have been learned from the exercize, as I sing to them. Then we will start to map the insights & experiences people can share about fish & fish habitat, on a large piece of butcher paper, with markers, while discussing relationships between these local problems. Finally, there will be refreshments.

Saturday: 2:PM CT May 7, 2013 @ Memphis College of Art (MCA), Memphis, there will an unknown audience number viewing a webcast projection in a room with an installation @ MCA (detail images or earlier on this page) and interacting with about 7 people internationally, discussing how issues local to Memphis about fish habitat relate to other issues both nationally & internationally that are serious ecological problems:

The location is 477 South Main, The Hyde Gallery at the Nesin Graduate School Memphis College of Art (Downtown campus). I will host an open, public webcast comparing global bioregional habitat concerns. Webcast participants will include ecological art practitioners: curators Yvonne Senouf and Corinne Weber of M.E.L.D. of shows on global warming and endangered river systems; Amy Lipton, ecological art co-curator with Tricia Watts for ecoartspace; artist Eve Andree Laramee who works on radioactivity; artist Ruth Hardinger whose work focuses on fracking; artist Lenore Malin who experienced Sandy in NYC; Fish Story team members Dr. Eugene Turner, wetlands ecological biologist, restorationist and dead zone expert; Dr. James White, paleoecologist and Director of INSTAAR UCB and ecological artist Aviva Rahmani. The webcast will be recorded and made publically available after May 20, 2013.

Acts of God

Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge Probabilities, NOAA site
Chance of Storm Surge >= 2 feet (NGVD-1929) at individual locations
Sandy (2012) Advisory 31
For the 77 hours from 11 PM EDT Mon Oct 29 to 04 AM EDT Fri Nov 02

Unlike my academic writing for my dissertation, on this blog, I can own my opinions without too many citations. I have a few opinions about Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy has turned many lives upside down in NYC, not to mention those lost but we have never so desperately needed to invert our ideas about our relationships to nature, from infinite expansionism and extraction to accepting our limits while exercizing infinite empathy. we used to say that major weather events were an Act of God. I charge that Hurricane Sandy was an act of stupid white men. Michael Moore's Stupid White Men were DC policy makers. I think we are all stupid white men when it comes to the environment. We have made a world where Cuomo and Bloomberg can talk about storms like Hurricane Sandy becoming routine. We have replaced god, with our own stupidity.

In considering my new project for Memphis, Fish Story, I am still thinking about fish: the fish that have now lived (if they still live) in a toxic soup of chemicals and sewage for almost two weeks (not to mention the birds that eat them or the small life the fish normally consume). In a "normal, healthy" estuarine system which historically surrounded Manhattan Island with fecund abundance, Sandy should be part of a cycle of high impact phenomena to bring even greater nourishment and support to this bioregion. Instead, we have made a charnel house of this region.

Humans, particularly white European colonists and their progeny since 1650, have ignored any attention to how things work in their own world, except as they serve short term interests of acquiring material wealth and power. New York City, is in fact the icon of exactly that acquisition. It has been enormously successful in proselytizing that ethos and exporting it globally out to the world. the consequence of all that "success" is this disaster. We expanded to the point of what Jared Diamond wrote of as Collapse, filling in the wetlands that might have protected us. What has collapsed is the fertile, protective natural system that protected us and the built infrastructure that replaced it. That collapse signals an opportunity to exchange and invert our priorities. To exchange expansionism for empathy for all life. If we live with empathy, we cannot countenance what we have done to this planet. If a god had any part in Hurricane Sandy, it was in the circumstantial conflation of a climate change event and the Apple, days before an election for president of the USA.

It has been incidental to the success of our great expansionist society, that NYC is also full of begging homeless people, extracted from a culture that has no place for them.

Drawing of homeless woman begging across the street from Bloomingdales, May (from Homeless in the Apple project) 2012 Aviva Rahmani

Now, we are talking about the impact of global warming. In my opinion, global warming is the symptom of a terrible spiritual disease that is literally killing the whole world. My opinion is that Hurricane Sandy, as part of global warming in the anthropocene, is a spiritual wake-up call. The spiritual part has little to do with gods in the world and everything to do with the moral power of empathy for what is not us. Hurricane Sandy was not an Act of God. It was the backdraft of many acts by many people who chose convenience, expedience and short term gain (including myself) over encompassing a view of the world which might include the suffering of others, whether fish or homeless women across the street from a luxury emporium. As I type, I am listening to Brian Lehrer on WNYC speaking to a caller from Coney Island, describing old people walking down 14 flights of stairs to deliver a bucket of their own waste to the street level. None of that misery is the consequence of an Act of God.

Tomorrow, I will record another Gulf to Gulf webcast to discuss the science behind this new normal reality in depth with Jim White, my collaborator from INSTAAR and will post the url after we are done. Friday evening, I will participate on a panel at LIU in Brooklyn about fracking and social media. I will also post further about that here before the event. They are connected: the fish, the homeless, the old people with a bucket of waste, fracking and the world crying for an ethos of empathy rather than expansionism. And it is here, on the net, where we can advance another point of view, one that might invert our present headlong trajectory towards destruction.

"Chasing Ice" aftereffects

Shot by Wendy Brawer of greenmaps http://www.greenmap.org/greenhouse/en/home of me with James Balog, photographer of arctic ice and subject of "Chasing Ice" showing this weekend in NYC @ Cinema Village http://www.cinemavillage.com/chc/cv/

"Chasing Ice" www.chasingice.com, is a film directed by Jeff Orlowski about the melting Arctic ice. The story of the ice is seen thru the filter of James Balog's work to capture the astounding images of vanishing glaciers. James, a fellow affiliate at INSTAAR, University of Colorado at Boulder, set up multiple cameras over a period of years, at great peril to his (and others) health and life to document the dramatic story of loss and destruction. They hope this film will finally break thru the wall of denial about global warming. It has garnered a lot of attention at Sundance and won many awards. Fellow artist Aimee Morgana shared her passes with me so I could attend this special screening, along with Ed Koch and many other opinion makers. This weekend is the time to see it. Next stop, Lincoln Center for a week.

The images are haunting & exquisite. The record of loss, heartbreaking. The story of James' harrowing adventures to capture footage is told in the tradition of  intrepid Arctic explorers. James & Jeff are convinced that beauty will draw people into the film's message of desperation. Louie Psihoyos, the executive producer of "The Cove" http://opsociety.org/projects/the-cove, did cinematography. Scarlett Johansson sings a raspy but lovely closing song about not dying before her time. It is certainly well-timed after Sandy.

After the screening I asked 2 questions:

1. My first question was about beauty. What about the Hudson River effect- how images of the Hudson River School brought people to the river to destroy it? James felt that was a negligible danger relative to our sources of carbon loading. Having recently done a Gulf to Gulf webcast with Jim White (director of INSTAAR) about the implications of opening the Arctic, I'm not so sure. James feels people just turn away from the gory details of real impacts. Beauty is his strategic choice and judging from the film, he puts his money and body where his mouth is, going to any lengths for those results.

2. My second question was about denial. People seem stuck in the denial stage of grief over climate change. Will this be enuf? James felt it would be the cumulative effect of many things.

I have some reservations. Not about this beautiful film but over what will bring people to put pressure on policy makers for change. I am uncertain about the limits of the power of beauty and the power of the unlimited stage of grief that has entrenched so many politicians, corporations and confused American in denial. Perhaps I am too cynical. I have been part of the resistance movement against fracking since 2010. The corporation pushing fossil fuels are in it for the long haul and we still don't know what will happen with the tar sands pipeline or natural gas in NYC. Our window of hope is that at least they didn't succeed in buying the recent USA election.

As I've written elsewhere, I see us in a protracted war with formidable opponents who will not give up. On the other hand, thinking about about COP15 http://www.ipcc.ch/, which James & I both attended, there were plenty of good folks there from business, as well as Govt agencies of all stripes. Our default is that we need "leaders." But "we" may be the leaders. This may be an equal opportunity revolution.

Over the years with my Gulf to Gulf webcasts with Jim White and many others, the topics of neuroscience, cognition, perception and behavior have come up many times. People don't always seem to behave realistically when confronted by reality, no matter how extreme. But they do eventually yield to cumulative evidence, as they eventually did with tobacco. At least, most of them.

James and I spoke a bit more after the film. In spite of my pessimism, I think he is right about cumulative effects. Sandy. Fires. floods. Storms. Plus this film. Plus the evidence of dying fish, polar bears, Inuits and Island Nations.

Plus other groups: 350.org http://350.org/, the Yale Mason group (CCCC) http://www.climatechangecommunication.org/, ACE http://www.acespace.org/ including my own small teams working on Fish Story and Gulf to Gulf and many other artists, thinkers and scientists, may be the steady drip drip we need.

Jeff & I spoke briefly about the stages of grief. It is something I give a lot of thought to these days. What brings people to acceptance and finally, realistic behavior? Certainly, what we see now in the face of global warming is NOT realistic. Until we succeed in weaning the world from fossil fuels, the jury is out.

Addendum: Frank Rich did a good analysis of modernist relativism run a muck in the USA political system http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/14458-gop-in-fantasyland. I wonder how much this may affect climate change policy? I wonder whether a gorgeous film like "Chasing Ice," can overcome this kind of delusionalism?

I have my doubts. I think people cling to the moral structure of fairy tales and weave all sorts of pretty gee gaws into that architecture. I guess that makes me a radical cynic, tho an optimistic one: I do believe art touches people's souls in ways nothing else can, and wish for us all, that "Chasing Life" will.

Fish, feathers and us: conversations from the edge

I am happy to pre-announce that December 11, 2012 we will record a 1 hour Fish Story "Gulf to Gulf" session with environmental animal ethicist Marc Bekoff marcbekoff.com who has written about animal consciousness and fish sentience in over 200 papers and 22 books:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bekoff

Bekoff regularly blogs for Psychology Today.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201211/fish-are-sentient-proposed-memorial-is-justified

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201210/odd-couples-compassion-doesnt-know-species-lines

I am hoping that in addition to our regulars, Jim White of INSTAAR, Gene Turner of Louisiana State University and myself for our regular chat, Marc may be joined by ecological artist Aimee Morgana, who has trained a parrot, N'Kisi, to have intelligent, thoughtful conversations (N'Kisi wants Aimee to hurry up and write her book about him http://www.sheldrake.org/nkisi/). I think Aimee's work with just one animal, personalizes and dramatizes the horrific loss of biodiversity caused by climate change. It reflects our blind spots about other species which Marc addresses more abstractly.

When we have completed the recording, it will join the following works, some edited & some raw excerpted videos of my work and from  "Gulf to Gulf," on youtube:

Excerpt from Trigger Point Theory Applied to Fracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojn0C96lMz4&feature=plcp 

Tracking the Mississippi excerpt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFcPf_xhmQ&feature=plcp

Simplifying Complexity Excerpt:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFjruWNMnI&feature=plcp

Oil and Water Excerpt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-rdLj925w&feature=plcp

Blue Sea Lavender: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZ8x8LUYLg&feature=plcp

Frankenstorm meditation; the fast Fall phase of global warming

Caladium and Carageenan leaves before the "monster" storm

At noon, October 29, 2012, the storm center was still hours away
but the Hudson River was already looking like an Atlantic Noreaster.
By the end of the day, they were predicting gusts of 80 mph in Manhattan.

In 2007, when I began working with Jim White, now the director of INSTAAR, he remarked that then, we were in the slow phase of climate change and global warming. That would last three years, until 2010.

Ever since then, I've watched the weather get more erratic, the storms get more intense. The night before the storm, the were talking about a storm dynamic which may outclass anything we've ever seen on the East coast, not just for the relationships to barometric lows but because 2 storms have converged to create the 800 mile "monster" storm, which is projected to affect 60 million people with 11 foot storm surges. October 29, the day the storm rolled in at 38 mph, they were talking about a convergence of 3 storms, 1000 miles across and 15' surges. As I thought about that Sunday, I listened to Judy Collins singing Leonard Cohen's "Priests," about how, "...they will trample on the grass." Climate change is certainly going to trample some things on the ground, as Hurricane Sandy will.

The fish stories I'm collecting are like the fallen Fall leaves, above: stories of what Proust might call, "les temps perdue (lost times)" of worlds that will be swept away with our indecisiveness this past decade and the decade before, as we have exacerbated all the worst effects of global warming.

Note from wikipedia: In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine."

A fish story from Linda Weintraub:  

Eight golden coy fish and I live under the same roof.  Their home within my home is an indoor pond that is located just inside the front door. They are the greeting party for  visitors - literally! My guests may shake my hand or give me a hug when the walk through the door, but their attention is quickly diverted to the school of fish swimming directly towards them, waving their pretty fan-shaped tails and beckoning with their big, black eyes. Two fish that are particularly gregarious. They are fond of getting their bellies rubbed, but their pleasure depends upon folks who don't mind dipping into their waters.

The description in the paragraph above has recently become incomplete. The new component involves a fat fish, not 'fatty fish'. This chubby fellow has been causing my guests great distress, which is more accurately described as gasps of grief instead of glee. This occurs when they see a round fish belly floating beside seven sleak fins. Visitors presume that fish is dead. It isn't. It has become so fat it takes effort for it to stay right-side-up. When it relaxes, it floats upside-down. 

This seems to offer a vivid parable for prevailing environmental imperatives:

         - Staying straight is complicated by bloat

         - Managing excess is taxing on you and on others.

        -  TRIM DOWN

Linda Weintraub is an artist, author, curator, and art educator. Her most recent book is a college eco art textbook entitled TO LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet published by the University of California Press