Cursory glances convinced me this was a sand dune under a blue sky. Then, I couldn't parse how nature might produce that unusual dip in the right foreground. This isn't a book of optical illusions, but, it's cover highlights the way art can reveal quirks of human perception and provide a different perspective.
Photographer Carleton Watkins, who documented the American West and without whom Abraham Lincoln and later John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt might never have saved Yosemite from commercial development, was born #OTD in 1829.
A piece about #JacobJohns from a few years ago, along with an image of Johns with some of his art. Please donate to help medical expenses for this #Artist/#Activist (#Artivist) who was shot at a peaceful rally in New Mexico... (Link to the #GoFundMe at the bottom of the post)
Native Passion
Jacob Johns is an artist and activist who does a little of everything
By Carrie Scozzaro, November 03, 2016
"Jacob Johns has lived multiple lives, many of them wrung to the last drop of bitter and sweet, sometimes in equal measure. As an artist, musician, DJ and hairdresser, he's also an activist, passionate about #NativeAmerican issues and #environmental concerns.
"'I don't have to be confined to one thing,' says Johns, who is of the Hopi and Akimel O'odham nations.
"In addition to #SierraClub rallies and protests against #oil and #coal train traffic, Johns has made several supply runs to the #StandingRock#Sioux camp since September, where he joined #DakotaAccessPipeline protesters and was interviewed by #DemocracyNow's Amy Goodman, documenting his scuffle with guards who had unleashed dogs on the protesters. Amidst that ugliness, Johns still found beauty.
"'Being in that area was such solidarity, such clarity. Everyone was taking care of each other,' he says.
"[As an artist, Johns uses] spray paint, pencil, marker, acrylic and other two-dimensional media, Johns creates works that often combine facial portraits and sacred geometry with gestural expressions of color and graffiti-like stylings. He often donates his time, work or both, such as designing the logo for the recent One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival and participating in auctions benefiting such organizations as Spokane's American Indian Community Center."
It's a breathtaking fraud: #SoCal, America's largest gas company, spent millions secretly paying people to oppose California environmental regulations, then illegally stuck its customers with the bill. We Californians were forced to pay to lobby against our own survival:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
The CBIA donation to United Latinos Vote was forerunner to a flood of corporate donations from the likes of #Chevron, #Marathon and #Phillips66. Shortly after receiving this cash, United Latinos Vote ran a full page ad in the LA Times, accusing the #SierraClub of pushing for anti-gas appliance rules that would harm working class Latino families.
In light of the paper from Geoffrey Supran, @rahmstorf, and Naomi Oreskes showing that #Exxon predicted #GlobalWarming extremely accurately between 1977 and 2003, contradicting their decades of #ClimateDenial, this exchange between Rep. AOC and Exxon scientists is worth revisiting.
"...is to immediately stop the expansion of fossil fuel production, #BigOil executives are seeking to #greenwash their activities and continue to mislead the American people about their role in this crisis [#ClimateCrisis] .”
#MahyarSorour's, "deputy legislative director of the #SierraClub, [2021] statement in response to the executives’ testimony in the House Oversight Committee hearing on #ClimateChange.
Wilderness Essays - John Muir - 1980. Posthumous collection of Muir's wilderness exploration of late 19th century America. (pdfhost.io)
Thus reviewing the eventful past, we see Nature working with enthusiasm like a man, blowing her volcanic forges like a blacksmith...