Past Projects:

Last spring I completed a six-month course in permaculture, taught by Larry Santoyo of Earthflow. What is permaculture you might ask? Permaculture is "revolution disguised as gardening!" That's a quote I love by Mike Feingold, a permaculture teacher at Findhorn.

Permaculture, sometimes called ecological design, is a set of design principles based on natural patterns. I believe it answers the questions of how we provide for our food, energy, shelter, water and other needs in a sustainable way. It offers a practical, creative approach to the problems of diminishing resources and threatened life support systems now facing the world. Most often discussed in terms of gardens, permaculture is actually a tool for transforming the entire culture.

Intimate Geography

I showed a new piece in the Intimate Geography show, along with artists Edith Abeyta, Daniel Marlos, Deborah Thomas and Linda Anne Hoag.
April 2006 at the Acorn Gallery .

NELA bikes!

Summer 2005 I helped to organize a month-long series of events in Northeast LA to celebrate bike culture and inspire people to get out of their cars and ride. It was called "NELA Bikes! Art meets human powered transport for a sustainable city". NELA stands for Northeast Los Angeles.

It was organized in conjunction with Bike Summer, a city wide bicycle extravaganza that was previously hosted by seven other cities around the US and Canada. We started the organization to create these events but NELA bikes! continues! We participate in the monthly Critical Mass ride that we started last June. We put on the fabulous Toy-NOT-Drive in November, collecting toys for needy children and delivering them on our bicycles. In January we had a fundraiser for BORP. We seek to inspire and promote cycling as a solution to fossil fuel dependence and have fun along the way. You can read some of my occasional cycling musings on the Cicle Bike-a-Blog part of a great site by my fellow NELA bikers Liz and Shay.

October Surprise

In the fall of 2004 I was a part of an exciting project called the October Surprise . Our objectives were to bring creative intervention and underground politics to northeast Los Angeles. We cast a wide open call to artists, activists, social interventionists, architects, gardeners, solar engineers, and practicioners of every imaginable form of creation to make something in and about Highland Park. What we got back talks about our present and past; electoral politics and grassroots democracy. The website has extensive documentation and a lot of interesting links, check it out.

Streamspirit Rising

October 04 was a busy month. I created an altar for the "Altaring Course" show at Avenue 50 Studio . It was a memorial to the Arroyo Seco watershed. My inspiration for the altar came from my experience in March 2004 with Stream Spirit Rising. This was a series of art and education workshops followed by a mask and puppet parade with the theme of stream restoration in Northeast LA. I helped create the event with Jessica Hall and Northeast Trees. For a story about Stream Spirit Rising click here.  You can get a wonderful short DVD about it by contacting David Gotleib at DavGot@aol.com

Misc. Goodies

Click here for an article on the "Shelter" exhibition of December 2003 at Avenue 50 Studio, including mention of my piece "21,000 Children".

My good friend Lisa Keller wrote a great article about homeschooling for the LA Alternative Press in July 2004. She interviewed me and Connor for it and we even made the cover. Read it here .

My political blog Truffula Tuft is still active, though all these other projects have certainly slowed down the number of entries. You can read that here.

The almost-weekly film screenings I used to do ended last fall. The wonderful Flor y Canto Community Space and Bookstore closed their doors for good. You can still read about past films on peace, justice and the environment here.

Another lifetime ago I used to do decorative painting and murals. You can see some of my work here: Decorative painting information