Art and Degrowth

Still got some sanding to do and letting the wood cure before putting oil, but I can Finally use this cane! And I only have 2 very small cuts from the 6 days of carving!

I will definitely need to get better tools but I am already planning a slow hiking day to gather more suitable hardwood branches. My hands have mostly recovered and I have learned where my limits are. I am fully available to make custom hardwood canes, just maybe with less carvings.

And boi is hardwood so smooth to walk with! None of that clickaty vibration of standard metal canes that are so painful with hypermobility.

My inbox is open for anyone interested in a custom handmade cane. I already have an honor-based sliding scale planned; I can't cover shipping and this manual work does take a toll on my health, but I know what it's like for financials to prevent you from getting the help you need. As much as I value art and the effort I put in, I will not be the one preventing someone in need to get walking aid if they can cover shipping costs. (yes I'm broke too I can't ship out of pocket)

None would be ready under 3 weeks and I will eventually update my website to have a listing and more information on the process and the hardwoods I know I can find locally.

It’s so painfully individualistic. Of course me doing that thing isn’t going to save anybody or anything.

Im not trying to be a superhero who personally saves the say.

I am one leaf making oxygen in a massive forest of other trees making oxygen. I am doing my best and having faith that millions of others will do their best as well.

Because that can and has made big changes over time. Like. That is just how change happens. Thats cultural shifts. Thats political shifts. Thats how lasting changes happen.

I don’t plant milkweed because I’m personally gonna save monarch butterflies. I plant milkweed because I know thousands of us are gonna plant milkweed and send money to the people fighting horrible pesticides in court.

Once a climate project, electrification is now a geopolitical insurance policy. Seventy-five percent of the world’s population lives in net fossil fuel importing countries and collectively spends $1.7 trillion a year importing fuels. Many of those governments facing a loss of confidence in global oil and gas markets are expanding clean energy and electrification projects. In April, France announced $10 billion in subsidies for EVs and heat pumps. The month prior, Spain introduced measures to further speed up electrification, renewable generation, and storage. Vietnam is about to ban petrol motorbikes in downtown Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; the country’s giant conglomerate Vin is abandoning a planned LNG terminal in favor of a renewable project. Nigeria’s solar imports from China in March were more than five times the level of a year earlier. The list is endless.

So my family (and household, theres a lot of people in my house) has been trying to buy less plastic and less processed food. Its hard, and its time consuming. It only works because I have a wfh job with enough downtime to do things like prep dinner in the middle of the day.

But we joined a local co-op farm. I spend a day every week or so volunteering up there. People bring potluck food, and someone dumpster dives for groceries to share, and someone else brings leftover coffee from their job.

The Little Free Pantry Project

The Little Free Pantry utilizes a familiar, compelling concept to pique local interest in and action against local food insecurity. The Little Free Pantry offers a place around which neighbors might coalesce to meet neighborhood needs, whether for food or for fun.

The single Little Free Pantry is “little.” Lots of Little Free Pantries might be big. Duplicate freely.

http://www.littlefreepantry.org

Some things you can do to save space include growing plants in stackable towers rather than flat rows. Not everything can grow this way, but growing herbs or even strawberries or some kinds of tomatoes in them can save a lot of space. Bonus points if you can get some vertical vining plants like beans or tomatoes to grow up the sides of them to maximize the space used.

Hanging planters can also be used for things like tomatoes, herbs, some berries, etc. The people who grew up watching TV in the 2000s may remember ads for the topsy-turvy tomato planter. I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of them, but it may be good inspiration for creative DIY hanging planters.

Many people don’t seem to know this (to be fair, it’s not very intuitive), but small melons and gourds can be grown vertically on a trellis. You will need pantyhose or something else that can act like a sling for when the fruit gets large enough, and you’ll also want to make sure the trellis is very sturdy. Here is an example of a watermelon growing on a trellis, with squash growing in the background:

Other good options that require a bit more DIY are hydroponics towers and walls. It’s basically just a series of pipes with holes for plants to grow out of. The only downside is they will require very regular fertilization and supplementation with other micronutrients that are essential for plant growth, because the plants are typically grown in either a non-nutritious medium like coconut coir or nothing at all.

Planter walls are the next step down, basically just building shelves with pots in them to fill with soil. Put these on a wall that gets good morning sun and some afternoon sunlight for best results. These and hydroponics both also have the advantage of being able to hook up to your gutters so that rainwater will go towards watering your plants rather than just being wasted.

If you want to get really fancy, aquaponics is the next step up. With aquaponics, you create a system that circulates water between plants and a tank full of fish. The fish waste provides fertilizer for the plants, and the plants help filter out the waste so the water stays cleaner. I’ve heard they’re a bit tricky to establish, but once you find the right balance, all you’ll need to do is feed the fish. This has the added bonus of providing a source of fish for people who can’t eat things like nuts and legumes but need protein. Here is a link to an article explaining what aquaponics is, how it works, and how it differs from hydroponics.

Most of us can’t do it ever even if we use all our space perfectly. Some of us can do it after years of building those skills, and we might still have bad years. And in the end, what does it get us? Self-reliance is a right-wing preppers dream but it isn’t what we should be aiming for.

If we’re thinking about collective survival and we’re looking at food as part of that survival, there’s two things that work:

Start a community garden. Bring together the resources, time and skills by getting together in a big group. 

Or learn to grow a few crops really well and share them with all your friends. 

If you have a lot of nice soil and can do physically exhausting work? Potatoes, pumpkins, zucchini.

If you have a green house? SOOOO many tomatoes. Fruits that require warmth. etc.

Are you a gardening nerd with time and an interest in learning complicated plants? Take on the challenges like broccoli, cauliflower and depending on your needs, location and options, maybe cannabis? Or build a permaculture garden if that’s your thing.

If you have a balcony or window sill or prefer to do light work in high mobile planters due to limited space or mobility? Leafy greens, herbs, radishes, carrots, maybe a small tomato plant.

All this means that we makers have a responsibility, and a great power to actually know our supply chains! We must make carefully. We have the power to use thrifted, scavenged, or ethically harvested materials, or to make sure the companies that we buy our supplies from are just as passionate about sustainability as we are. We can use newspaper, broken glass, and scrap wood to rebuild our little corners of the world.

I say all this as an artist by the way. A metalsmith, knitter, and illustrator—when I buy metal I have no fucking clue if it’s recycled or if its mining is wrecking some ecosystem on the other side of the world. This year I’ve made a promise to myself not to buy a single new art supply.

Some caveats:

1. I still work a job where I have no control over the materials.

2. I allow thrifting because I honestly don’t see the harm

3. I obviously don’t think this is easy for everyone (I promise I don’t piss on the poor), and

4. I’m also not perfect—I have made exceptions for reusable tools and one commission that allowed me to donate to renter relief in areas hit by ICE.

So far it’s been a lot of reusing junk mail (I looove paper mache), mending, and whittling down my yarn stash. I’m really excited about the spoon I’m carving from the leg of my old wrecked bed frame. If you have a large stash or if you don’t and you really want to challenge yourself, I hope you consider it. It’s opened up worlds of potential and honestly made me more creative.

gathering makes me feel like an animal foraging, i turn to wild boar finding food below a layer of leaves, my soul gets nourished.

— Clara Moore, activist and researcher, who spend two years living in Rojava and working for both the Mala Jin and the Rojava Information Center, interviewed by Truthout.

Activism is a fun project and it's about ME!

Everything is good and nothing bad ever happens to anyone!

All this oppression of somebody else is about ME!