Eco-Art in charming Sonoma County!

During my trip in the Sonoma County last week, I stayed a few nights at Sebastopol, a fantastic little town surrounded by majestic rolling hills in the diverse landscape of a rich agricultural heritage located just a few miles away from the Redwood forest. Amongst the other gorgeous towns I discovered was the picturesque Occidental village. I am always struck by people’s ecological awareness and education in this area: Eco-houses, organic menus at restaurants, sustainable residential and business conservation methods reflect the green conscious choice that most people have made to preserve the environment.

How can one not be an environmentalist when every corner of this charming country side stands as a gem in the middle of nature, wildlife and friendly local people? Every angle of landscape was worth stopping for a picture and meditation in the silence of beauty.

What made my trip also very special was that even artists choose to be environmentally friendly! I was especially amused by discovering unusual junk sculptures found all along my trip in front of businesses or churches, sometimes towered high into the air in front of famous vineyards villas or decorating the front of a residential house yard.

Was this town having a community sculpture contest?

How intriguing and imaginative! I had so much fun capturing these magical art inventions in my camera, wondering who and how this art has been created. It was only during my last day in Sebastopol while heading back to the 12 freeway on my way back to Los Angeles that I decided to conduct a thorough investigation in Sebastopol about this curious artist that had triggered my interest for eco-art during my entire trip.

I discovered more delightful sculptures on almost every house front yards of Florence Street. A few hundred yards away from where I parked my car, I had the privilege to find one of the artists behind this inventive piece of art in her own house at Florence Street. Brigitte, an energetic French Canadian woman explained to me that her husband, Patrick Amoit the “other
half of the artist ”and she, collect garbage cans, pipes, mailboxes, cooking pans from neighbors, junk yard and turn them into these colorful and imaginative one of a kind pieces of art. She said she was very fortunate to have found this very special community where they can live off their art while raising their daughters and enjoying a relaxed feel of the gorgeous country side.

In the middle of our lively conversation, a neighbor stopped by to drop off a couple of old cooking pans which made me realize that Patrick Amoit and Brigitte’s whimsical art has become a collective community experience celebrated all across the beautiful region. And they even raise money for local schools with their beautiful folk art calendars!

If you get a chance to travel in the Sonoma County, I highly recommend you to take this unique sculpture tour. You can follow their map and add some more creative spice to your journey in this beautiful countryside. For more information visit their websites@:

folkartforschools.com

patrickamiot-brigittelaurent.com

I don't need a plastic bag!!!

One of the ways I contribute to the protection and conservation of our lovely planet is to bring my canvas and other cotton bags regularly with me when I go shopping. Don’t feel bad, it took me years to have the routine worked out automatically. I used to forget to put the bags in my trunk or even if I had them in the car, I would forget to take them with me at the store and felt lazy to go back to the car and bring them back to the store. After many “hit and missed” experiences, my brain got accustomed to the good habit and I even got my long term partner, Will, to get into the same habit.

Behind this conscious behavior modification, these shocking and unacceptable facts have motivated me to commit to the change…

· Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

The greenest art form in L.A.

After teaching and producing children theater plays for many years, and standing “behind the scene”, I decided last winter that I wanted to be back on stage. In my twenties, I had enjoyed a lot of stage experience as a musician and actor. I wanted to renew the experience and I started doing some research for acting classes. I tried a few classes in Los Angeles and none of them suited my needs. All I wanted to do was having fun while expressing my artistic potential, being part of an amazing group of people and creating art together. Well, persistence always pays off! One day, my boyfriend invited me to go and check out a free Improv Comedy class at IO West Theatre in Hollywood. My first reaction was: ‘What? Comedy? That's scary! ‘ “ Well, it doesn’t cost anything to try” he replied. So we went and attended the workshop. And what a terrific blast we had! Thanks to my boyfriend's spontaneity, I have not only found the ideal place to practice acting but I have also discovered one of the greenest art form ever experienced before.

First of all, on the functional aspect, less is more at IO West: You don’t use any props, costumes or theatre set. All you need in your art is your acting skills. If you need objects and environment settings, you mime it! Improv comedy is just a pure sustainable art form composed of a strong human group mind! That’s all it takes to entertain people!

Likewise, the philosophy of modern Improvisational Theatre at IO West, inspired by his founder, Del Close (1934- 1999), is based on the idea that “On stage we need ecological thinking; nothing goes to waste.... Every decision is relevant, ecological and holistic.” In other words, Del thinks that being a good improviser involves paying detailed attention to every word and move that your partner says and does on stage so that he can build on it and create a solid interaction with his partners on stage. Every thing that is offered to the improviser is an opportunity to play and should not be dismissed. In order to achieve that, actors need to learn to listen to each other in ways sometimes people don’t even do in real life. It involves reaching a higher level of communication between comedians, establishing trust, support and adaptability.

In this modern improvisational theater, acting becomes an organic art form where comedians follow each other’s ideas without controlling or pushing an idea and bringing authentic characters on stage. Actors find an artistic outlet to express what they are and what they do in real life, bringing it on stage and creating comedy organically inspired by life. Using Del Close words, to be a good improviser you need to “bring the energy of your life into your work. Don’t put the energy of your work into your life: ground that energy. Return it to the earth and muses from whence it came.”

Improvisation comedy at IO West also embraces the idea that living in the moment, in a simplistic and truthful way is what brings laughs in the audience and makes the magic happen. In the same manner, in real life, instead of spending time and energy consuming and abusing our natural resources, I have chosen to make simple choices that bring more meaningful relationships with others and less impact on the environment.

In this theater, I have found not only a safe place for creative growth with wonderful actors and staff but also a place to develop important life skills rooted by a true ecological philosophy.

If you wish to take classes at IOWEST in Hollywood, here is their contact information:

http://west.ioimprov.com/classes
IO West Theatre & Training Center

6366 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

L.A. Green Drinks

Last Thursday, 15th of May, I went to my first L.A. Green Drinks event in West Hollywood. I had heard of this meeting at the Sustainable Works Workshops in Santa Monica last Fall. Barent Roth, our residential green living instructor was there and I ran into a few other people I had met there.

The meeting took place at Cisco Home, a green interior design store whose motto is “Built Locally to last Globally', located on 440 N.La Brea Blvd. The organic yet trendy decor for the meeting was a perfect environment to gather people who want to network, make new friends and keep informed about the green movement.

Our gracious host, Lorenna, Cisco Home's Sales Director invited me to sign in and introduced me to a couple of people. Refreshments and drinks were offered for a small donation of $5.00.

Around 9:00Pm, we listened to our special guest,Tom O'Leary, the Communications and Development Specialist at Forest Ethics. The organization's mission is to protect endangered forests and hold corporations publicly accountable for their damage to the environment with protests, email campaigns and national advertisements. Tom addressed two main pressing issues that Forest Ethics is actively campaigning against: The Tar sand in Canada which is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emission and the largest fossil fuel project in the world; the overwhelming junk mail we are regularly assaulted with in our home. He said that by the time we died we would have spent eight months of our life opening junk mail and that more than 100 million trees a year are logged to produce all that mail and almost half of it goes to landfills!

Tom and some of us in the audience talked about ways to make a stop to junk mail by subscribing to for profit or non profit companies that help consumers to be removed off commercial mail listings. Some of them are: Greendimes.com, 41 pounds, Directmail.com.

My personal experience has not been very successful with Green dimes. For $10.00, Visa cards mail advertisement has been a bit reduced but overall you need to work at it on a regular basis, keeping Green dimes notify about new companies addresses. It feels like the process never ends because as soon as Green Dimes manages to remove you off some commercial mail listings, other new companies start sending you their advertisement. I had more success with 41pound.org.

Finally, I left around 10:00PM, quite happy with my first L.A Green Drinks meeting both inspired about Tom O'Leary's speech and excited about making new friends, who just like me, are determined to improve their sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle. It was a very fun and green educational night out that I will definitely repeat soon again!

For more information and schedule about LA Green Drinks, go to www.LAgreendrinks.org

To learn more about Forest Ethics campaign against junk mail, you can visit their website at http://www.forestethics.org/)