Sunday, October 16, 2005

"icthyo absentis"

I'm am on a happy roll again-depite it all. Despite the fact that I am facing a third biopsy (and it doesn't look good) and the persistant upper and now lower respiratory problems.

I've said it beofre--What do people who don't have something they love doing, what gets them through the day? I feel the God of my understanding in the creative process, so they must feel it somewhere else...

As I am awfully fond of saying.... I digress.





I turned in my latest bowl for the fish jurying process. It was my mud bowl, it is now called "icthyo absentis". I printed off several articles about environmental problems that are killing off fish--on some of my cotton/grass papers. I then tore out the highlightes and headlines of the stories and collaged them around the rim to form a decorative band around the bowl. I sealed the outside of it with wheat paste. On the inside, I "painted" on a moss growing mixture. I do hope it doesn't get too dry, but here's the thing about using the moss with this piece. It turns out, as beaufiful as moss is, it really only gows in rather poor conditions and is extremely resiliant in a very large number of environmental conditions. For this reason, it is actually considered an invasive pest in certain environments like our roofs and our lawns.

See where this is going?

The pesticide most often recommended to restrain moss growth contains zinc sulfate. "Zinc sulfate is a severe eye irritant, has increased the frequency of miscarriages in laboratory studies with pregnant animals, and has caused genetic damage in bacteria, fruit flies, and human cell cultures. It is toxic to aquatic animals; exposure of fish to zinc can damage their gills.Concentrations as low as 10 parts per billion can kill fish.10 Zinc sulfate is highly water soluble and therefore is a form of zinc that causes fish mortality."

What a mess we have made.

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