Art for The People by People like You and Me

Carolyn Castaño's Dancing Women in Balmy Alley

Buildings, garage doors, trucks, tunnels and various public spaces are our canvas. Public art provides an outlet for social commentary and illustrates our diverse culture in San Francisco. Whether you’re going to a local corner store or walking through neighborhoods like the Mission you see art murals and graffiti. The buildings of San Francisco exhibit public art through paint mediums like graffiti and wall murals, and interactive 3-d displays. 
Before Tiffany Holmes lecture I asked myself, in a city that's moved beyond fossil fuels what are our options for public art? We need to recognize a post-carbon environment excludes petroleum. Our reliance on petroleum to manufacture and distribute paint products like spray-paint and acrylic do not hold hope as an art medium in a post-carbon environment. Not to mention spray paints, aerosol cans, emit toxic chemicals like propellants, adhesives and solvents. So what are our options you may ask? The lovely media artist, Tiffany Holmes, suggests to brainstorm the meaning of your art piece and then tackles the logistics. So lets take a step back and think about what public art means to us. Public art, I imagine, should be done by the people. The art piece should have a purpose, a social message understood by everyone, and visually appeal to the eye. Art should also set an example for the meaning you want it to hold. Since we're envisioning a post-fossil fuel world, mediums like moss paint and reverse graffiti promote environmental awareness through liberating us from our dependency on petroleum today. Also, moss paint and reverse graffiti enable a public exhibition of what we want to say to the public legally! So let your nature dissemble the site through your messages, and try out these mediums at home with this how to below!

Pickles:Food Preservation at Its Finest

In our post-carbon city we imagine a widespread culture of food preservation. For our community it is important to preserve the seasonal surplus, in order to minimize waste and store a diverse array of food options year round. Preservation techniques such as fermentation, and solar food dryers use zero carbon and will be a key element of our future food system. 

          Who doesn’t love pickles?  The word alone is fantastic. Take a moment and say it aloud… you can’t help but smile as the letters cluck with a particular happiness. Pickling is one of the fundamentals of food preservation, a skill that is becoming ever more in demand and will help communities become more resilient. Preserving food is necessary for folks trying to be self-sufficient but it is also a great intermediary step for others who are interested in building skills or simply making tasty high quality foods. There is room for everyone at a pickle party.