Bottled water

Lisa M. Yarost - 3 Water Bottles (copyright 2008) Acrylic on canvas 16x20"

According to the Pacific Institute, every liter of water sold represents two additional liters of water to produce it.
When you think of all the energy used to make the bottles, transport the bottles to the plant, fill the bottles, transport the bottles to a distributor, transport the bottles to a resale outlet, refrigerate the bottles, transport the bottles home, and refrigerate the bottles once you get them there, wouldn't you rather use the money that you're spending on all that water on something else?

I would.

Instant Anxiety Attack

I noticed when I logged onto my grad school email client that the schedule for the MFAIA Fall '08 semester was posted. Reading it, I suddenly felt my stomach jump and my chest tighten. ANXIETY ATTACK! Fall '08 is my fifth and last semester, when I write the dreaded "portfolio," my program's version of the thesis.

Aside from making me want to curl up into a ball and hide in the corner, looking at this schedule reminds me that I need to jealously guard my time and space over the next six months. Summer break? Hah! I will have no such thing. I will be writing, writing, writing until my fingers turn numb.
I will also be losing sleep until this monster is printed and ready to go.

Now if I can just stop hyperventilating...

Fossils, anyone?

Lisa Yarost Denim Fossil (2007) ceramic and glaze on board

I photographed some of my work today, but I can tell by the image quality that I'll have to adjust my rig to accommodate my SLR and go about doing this under natural lighting conditions if I want it to meet my standards. In the meantime, this does a fair job of representing it online.

Denim Fossil is one of a series of faux fossils that I created in my search for a way to express the permanent effects of our ephemeral desires. One of the statistics that has stuck in my mind is that the average American purchased 48 items of new clothing in 2001. So... what happens to all of the items that we are replacing?

Some of them are donated to charities such as Goodwill or Salvation Army. Only 20% of the items we donate end up in our local shops. Some of the remaining 80% are turned to rags, and many others are shipped to developing nations where they are distributed for free, undermining local textile and clothing industries.

My fossils represent the clothes that aren't donated, which are mostly sent to landfills or incinerators, where their effects last much longer than their usefulness. They also represent the lasting impact of clothing manufacture and distribution.

Warhol's Work: Standing the Test of Time

The Grand Rapids Art Museum is currently staging a huge exhibit called Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series. For anyone within driving distance, this show is not to be missed.

The visitor is beckoned toward the exhibition space - which is divided into two separate sections - by Andy's famous neon cow wallpaper, serving to visually connect the sections. If you choose to turn left, you will confront a large area filled with Warhol's vibrant silk screened images, ranging from his 1967 Campbell's Soup cans to his Endangered Species series from the 1980's. Most of the works displayed are quite large, but even with the almost overwhelming number of images and their sometimes gargantuan size, the talented GRAM curators have managed to give each series enough breathing room to be fully appreciated without isolating them from each other. The gallery is beautifully arranged both in part and as a whole.

If you turn right at the entrance you are shown the darker sides of Warhol's work, including a Jackie Kennedy series and one of his controversial Suicide prints.

While Warhol's work is no longer considered shocking or controversial, after visiting this exhibit I maintain that it is still relevant, and for more than historical or art historical reasons. Our newfound realization of the costs of mass production and consumption and the new American search for identity and authenticity as embodied in magazines such as Real Simple and Body + Soul, are themes that the artist addressed in some of his earliest works. What makes something - or someone - an original? Are we treating celebrities as commodities to be consumed, devoured and discarded? What is the importance that we place upon things in our lives?

All of these questions remain unanswered in Warhol's series, most of them not even recognized until recently. That his work still causes viewers to question only strengthens its importance.

Chicken with Rosemary

This recipe is adapted from The Frugal Gourmet, by the late Jeff Smith. Rosemary is my favorite herb. This works just fine with dried rosemary.

3 slices bacon
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
3-4 lbs. chicken, with skin and bones
1/4 cup wine (optional)
1/4 cup chicken broth (1/2 cup if not using wine)
2 cloves garlic
2 T. tomato paste
2 T. Rosemary (1 T. if dried)

Cook 3 slices of bacon in a large heavy frying pan until just crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain off fat. Add olive oil and butter to the pan, then place chicken in the pan and cook until browned.

Add wine and rosemary to pan, cover, and cook for 15 minutes on medium.

Mix tomato paste to chicken broth and add to pan with garlic. Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes, or until chicken is done.

Serve chicken and sauce with rice or noodles and a green veggie.

If I won the lottery

Okay, so we all know that the lottery is also referred to as the "Stupid Tax" because you are basically handing cash over to the state in exchange for an infinitesimally minute chance at winning The Big One.

However, it is a useful mental exercise to think about what you would do if you actually did end up with a giant pile of money in your lap. It helps to clarify your priorities and put things into perspective.

If I won the lottery, I would:

• Pay off my house. Our house is not enormous, and I don't think I would really want an enormous house. Sometimes I think I might want to add another bathroom or a sun room onto it, but that urge passes pretty quickly when I think about the cost in building, heating, cooling and maintaining an even larger place. I would just pay this one off. Cost: $130,000
• Take care of all the "deferred maintenance" issues. New roof? Done. Additional energy savings items? Done. Cost: $6,000
• Pay off my student loans. Cost: $50,000
• Donate to some "pet" charities. Cost: $10,000
• Total: $196,000

Are there other things that I would like to do with a large sum of money? Sure. I would enjoy travel, extra time, and paying some sundry expenses incurred by Mr. C and his penchant for financially supporting his children (I love a responsible man). As far as immediate gratification is concerned, though, I could make our lives a lot easier for only about $200,000. In fact, simply paying off my mortgage and student loans would make the charitable donations and the deferred maintenance issues a breeze.

So, for $180,000 I could make myself a wealthier and more relaxed individual. Wow.

When I think about it this way, I am able to grok that winning the lottery is not necessary for me to achieve these things. $180,000 is a lot of money, to be sure, but it is not the seemingly unreachable amount of a $32,000,000 lottery jackpot. It is also a goal that can be reached, little by little, if I apply myself on a regular basis.

Sometimes a little thinking about what we would like done for us for free can give us the power and the ambition to do the same things for ourselves.

Oh, and you can go here for a free roofing estimate calculator.

Year-round blanket

After receiving my latest energy bills, I decided to sleuth around my home for energy saving opportunities. While many of these items required a financial investment of over $100 or significant time and labor, there was one that was quick and inexpensive.

I purchased a water heater blanket from Ace Hardware for $22 on my way home from work Friday and installed it in under a half hour. The installation instructions were on the package, and the only tool required was a utility knife.

Upon completing the installation and cleanup I placed my hand between the blanket and the water heater to discover that it was already warmer than when I had started. This one improvement will likely save me hundreds of dollars over the next few years!