Saturday, August 27, 2022

A Year of Climate Extremes
Annual Review

Marie-Therese Wisniowski


Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below the annual reviews that span the life of this blogspot.
It's Been An Exciting Year (2010/2011)
Another Cheer - Another Year (2011/2012)
Where Did The Year Go? (2012/2013)
The Year of the Horse (2013/2014)
Cold and Windy - But on the Dawn of Renewal (2014/2015)
A Time To Reflect - A Time To Select (2015/2016)
A Time to Remember (2016/2017)
To Be or Not to Be (2017/2018)
The Night Too Quickly Passes (2018/2019)
The Year of Living Dangerously (2019/2020)
Attempt The Impossible Since Failure Will Still Be Your Success (2020/2021)
A Year of Climate Extremes (2021/2022)
I Love A Sunburnt Country (2022/2023)


Introduction
Extreme climate events such as heat waves, cold snaps, floods and dry spells have significant impacts on our society as well as on the flora and fauna, wherever we live. It costs us more in lives and dollars to ignore the factors that influence climate change, than what it would cost in order to mitigate it.

The elephant in the room is the human population, which is spiralling out of control. In 2024 the world's population is estimated to reach 8,108,605,388. Why is this the elephant in the room? Every religion (even Buddhism) has the reproduction of human beings at the centre piece of its teaching. To house, feed, clothe, and transport people increases the sources, and at the same time, decreases the sinks of greenhouse gas emissions. For example, land clearage is at record levels. Globally, some 177,000 square kilometres are cleared each year, which is equivalent to 50 football fields every minute. In 2015, World Wildlife Fund analysis concluded that more than 80% of deforestation will occur between now and 2030; that is, up to 170 million hectares in total is expected to be cleared in eleven deforestation 'fronts'. The flora and fauna will suffer because the sources of greenhouse gases will far exceed the sinks.

For over two decades, I have created prints on paper and ArtCloth expressing my concern about climate change and its effects on our planet. In one of my prints on paper series, I addressed the repercussions of sea level rises and so the eventual submerging of low lying islands in the Pacific Ocean, and the disapperance of current coastal regions such as Venice. I named the subsequent series - 'Wish You Were Where? Environmental Refugees.'

Environmental Refugees
Click on the following link to view this post: Wish You Were Where? Environmental Refugees.

No matter where you are in the world, you will have been hit with extreme climate change events such as floods, fires and unsettled weather. Remember, that after clearing up the mess that the exploding human population has contributed to your nightmare, future pandemics will no longer be a once in a lifetime event due to the overcrowding and the international mobility of human beings. Therefore the extinction of flora and fauna will continue to accelerate. We need to manage our population if we want these extreme events from pandemics to fires to floods to unsettled weather (e.g., hurricanes/twisters) to become less commonplace. No matter where you were this year, this has been a year of climate extremes.


A Year of Climate Extremes
The number of categories on this blogspot keeps growing. They are as follows: (i) ArtCloth and Art Quilt Textiles; (ii) Art Essays; (iii) Art Exhibitions/Installations/Talks; (iv) Artist's Profiles; (v) Art Resources; (vi) Art Reviews; (vii) Book Reviews/Interviews; (viii) Craft and Quilt Fairs; (ix) Fabric Lengths; (x) Glossaries; (xi) Guest Artists/Authors; (xii) Guest Editors; (xiii) Opinion Pieces; (xiv) Resource Reviews; (xv) Works on Paper; (xvi) Technical Articles; (xvii) Wearable Art; (xviii) Workshops and Master Classes (i.e. my students outputs).

Not all of these categories are present in any given season. For example, Fabric Lengths, Guest Artists/Authors, Guest Editors, Craft and Quilt Fairs, Master Classes, Resource Reviews, and Technical Articles, etc., did not make an appearance in this season. After all, it been a time of limited opportunities due to weather and pandemic extremes.

Note: Judging a post by the one criterion, namely the most number of viewers, is not necessarily the smartest approach, since the length of stay of a viewer might negate the former statistic. How often have you heard yourself say - oops I really didn't mean to google this hunk of a man in his underpants when I innocently searched for "drawers!" Nevertheless, this one statistic makes it so much easier for me to make a judgement between posts, and so it will be used as the final arbitrator, except in the case when two posts differ by less than two viewers in total. Then I will decree that both are joint winners!

We are only talking about differences and not absolute numbers.


ArtCloth and Art Quilt Textiles
There were a massive number of posts in this category in 2021/2022 season - ten posts in fact! The two highest viewed posts were only a month apart and they were: 'My ArtCloth Tea Towels - A New Collection of Digitally Designed Products' and 'Art Quilters of the Netherlands', with the former winning by the smallest of margins by just two more viewers.

Leaves Transformed
Title: ‘Leaves Transformed.’ My ArtCloth Tea Towel Collection.
Comment: The tea towel design is one of six complementary colorways.
Click on the following link to view this post - Leaves Transformed. My ArtCloth Tea Towel Collection.


Art Essays
There were six posts in this category in the 2021/2022 season with the two most viewed being separated by only one viewer, and so under my rules both are declared equal winners. The winners are as follows.
'Arte Latino Sculptures - Part I.'

Man on Fire
Artist and Title of Work: Luis Jimenez, Man on Fire (1969).
Click on the following link to view this post - Arte Latino Sculptures - Part I

Not in My Name
Artist and Title of Work: Marie-Therese Wisniowski, 'Not in My Name - The Australian Pilot.'
Click on the following link to view the post about the making of this printmakers' artist book - A Letter to a Friend.


Art Exhibitions/Installations/Talks
There was only one post in this category in the 2021/2022 season, namely, 'The Effects of Global Warming', an ArtCloth Exhibition @ Rathmines Heritage Centre’s Boiler Room.

Summer Bolt
Marie-Therese standing in front of her ArtCloth work, 'Summer Bolt.'
Click on the following link to view this post - The Effects of Global Warming


Artist's Profiles
There were four posts in this category in the 2021/2022 season. The two most viewed posts in this category were only one viewer apart and so both are declared joint winners and they are as follows.

Fish and Lillies
Artist: Linus Onus.
Title: Fish and Lillies (1987).
Materials and Technique: Acrylic on canvas.
Size: 90 x 122 cm.
Click on the following link to view this post - Linus Onus

Mandewa dancing place
Artist: Ngarra.
Title: Mandewa dancing place for Andinyin, Kija and Gooniandi (2005).
Materials and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).
Click on the following link to view this post - The Art of Ngarra


Art Resources
There were twelve posts in this category in the 2021/2022 season with 'Painting Art - Part I' and 'Painting Art - Part IV', having the most viewers, with the latter having five more viewers than the former and so is the winner in this category.

Painting Art - Part IV
Click on the following link to view this post - Painting Art - Part IV.


Art Reviews
There were two posts in this category in the 2021/2022 season with both having excactly the same number of viewers and so they are the joint winners in this category.

The first published was "Needlework from the USA."

Court Gown
Fancy Court Gown of Alexandra Feodrovna, reproducing the dress of the Tsarina Marfa Ilyinichna, wife of Tsar Alexei Michaelovitch, 1903.
Click on the following link to view this post - Needlework from the USA.

The other joint winner was "Representational Designs of Kristi O'Meara."

Tentacle Mosaic
Tentacle Mosaic (2012).
Click on the following link to view this post - Representational Designs of Kristi O'Meara.


Glossaries
There are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and finally, the Glossary of Scientific Terms.

Of these eight glossaries the two most viewed were: A Fashion Data Base, and the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, with the former being the most viewed in the 2021/2022 season.

Callot Soeurs
Callot Soeurs (ca. 1911). Silk, cotton, metallic thread, and metal beads.
Click on the following link to view this glossary - A Fashion Data Base.


Prints on Paper
There were five posts in this category in the 2021/2022 season, with the topmost two being 'Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates[1] - Part III' and "The Creation of ‘Whose Place? My Place, Your Space’", with the latter romping it in with almost four times more views.

Marie-Therese Wisniowski
Artist: Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
Technique and Media: Silkscreened, stencilled, stamped and mono printed employing glazes, transparent and opaque pigments on Stonehenge stock.
Click on the following link to view this post - The Creation of ‘Whose Place? My Place, Your Space.


Wearable Art
There were five posts in this section, with posts, 'My New Hand Dyed and Hand Printed Urban Codes - Series 1 Collection' and 'Through the Land it Roared . . . ArtCloth Shawl' only being within one view of each other and so are too close to call and declared as joint winners in this section for the 2021/2022 season.

ArtCloth shawl
Full front view of the ArtCloth shawl, 'Through the Land it Roared . . .'
Click on the following link to view this post - 'Through the Land it Roared...'

Urban Codes - Series 1
'My New Hand Dyed and Hand Printed: Urban Codes - Series 1', collection.
Pashmina Wraps Collection.
Click on the following link to view this post - ‘Urban Codes - Series 1’


Workshop
Covid made the delivery of workshops difficult due to lockdowns etc. As restrictions eased and we experienced a 'new' normality, I was invited to give a workshop that was organized by the Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association Inc., Sydney, NSW Branch. It was held at the Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park on 21st - 22nd May 2022. The outputs of my students were stunning!

Two Day Workshop
Group photograph of participants: 'In Pursuit of ArtCloth: Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing Workshop.'
Two Day Workshop at ATASDA, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Back: From left to right - Suzanne Walcott, Cathy Griffith, Kathy Hawkins and Vicky Lowery.
Front: From left to right - Sarah Lazarus, Rhonda, Ha, and Tearza Stark.
Click on the following link to view their outputs - In Pursuit of ArtCloth: Disperse Dye and Transfer Printing Workshop.

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