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roadside pharmacopeia

roadside pharmacopeia

in love with Tataviam earth pigments shared from m

in love with Tataviam earth pigments shared from my friends Alan Salazar @alan.salazar.1942 (Tataviam and Chumash elder storyteller) and Mona Lewis @sunspritehandwork. they were gathered in an ancient Tataviam tribal village area (now by the side of a highway in Santa Clarita Valley, northern LA county, CA) to paint this nature story by Alan and illustrated by Mona (a former student of mine!).

i bought Tata the Tataviam Towhee to read with my niece who loves birds and rocks (😁) and lives in California. and little secret: in the back of the book are exercises on how to make paint and charcoal drawing sticks!!!

1. pigments gathered on Tataviam land by Alan and Mona (and shared w their permission).
2. cover of book (you can buy it online!! ill post link in story or visit @sunspritehandwork bio)
3. map of Tataviam land... made WITH the actual land
4.ochre rocks with the painting they made 💛
5. same ochre rocks from the Tataviam land
6. Tataviam land
7. clues
8. Mona & Alan's all local Chumash and Tataviam palette they are building for their next collaboration...

sharing metal dusts, making soil, doing work... on

sharing metal dusts, making soil, doing work... one dialogue and a few studio notes at a time:

deeper red ochre shown here is local washington iron ox formed after an environmental toxic mine government superfund remediation in the spot that perhaps someday will be bless'd for the ochre sanctuary/columbarium ill build to continue honoring the recovery of that land?

purple purple ochre is by way of dear @wildpigmentproject who just shared a good reverie on ochre terminology and some really amazing forthcoming ochres in her pigment series. powerful. dark red purple is by way of @elpitha who is working with broken iron ox land in utah and we had a sweet ochre universe alignment yesterday. joyful way to start the year of the metal ox!!

other pigment love being spread in earth worship include gatherings i did on la oregon coast with @pigmenthunter and his wisdoms, finally ripened 2017ish? soft love from columbia landwork via @catalina.christensen, a beloved grey soil from 10? 15? meters underground in brazil from soil engineer @zeifurtado, island gatherings with genius @juliegibvam (and george's ancestral homecooked fuel extradordaire) and master of masters forager @buckmcadoo, oldtime france earths gathered by @doriekeschreurs and gifts of abundance from activist @cosasrosaura farm land in puerto rico. i love my family all beings on earth, esp earth listeners and tenders and thank you for being here in this prayer for the everlasting spincycle which is life on earth

mysteries of pyrple. & a note for foragers: purple

mysteries of pyrple. & a note for foragers: purple rocks and soil are usually not ~purple~ as pigment. swipe to 2nd pic to seee marks these earths make when they are rubbed directly on paper.

most often they show their true warmer red bias hematite underlinings. i have no idea how that works, and honestly i care very little, why. if you find purple that stays present, my best guess is you've got another metal infrastructure besides iron ~~ magnesium...? aluminum...? bossing the life-eye-brain-color job.

thus... if you want pure purples, stick to torturing snails or gathering mussel shells or making flora lakes!

ps. that dark island shipwreck iron is one of my favorite n. american ochre minerals of all time ala @a.rural.pen

anybody want a glimpse into my ochre realm? this i

anybody want a glimpse into my ochre realm? this is also where i live and dream and eat.... 🙌🏽

secret ochre spectrum made from that unassuming so

secret ochre spectrum made from that unassuming soil, pebbles and ground underneath...

heart over eyes

northwest ochre 🫀 before, during and after flig

northwest ochre 🫀 before, during and after flight to a new home. to finally feel capable to make these land windows for other people and spaces outside of my ochre sanctuary, brings me tons of joy. perhaps akin to a kind of "unburial" ?? (a term foraged via fellow deep diver @robgmacfarlane).

made wth the help of local pacific northwest landforms, rocks, soil souls, trees, mastikha tears, cedar smoke, well water and an old spirit stick i carved while walking hebridian machair and peat lands underneath golden eagles.

i cld share this piece thanks to rad @beau_buck with whom it now lives

(ps. yes the cloth its safeguarded in i dyed by rubbing with red ochre soils too)

soil stories from lynching sites in the US. from t

soil stories from lynching sites in the US. from the important and unforgettable rememberance project of @eji_org and Bryan Stevenson, installed at the national memorial for peace and justice in alabama.

photo 2 & words from @eji_org:

"In 1893, a white mob stormed the jail in Carrollton, Alabama, and lynched Paul Hill, Paul Archer, Will Archer, Emma Fair, and Ed Guyton, four black men and a black woman who had been accused of setting a fire that destroyed a mill and gin house. They did not resist arrest and insisted that they were innocent. As the great anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells wrote in her investigation of the lynching, the unarmed black people "in their bolted prison cells could do nothing but suffer and die.""

photo 3 & words from eji:

"People from near and far gathered in Abbeville, South Carolina, to commemorate and reflect upon the 100th anniversary of a tragic event: the lynching of Anthony P. Crawford. During a ceremony on Friday, family members collected soil from the site where Mr. Crawford was lynched, and a consecration service in the Abbeville town square was held."

i posted about this project in 2019, but this week it seems really important to remember....

visit their website to learn more eji.org

clay from all the US states, admiring this sweet w

clay from all the US states, admiring this sweet work by @adamsilvermanstudio & photo by @erik.benjamins

beautiful soils of khorasan "where the sun arrives

beautiful soils of khorasan "where the sun arrives from" province, iran.

thx @shahabb1995 🖤

see previous post for big soil art installations made elsewhere in iran

do you know about فرش خاک soil carpets? 😳

do you know about فرش خاک soil carpets? 😳 massive labyrinth installations made of volcanic pigment in a hearthome of hormuz, iran. literally soil gathered within a short distance of this beach where it is site-specifically installed and celebrated.

i esp. love the bluetooth symbol being drawn in at the edge... acknowledging a kind of magical bizarre connection between technology and soil...

thanks to my soil biologist friend @shahabb1995 and artist @hana.shahnavaz for teaching me about this!!

see nxt post for some soil pigment samples from elsewhere in iran...

(these photos are not mine)

occur counsel in snowlight, ie. ochres gathered f

occur counsel in snowlight,

ie. ochres gathered from places in my heart, along wth white chalk frm @foundandground and pale celadonite ala @pigmenthunter

ie. also known as a "ferrous wheel" a sweet term coined by my friend @doriekeschreurs

i am thinking with deep time today, as i digest th

i am thinking with deep time today, as i digest the banalityofevil, cozy nightcap at discount hotel maskless coup underway.

the US capitol building is made of slave-quarried aquia creek sandstone (contains quartz silicia with bits of clay and prone to ochreous weathering) and is from 100 million year old earth on indigenous Patawomeck and Manahoac land of the last several thousand years.

the stone was handtooled and chiseled to build the white capitol and the white house. and several tombstones. because it was easy to carve without breaking....

image of "Block of Aquia Creek sandstone removed from the East Front of US Capitol" ca. 1824, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

in ancient egypt the sky was made of iron... so m

in ancient egypt the sky was made of iron...

so maybe yu cld call these fallen angels? or my paintbox full of favorite sacred place crayons, paint, drawing sticks, pigment, soil, dreams of iron, all same diff, soul of earth 🖤

spirit visions photo via @davoodvakilzadeh

spirit visions

photo via @davoodvakilzadeh

beloved land offerings that went out last year to

beloved land offerings that went out last year to people for their outer/inner/secret home practices ~~~~~ thank you to all who let more earthic dust into their hearths. these are just a few personal sets i made which i took photos on my phone, there are so many others i wish i cld share that i didnt document fully or that were deeply private or weren't appropriate or allowed to share on la social media.

this first photo is my most recent collab with my dear friend ~ dead coral, scorchrd deer bone, eroding fields, vulture sands, divination lake bed, volcanic clay, dried up swamps, dead plants, burnt earth, doorway dirt and other magic

hello 2021.
long love earth.
multivalence is oxygen.
all matter decays to iron.
🤎

palettes of local places, memories foraged in 2020

palettes of local places, memories foraged in 2020

1. a few minutes up sumas mountain from my studio (sumas is nooksack language, nooksack land)
2. near my sisters house (awaswas ohlone land)
3&4. my grandparents beach (marks in notebook are all made from bits of the eroding cliff behind it) (coast salish)
5. near my loves house (methow)
6&7. drove south into east oregon (n. paiute)
8. on the otherside of the mountains (wenatchi)
9. my teacher place (ohlone)
10. dahlias my rural farmer neighbor grows and gives away for free that live on my dining table over winter (nooksack)

#ochre #ochrearchive #pigments #soil #longliveearth

adore this recent conservation offering i got to m

adore this recent conservation offering i got to make for a major art institution. it was a sweet challenge to work w/ my rock and ochre knowledge to create the perfect "banal background brown... not too warm not too pink semi transparent... a specific sienna" i got to call on a few special italian earths sent to my by an antique furniture restorer from Ligurian hinterlands, as well as combining my own local foraged ancient earths heated by the sun for a gamillion years... warmed up but also drained out of intensity. banal brown! i love you.

plus my favorite mauve soil in the whole world thanks to iran 🌋

and ofcourse, elusive sacred blue viv from the coast for contemplation...

every continent land on Earth xcept th poles.... a

every continent land on Earth xcept th poles.... an intergalactic bless to your solstice innermost in...

pandemic memories

pandemic memories

insanely gorgeous earth offering prayer from @ketu

insanely gorgeous earth offering prayer from @keturah.stoltzfus, and land of south carolina.

no need for more words here. ok but also look at their beautiful handwriting. and dried flowers! and soul!!!!!!

soils of the pacific northwest in honor of #worlds

soils of the pacific northwest in honor of #worldsoilday... foraged from near where i was born and raised and still live (currently on nooksack land) and barely scratch the surface of what soils are around me and inform my daily life.

thank you to all the soil workers, laborers, handlers, guardians, scientists, and my environmental monitoring engineer daddo, (and my hydrogeologist uncle!) who taught and teach me how to touch earth with more care every day. long live earth!

ochre work is 24/7: i discovered these yesterday o

ochre work is 24/7: i discovered these yesterday on new route back from mountains bcs the usual pass is closed for winter. "the tug" (as @emfrei put it) called my attention across the river. so yu know i detoured. followed two roads to private dead ends ('cause America), then eventually a road that goes up and becomes dirt. i get out and walk the ditch (pic 3)

>>> take note ... this is how ochre work works, YOU WILL NOT SEE IT WITH YOUR EYES AT FIRST, your soul is the organ of perception for ochre <<<

upon getting closer yu'll start to get the sense (pic 4, 5)

i see a worn in deer trail up the sagebrush hill and slowly find my way to deeper ochre exposures (pic 6,7,8). a magic place. i m careful. i do offerings, notice whats already been offered here before (some rotten corn cobs, some bones, bullets, rusty cans, coyote poop, sage) and take some rocks in my pocket home to start and see what wants to speak or come to. who areeeee you rainbow hearth bb??

i gathered xtra of this dirty dark purple (pic 2) with a sense it cld be a red of red which hides. yessssss. "see" how that rock made the pigment behind it?

love.
love.
love.
earth.
love.
love.
rocks.
love.

also started my period (in sync w my sis!). this almost always times up with when i find deep mater rocks that bleed too....

my friend Anita Ekman's ochre &&& pintadera work i

my friend Anita Ekman's ochre &&& pintadera work is featured in @theodreview, GO READ (in english or portuguese)!!! she collaborates with the transmedia artist Anani Dodji Sanouvi (born in Togo) and the indigenous Brazilian artist Sandra Nanaína Tariano (from Rio Negro, Amazonas state) to celebrate ochres voice in a central ritual place. good work.

loving yu and grateful for you Anita @anitaekmanartist 🙌🏽

#redochre #ocre #ochre #sobreocre #ochrearchive #ochreritual #ceremonialochre

rare chance to tune in for my collaborator, mentor

rare chance to tune in for my collaborator, mentor, pigment scholar and loving mountain neighbor @nativepaintrevealed 's talk on pigments & history for FEEDBACK FRIDAY on @botanicalcolors . come hang with us!!! RSVP on their site 💙

Melonie's bio via @botanicalcolors:

Melonie Ancheta has been studying pigments for more than 40 years, (traditional native pigments for more than 25), to analyze and properly identify pigments, and to assist museums, conservators, collectors, artists and scholars to determine the materials, tools and techniques used in traditional Native American paints. This information is used in the restoration, conservation and appropriate storage and care of Native American artifacts, and to teach contemporary artists how to use traditional materials.

Through her extensive, multidiscipline research of pigments and color use, Melonie is recognized by such prestigious institutions as the Smithsonian Institute, the American Museum of Natural History and many others as the sole keeper-of-knowledge and authority on traditional NW Coast Native pigments and paint technology. She has also become one of the leading experts on the blue mineral pigment, vivianite.

a week of many dark northern hours grinding and ch

a week of many dark northern hours grinding and chewing hearth dust of rock for people. yes, it cld be also medicine to fight plague and a coup and the co-opting and antisepticifying of imagination and erthheart...

those in the 2nd photo are blends of geologically distinct parts of the same region or land, held together in cultural terms. adding a pinch of salt here, sum fat of the earthe, a trampling ground... 🤎

土 soil library of japan by 栗田宏一 koichi k

土 soil library of japan by 栗田宏一 koichi kurita now on view at @yamanashi_art_literature_park ! koichi a soil gathering master sensei 🙌🏼
.
.
1st pic thx to @yuilutei

2 billion yr old pigments frm banded iron stromato

2 billion yr old pigments frm banded iron stromatoliths (aka memory stone document of when microorganisms synthesized our modern atmosphere into existence) in north america and australia. deep respect to the littlest among us, thank you for yr teachings.

sea stories for closer look...

dust to dust evrrryday. crushing rocks for people.

dust to dust evrrryday. crushing rocks for people...do you see the

gastropod heart turned to dusk sunlight?
ocean warmed soil?
ditch peach from islands far away?
tsunami mineralized tree baby?
magnetic sand?
mammoth plant food w 80,000 yr ol vivianite?
limestone from an old quarry in the San Juans?
every bit of extra dark i ever made mixed into one?
seabed menstrual iron ?
furnace roasted specular hematite?
real cemetary mummy brown?
ye ol ochre window blushin?

dont forget to drink water and charge yr talismans

dont forget to drink water and charge yr talismans! iron breathing ions are excellent for that practice. if u only have pigment, simply rub a little bit on your jewels. did you know most jeweler's rouge polish IS red ochre?

see my stories for more abt these pieces here from @nandi.naya and @takaradesign and myself and my bff who died in august 🖤

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