#2

Speaking of transitory art made from the Earth, these are just a couple examples of the topiary made in Beijing for the olympic ceremonies. The use of color and movement and the accuracy of the representations blows me away because I would never have thought that the medium being used could be almost as maleable as clay. One day, my husband made the observation while watching our cat that animals don't really seem to manipulate their environment even for comfort. I'm sure there are a thousand examples to the contrary but in general they seem to accept their world as it is. This begs the question, why do humans do it? Why are we constantly trying to make things more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing?

I really like the comment from the Voicethread that said, "The Earth seems to be at the center of human and artistic consciousness." When we say, "we live on Earth," we don't really seem to grasp that the Earth is literally our home. Maybe Paleolithic and Neolithic people really understood that but we in the present time have psychologically seperated ourselves from the Earth. We don't eat from it, we get food from the grocery store, we don't sleep on it, we sleep in soft, warm beds, we don't walk on it, we drive in cars, we don't listen to it, we don't smell it, we don't touch, taste or even really see it anymore.