Our journey to a net zero carbon and hopefully carbon positive life (and art practice)
Two years on ...
“To bring about a better world, let us all strive together with vision, with courage, and with optimism." ― Dalai Lama
Hard to believe we have been here, working on our sustainability transition 2 years now, while setting up and running our studio. I'll be honest, it hasn't been easy and I have found myself doing a lot of soul searching this year. Reframing our goals and what feels important. Moving from life as a checklist of things to do to help mitigate climate change...to moving toward a deeper examination of what actions are most important, and wondering if we will ever be able to do enough? The time spent reflecting on this year has, in the words* of Dougald Hine, given "way to a deeper acquaintance of the fragility of our situation".
This isn't doom and gloom - getting perspective is important, it's made me immensely grateful to be living on a small holding in beautiful west Wales. Grateful for the opportunity to make work in the gentlest way possible, to grow food, learn about agroforestry, develop our small bit of land to improve biodiversity and change how we live and make work.
I put 2 short videos together to show where we started. You can watch Part 1 - Blank Page here:
The cool wet summer of 2024 has been good for the trees and vegetation in general. The meadow flourished with plants we hadn't seen before and many, many bird species. You can watch Part 2 of the story here.
Many thanks to @johnnyflynnmusic and @robgmacfarlane for the most wonderful music to accompany the Part 2 reel.
Putting the reels together, showing how in 2 years our space has changed has lifted my spirits. This is due very little to our intervention, it's down to giving our trees a start and letting nature do the rest. We have a bit more to do, seeds to plant, ponds to dig, and a bit of large herbivore action, provided by me (thank you @isabella.tree #wilding).
It's been glorious to see it all finding it's own way...when we get out of the way...😍🌲🌳
Hope you've enjoyed it.
On the glass front, it's been a hugely busy year with much time taken working with Neil on a production commission and making work for numerous exhibitions, as well as delivering, installing and collecting 😂). You can read about these on the new Projects page on my website.
We have now extended our solar installation to help with running costs as well as our carbon footprint and have moved forward in other areas too. I have a spreadsheet for that, so will leave that for the next episode along with carbon footprint calculation discussions, our thinking behind our actions in the studio and house and how we have decided to move our sustainability project forward.
Many thanks to @samclarkartwrite and her fantastic blog that introduced us to Dougald Hine and his book *At work in the Ruins, to @neilwilkinglass for sharing this journey, the Beatles, Johnny Flynn and Rob MacFarlane for the music, the @woodlandtrust and @ashridgenurseries for the trees, to @lindanorrisgallery for the plant donations and last but not least, to all of you for your support and encouragement. It's all greatly appreciated.
#wilding #climatechange #art #creativepractice #contemporaryglass #contemporarysculpture #sustainableliving
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