Download our own little mag called Seed

Seed
February 2016
i
Volume 1 / Issue 1
ii
s
Seed
eed is a publication of gathered ideas which have sprouted from our
many thoughts and conversations that seem to fall outside the current
‘conversation’. It is about the state of the environment, our hearts,
minds and souls, and NOT the economy, which seems to be pretty
much the only conversation happening at the moment.
We thought that these personal pieces could be the seeds for new
conversations about things that don’t speak of success, acquisition and
wealth as the only aspirational markers of our time. We are fed up with
a media that offers nothing but the same party line that says ‘growth’ is
our salvation and that all things about community, love and support of
those less fortunate are ridiculous, socialist or out-moded.
So, hopefully, there is something here that speaks of the positive
aspects of pursuing spiritual, environmental and societal ideals that
protect and enhance rather than run the same tired ‘winner and
loser’, ‘right and wrong’ dualistic arguments. Something here might
be of interest to at least a few of you who may also be tired of the
single-minded vision of salvation offered predominantly by overprivileged, egotistical and self-serving groups. Be they government or
media-based, they speak only of a very narrow, rather inhumane and
environmentally unfriendly form of modern existence.
The biggest challenge here is to not be negative or bitter about our lot,
but to try and move towards something thoughtful and positive. We
equally don’t want to claim these little reflections are ‘the answer’, or
to become as self-centred and egotistical in our own way as the very
groups that we feel are blinding us to alternative thought.
We offer this little document in good faith, and with a pinch of
humour, in the hope that it is, at best, something different from the
current norm in our mainstream media.
We would encourage you to, in the immortal words of Walt Whitman,
“...dismiss whatever insults your own soul”.
Matthew & Luke Williamson - Halcyon Design Limited
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‘We eat the sun’ Fraser Williamson ( Painting - gouache on board - 900mm x 900mm )
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contents
Page 4 The state of our oceans and scenarios for what might be the best outcomes we could hope for in 2050.
Published by:
Halcyon Design Limited
Level 1, Millstream Building
17 Elizabeth Street,
Warkworth
Seed
Page 2 In favour of swimming (nearly) naked.
Phone: 09 425 9863
www.halcyondesign.co.nz
Page 10 Beach peace. Contemplating ‘loafing’.
Page 12 The assemblage artwork of Karen Williamson .
Page 16 The musical generation gap.
Page 18 Mary Jo Hoffman – photographer.
Page 22 We are not afraid of nepotism.
Cover Image:
Fertility specialists
Seed pods from all over –
Mary Jo Hoffman
Page 24 There’s a guy in our office . . .
1
nearly
swimming naked
We began our swim by jumping off the bridge into the swirls of the outgoing tide three metres
below. Holding tight to my cap and goggles, I leapt in, feet first, and shivered, not with cold,
but pleasure at how perfect the water felt – not too warm, not too cold, alive and chatty.
2
Photo : Felix Renaud 123RF
In favour of
There were shouts and squeals around me as
enthusiastic and nervous divers alike launched
off the bridge and into the tide. We all floated
and gabbled about how nice it was while we got
ready for the journey ahead. The outgoing tide had
livened up sufficiently that I could feel fragments of
seaweed and stick bump into me as they pressed
on towards open ocean, and I watched as I floated
away from the bridge, no swimming required,
eddies curling around me and tickling my skin.
As instigator of the swim, to which 15 people turned
up, I made sure everyone was happily on their way
before ducking my face into the water and getting
my engine started. With 5.4km ahead, I was in no
hurry to use up excess energy, knowing that I would
need that extra strength to get through the final
stages. I could feel the sun on my back as I slowly
got up to cruising pace. The light through the water
made rippling patterns on the sea floor a mere
couple of metres below, and a gorgeous mosaic of
muddy thumbprints began to emerge made up of
starfish, stingray and shell patches.
I fell in behind one of the other swimmers to ride his
bubbly wake, feeling the effervescence trickle down
my chest and stomach, but soon pulled out and
away as I was faster and much prefer to find my
own peace and pace when ocean swimming.
The outgoing tide soon had me to our first mark, a
catamaran mid-channel. Following the deepening
channel beneath, as it turned about twenty degrees
to the right, I whisked past the moored yachts on
my way to the boat ramp that signaled the onethird mark. The tidal current was performing just as
hoped and propelling me past the stationary yachts
at an inspiring but deceptive pace, almost making
me believe I could really swim that fast.
Soon the channel narrowed as it prepared to turn
nearly 180°, and get squeezed between a rocky
headland and a projecting sand spit. As hoped, the
current picked up to warp speed and a kilometre
and a half was covered in about half the time it
would normally take. At one point, I simply stopped
swimming, spread my arms wide and ‘flew’ at four
or five knots over the sandy surface below. I also
remembered to pause, raise my head and truly
appreciate how rapidly the shore was passing by
on this amazing leg of the swim. Merely turning
one’s arms over at minimum speed was enough to
slingshot around the corner at top pace.
The prevailing current surged off for a way down
the beach and I rode it until a counteracting
surface breeze, fresh out of the south, sucked the
energy out of that conveyor belt and made me glad
I had preserved energy for the beat up the beach.
The wind was brisk enough to form perpetual
wavelets that slapped against my forehead as
I began to put in some heavy work. Where the
competing currents met and mixed, surges of
colder and warmer water oozed over my body
and back again, making me wish for one or other
depending on how tired I was. The chains of salps
made a reappearance and, for brief moments, it
was like swimming through tapioca. A little further
on, I felt a tingling itch on the hairless part of my
wrist and knew I must have bumped into a jellyfish.
The haul up the beach was slower than usual and
required the fine art of distracting myself with
thoughts of other interesting things while slowly
ticking off the well-known landmarks that told of
my progress towards the final destination – clump
of trees #1, three pines that line up as you swim
past, clump of trees #2, lone pine, flag pole.
As the surf club came into view and my mouth
began to feel puckered by the saltwater, I splatted
my hand into a large clump of seaweed that
caught in my fingers, disentangled and then
3
scratched its way down my entire length as I swam
on towards the finish line.
With a last burst of energy, I caught a small wave
to shore, careful not to lose my goggles in the
melee of whitewater, and grounded myself on
the sand with an exfoliating rasp. I slowly stood
up with the customary wobble of those who have
completed a long swim and was greeted by the
two swimmers who had beaten me home. The sun
was warm and the wind was cold, and I stood and
shook hands with each swimmer as they struggled
up the beach, feeling the salt drying and crusting
on my face and shoulders. It felt good.
I didn’t actually do the swim naked but I wish
I had. I wore Speedos which is about as close
as you can get to bare while being socially
acceptable – sort of.
I have been pondering the disappearing art of
“togs” swimming in this age of wetsuit dominance.
Wearing a wetsuit is understandable given the
advantages of confidence, warmth and speed that
it confers. However, I love ‘being in contact’ with
the ocean when I swim, feeling all the bubbles,
ripples, rubble and marine life that swirl past.
Getting to the finish point of a swim is important
but, much like life itself, I love to make sure I fully
experience the journey with all its quirks. So, next
time you are heading out to do your ocean swim,
maybe leave the wetsuit (the togs too if you can
find some privacy) at home and take the time to
experience all that the ocean has to offer, and
you might find yourself a convert to less-is-more
swimming.
By Luke Williamson
We asked Dr Roger Grace, a local marine scientist and environmental
advocate to offer some optimistic scenarios for what might be the
best outcomes we could hope for in 2050 and then to tell us where we
stand now on some of these key marine environment issues.
THE FUTURE
If we were logical, the future would look bleak indeed. But we are more than logical.
We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work. - Jacques Cousteau
NB: interview was recorded before the announcement of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary in September 2015
4
<1%
2050 2050
In 2050, the national Marine Protected Areas (MPA)
forum process will be complete and a minimum of 10%
of the New Zealand coastline will be no-take MPA. This
would have to be a representative network that covered
all the different types of habitat and, preferably, more
than one example of each type of habitat.
It is worth noting that less than 1% of New
Zealand’s territorial sea is designated as MPA,
and around 97% of that is made up of reserves
around the Kermadec and Auckland Islands; so
very little of the mainland coast and islands.
A national review of MPA began around 2004
with the country being divided up into marine
bio-regions. It was envisaged that each region
would then have a forum of interested parties
who would discuss and plan for a series of MPA
in their region, and this process would be part of
a coordinated national plan. Fora were held for
Westland and the sub-Antarctic islands but then
the government mothballed the whole scheme
and withdrew funding.
The recent (March 2014) announcement of three
new marine reserves, covering 435,000 hectares
of ocean, in sea surrounding the Antipodes,
Bounty and Campbell Islands is a sign of some
momentum returning to the debate around
creating more MPA. The government has also
30%
of our land is
protected for its
natural values
begun work on an MPA forum in Otago to look at
the options for MPA in that region.
Roger says, ‘We need to have reserves that
represent all types of habitat, from estuarine and
rocky shore, to deep water and sandy coastline.
That means that you have to have a pretty open
run at what’s available before too many other rules
and claims get in the way. And these reserves
need to be total no-take areas – we know that
this is the only type of reserve that works from a
conservation point of view.’
Roger sites the examples of Mimiwhangata
and the Poor Knights which, as marine parks
(commercial fishing banned but recreational
fishing allowed), failed to recover from their
degraded state. When the Poor Knights became
a marine reserve with total no-take coverage, the
area improved rapidly.
He adds, ‘The MPA also need to be replicated so
that a disaster can’t wipe out one whole type of
protected habitat, and the reserves need to be
of coastal
waters are
protected for
their natural
values
spread evenly, geographically, so that there is
representation, connectivity and access for the
public.’
Roger finally points out that the 10% figure for
marine reserves is not set in stone and should
only be an aspirational figure on the way to a
higher total, if possible. Once the benefits of
MPA on this scale were experienced, it seems
likely that the public would see the advantages
of continuing the programme of marine
conservation.
NOW NOW
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The public is well aware of the tourism and
ecological advantages of current mainland MPA,
but it is a hard sell to create new ones as people
are always reluctant to have their favourite
fishing spots made unavailable – this despite
the scientifically-proven ‘spill over’ effect of fish
from the reserves. By 2050, this will be wellunderstood and result in the creation of a string
of coastal reserves.
‘I want the Marine Spatial Plan to be a success and, as a result, for the environment of the
Hauraki Gulf to improve, not get worse as it is now. That’s what success means to me in this case.’
2050 2050
In 2050, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) will
have been successfully implemented leading to an overall
improvement in the health of the Hauraki Gulf, including the
provision of MPA for long-term conservation.
The aim of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan
is to bring together a broad cross section of
stakeholders and come up with a plan to arrest
the ecological decline of the Hauraki Gulf, and
to secure a healthy, productive and sustainable
resource for all users.
‘I want the Marine Spatial Plan to be a success
and, as a result, for the environment of the
Hauraki Gulf to improve, not get worse as it is
now. That’s what success means to me in this
case,’ Roger explains.
While Roger is positive about the intentions of the
MSP, he has concerns about its early priorities. He
wants to see the inclusion and implementation of
marine reserves as a specific goal in the planning
process. Currently, this is not the case and Roger
is worried that the opportunity will be overlooked
and, subsequently, prove to be too difficult to
address if left until the end of the process.
‘I would like to see discussion around the Marine
Spatial Plan double as a Marine Protected Areas
forum,’ he says, ‘because once the Marine Spatial
Plan is in place, how are we going to go back and
have a sensible discussion about MPAs? Now is
the time to be having these discussions as all the
advocates are already gathered.’
That the MSP is being approached in a
coordinated way with representation from all
the stakeholders is a wonderful thing, as is the
overall agreement that the health of the Hauraki
Gulf continues to deteriorate and something must
be done to reverse that. The challenge will be to
agree on a set of goals that satisfies the broad
collection of stakeholders, and to set in motion
actions that will achieve those goals.
In 2050, sediment and
nutrient runoff into the
marine environment will
have been severely reduced.
“We know that the runoff of sediment from our
relatively-recently cleared land area – I’m talking the
last 200 years – is huge and it has been filling the
surrounding marine environment, particularly estuaries.
We now have the added complication of nutrient runoff
from farming. The Waikato and Hauraki Plains areas
account for a huge input of nutrients to the Gulf every
year, to the point where it is estimated they will be
responsible for “dead zones” in the Firth of Thames in
a few years,’ says Roger.
NOW NOW
Dead zones occur when high nutrient levels cause
algal blooms on a scale that results in the complete
depletion of oxygen from areas of the ocean. Nothing
else can live in these zones as long as the nutrients
keep being added and the algae keep blooming.
There is a lot of discussion around nutrient runoff
from farms, and councils and farming groups are
encouraging and assisting farmers to fence off
streams from livestock, and to plant the margins of
waterways as a means of intercepting the runoff.
However, this is a huge problem throughout the
country and mitigating it will involve unprecedented
cooperation with the farming industry.
6
‘Our main fish species are being maintained at far too low a population level. I want
to see the maintenance level raised to at least 40% of pre-fished biomass.’
2050 2050
In 2050, our populations of snapper, crayfish and all the
main commercial fish/shellfish species will have been
increased to at least 40% of pre-fished biomass and
maintained at or above that level.
Most commercial species are theoretically
maintained at approximately 20% of pre-fished
biomass but often slip under this level in the ebb
and flow of population management. (Pre-fished
biomass is a theoretical figure that represents
the amount of fish that would have been in the
ocean before commercial fishing began.) This
lower level leaves insufficient breathing space for
miscalculations of quota or adverse environmental
effects, and actually robs the fishing industry of a
potential higher take, if the fisheries were given a
chance to rebuild.
Roger was frustrated that the discussion around
the snapper quota limits failed to centre on the
proposed 40% figure as it was such an important
step in the right direction and vital to the longterm recovery process, but it got lost in the static
around cuts to recreational fishing quota.
There is still a very long way to go on this vision
as there is enormous pressure to maintain and
even lift the foreign exchange earnings from
fisheries. The review of the Snapper fishery last
year was a classic example where the revised
quota limits mean it will still take approximately
100 years to reach 40% of pre-fished biomass,
and only in the most optimistic of scenarios.
Contrast that with a total closure of the fishery
which would result in a population of 40% of prefished biomass in 8-12 years.
Roger points out that the increase in the fish
populations restore balance to the environment
and create a ‘virtuous cycle’ whereby the habitat
improves so the fish population improves so the
habitat improves, etc. ‘An increase to 40% in the
snapper population would mean that the kina
barrens would start to disappear, the kelp forests
would return and they are the nursery grounds for
more fish. 40% may not be a high enough figure
but it’s a good level to start at.’
NOW NOW
Roger says, ‘Our main fish species are being
maintained at far too low a population level. I
want to see the maintenance level raised to at
least 40% of pre-fished biomass. I was very
pleased to see MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries)
acknowledge this figure when they set the new
extraction levels for the Snapper 1 fishery in
2013. This was a recognition of the fact that, if
the snapper population is raised to 40%, it allows
for roughly a 50% increase in the sustainable
take. It improves the snapper population and the
potential yield.’
7
‘Fishing contests are barbaric. Imagine if you had a contest in the Auckland Domain
where you threw out baited hooks in order to catch birds and then reeled them in.’
2050 2050
In 2050, commercial fishing will
exclude all bottom-impacting
methods, e.g. trawling,
dredging, Danish seining.
‘Most of the damage has already been done,’
Roger explains with a resigned sigh. ‘When you
look at the Hauraki Gulf, it used to have small
reefs all over the ocean floor that we call “oasis
communities”. They weren’t attached to anything
as such but were made up of things like mussel
communities which provided a substrate for other
animals and, over time, these oasis communities
built up to become quite a significant size – the
size of a house for instance. They would build
up over a thousand or more years and could
include coral trees and sponges, and were real
biodiversity hotspots. They would be very valuable
as snapper nursery areas.
‘Those communities are nearly all gone now,
removed by repeated trawling in the Hauraki Gulf.
Fishermen even went to the trouble of dragging
a heavy chain between two trawlers to clear out
all the nuisance rubble that was filling their nets.
This is similar to what has occurred on seamounts
where they fish for orange roughy – huge metal
rollers scour the surface in front of the net so that
they can have a clear run at the fish.
‘So, even if we stopped these fishing methods now,
it would still take hundreds, if not thousands of
years for these communities to recover and rebuild.’
In 2050, the mussel beds in
the Firth of Thames will be
restored and protected.
Huge mussel beds in the Firth of Thames were
relentlessly fished in the 1900s to the point
of extinction. In some places, the reefs that
the mussels created formed the basis of oasis
communities and were valuable habitats for a
multitude of other species. They were also an
incredibly efficient water-filtering mechanism for
the Gulf.
‘There has been no sign of recovery in these
communities following their final decimation in
the early 1960s. There are experiments going
on currently to see if we can rebuild these
communities by using reject and leftover mussels
from nearby farms. It will, however, depend on
limiting the runoff of sediment and nutrients into
the Firth of Thames because there is no point
trying to grow mussels if they get smothered or
starved of oxygen.’
In 2050, recreational fishing will
not be seen as a ‘sport’ and there
will be no fishing contests.
‘It bothers me how popular recreational fishing
is,’ Roger states. ‘This is largely driven by the
recreational fishing industry and its desire to sell
boats, outboard motors, depth sounders, rods, bait
and so on. It’s big business and it’s in their interest
to push that as much as possible. The result is that
the so-called sport fishing industry has increased in
size dramatically, and it is having a huge effect on
the number of fish caught. The current rules around
recreational fishing are not adequate to avoid serious
environmental impacts from this sector.
‘This sector has gotten away with it to some extent
because, unlike other forms of land-based hunting,
fish aren’t seen as warm, fuzzy creatures that you can
feel sorry for. If you tried to get the same acceptance
of bird shooting or deer hunting, it would never take
off. However, because people see fish as cold, slimey
creatures that don’t have feelings, that don’t feel pain,
they consider this level of hunting to be OK.
‘Fishing contests are barbaric as well. Imagine if you
had a contest in the Auckland Domain where you
threw out baited hooks in order to catch birds and
then reeled them in. There would be a huge fuss,
but because it’s fish, and you can’t see or hear them
when you catch them, people think it’s OK to make
a sport of it.’
NOW NOW
8
‘Using 2kg of small fish to get 1kg of larger fish is an on-going
problem for fish farming around the world.’
So, in 2014, what are the
chances of us achieving
these goals for 2050?
2050 2050
In 2050, aquaculture in New Zealand will be carefully
controlled and monitored to make sure that it doesn’t
cause undue environmental damage and the benefits
are not outweighed by the drawbacks.
The Government has announced its intention to
facilitate the doubling of agricultural exports in
the next 10-15 years. A large proportion of this
is expected to be land-based agriculture which
means we face the threat of even more nutrient
and sediment run-off into the sea.
Part of the push to increase our exports will
include seafood, both farmed and wild, and is a
real concern for a number of reasons. Most of our
farmed seafood, currently, is mussels and salmon
but the growth area is in fin-fish farming, e.g.
snapper, kingfish and hapuka.
‘A few years ago, hundreds of thousands of
juvenile kingfish were bred for a proposed
kingfish farm near Whangarei, but they
subsequently failed to get resource consent for
the farm. So they released all the juvenile kingfish
into the ocean, saying how wonderful it was that
they were boosting the numbers in the wild,’
Roger explains.
‘That made me really mad because they were
potentially introducing disease from the farmed
stock, but, most importantly, they were artificially
changing the genetic balance of the wild
population by introducing hundreds of thousands
of offspring from about 30 parents.’
There will always be these sorts of risks (disease
and genetic imbalance) with fish farmed in cages
in the ocean because it is inevitable fish will
escape. This has been happening for years with
the salmon farms. There is also the problem of
waste products from that sort of concentration of
fish fouling the seabed and surrounding ocean so
that other species can’t survive.
‘Fin-fish farming would only be acceptable if the
operation was entirely on land in ponds or tanks.
Nothing from those farms could go into the sea
unless it had been through very strict filtering and
quarantine of some sort,’ says Roger.
Also, there is little point, from a sustainability
point of view, of using 2kg of small fish to get 1kg
of larger fish. This is an on-going problem for fish
farming around the world and one that hasn’t
been adequately addressed.
Roger concludes, ‘So, I don’t want to see big
increases in aquaculture and I don’t want to see
fin-fish farming in cages in the sea. I could accept
fish farming on land with all those provisos for
waste management but that still doesn’t address
the problem of what to feed them. However, if
we were to manage our wild fish stocks properly,
then fish farming would probably be redundant.’
Roger is a veteran of the long,
slow battles that are required
to achieve any of these goals,
but he is optimistic about the
systems being in place for
some important strategies
such as the Hauraki Gulf MSP
and MPA. History shows that
any of these things can be
side-lined or forgotten, but the
fact that there is legislation in
place means that they can also
be picked up and promoted
just as easily. There are small
victories along the way, such
as MPI acknowledging the
need to aim for a level of
40% of pre-fished stock in
the snapper fishery, and the
beginning of a coordinated
strategy to rescue the Hauraki
Gulf environment, and it’s
these small steps that keep
Roger going. With just a
few more small steps and a
slightly larger move in attitude
towards environmental
protection, Roger’s goals for
2050 just might come true.
NOW NOW
9
Beach Peace
Matthew ponders...
I loafe and invite
my soul, I lean and
loafe at my ease
observing a spear
of summer grass.
- Walt Whitman
T here is something so wonderful
in loafing and ‘inviting the soul’. It
seems that we have perhaps lost the
art of loafing and, in doing so, our
connection to spiritual or meditative
aspects of life – simply being,
experiencing nature and being the
passive recipient of pleasures from a
truly divine world.
I grew up doing quite a bit of loafing,
‘beach loafing’ in particular, and now feel
a little disconnected from what was, I see
now, more a spiritual practice than a sign
of laziness or disconnection. We have
replaced the joy of natural communion
with a neurosis of connectivity and
activity. It seems people can no longer
be still and I can, disappointingly,
include myself in this. I don’t know what
happened to the sense that just being
warmed by the sun and feeling relaxed
was a pleasure, not a guilt-ridden exercise
10
that had to cease immediately in order
for one to go somewhere else or do
something else.
The act of being as close to naked as
is comfortable, or allowable by social
dictates, and the giving away of the ego
of clothing, cars and other material
attachments was, and I think still is, a
healthy form of social equality that we
may have grown unable to enjoy. Maybe
we are so sold on the idea of acquisition
and showy wealth being the only measure
of a worthy life that the simple and freelyavailable activity of loafing is no longer
tolerable to our avaricious and egotistical
modern souls? I suggest this because the
now inescapable lure of communication
technology means that, even at the beach,
people are texting, tweeting, taking selfies
and posting to Facebook so as to not feel
disconnected from activity, and to prove
that their life has validity because they are
reporting or recording it!
Mindful
Every day I see or hear something that more or less
kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle
in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for – to
look, to listen,
to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself
over and over
I know these things to be true because I
see them regularly now and feel in myself
a certain uneasiness with time ‘wasted’ at
the beach. My children, as digital natives,
are totally lost to this loafing concept it
seems, and the idea of spreading out a
towel and snoozing until the desire for
another dip overtakes you is as foreign
to them as life without WiFi. Within
minutes, there are cries to return to the
car, the house, the technology, the shops
. . . anything but wiling away peaceful
time on the beach.
I have become very fond of the poems
of the American poet Mary Oliver, and
she articulates beautifully that spiritual
connection that can only emerge in peace
and contemplation. This idea extends
to making our spiritual lives healthy
as our current, modern, self-centred
activities simply are not conducive to
spiritual growth – or, in more modern
terminology, that of mindfulness.
in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the
exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of
the ordinary, the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to
myself, how can you help
but grow wise with such teachings as these – the
untrimmable light
of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are
made out of grass?
~ Mary Oliver ~
( Why I Wake Early )
11
m
B L ag e
e
As s
Art by
Karen Williamson
The art of assemblage is a method that Karen Williamson has found to be both
challenging and creatively rewarding. It is the classic trash to treasure process,
and the whimsical and beautiful final objects are not just nice!
12
Karen started creating these mixed
media assemblages about four years
ago after she became familiar with
the work of Micheal deMeng (www.
michaeldemeng.com), a Vancouverbased assemblage artist. In his work,
she saw infinite possibilities for the
creativity that can emerge from sticking
ordinary everyday items together, a
process that she says, strangely, gives her
a lot of enjoyment, especially if power
tools are involved!
Being attracted to unwanted or discarded
things, Karen is constantly on the lookout
for objects at garage sales, second-hand
stores, on the beach or at the side of the
road. Friends know not to throw out old
paint brushes, but to leave them in her
letterbox. “I am a hoarder really, a fact
that is evident if you take a look around
my house, both inside and out, even
sometimes spilling out to spaces in the
car. Ask my family!” says Karen
Being a photographer, Karen’s eye is
keenly tuned to seeing things in a way
that other people might not notice.
“When choosing, I don’t really look at
the function of the item, but rather I’m
interested in its shape and imperfections.
This view is akin to the Japanese wabisabi – seeing beauty in objects which are
damaged, old, cracked, rusty and broken.
If the object is perfect, I will usually
make it imperfect.” For example, the old
bolts and nails Karen uses in her work
tend to be rusty, but, if she needs to buy
a new bolt to complete a piece, Karen
will dip it in hydrochloric acid and leave
it for a few weeks until the rust appears.
It makes for slow work sometimes but it
needs to look right.
Karen sees her work as a
comment on our disposable
society, and likes to consider the
objects as being honoured and
given a new life. “I am respectful
of the mauri (life-force) of an
object, particularly if it’s organic,
like a skull or feather.” Karen
prefers the word ‘recycled’ to
‘repurposed’ as she feels it implies
environmental consciousness
rather than a more self-gratifying
form of work.
Karen quotes New Zealand
photographer Marti Friedlander
as saying, “a photograph is only
good if it evokes a reaction”.
She feels the same is true of all
artwork and hopes her work
evokes some of the messages
she says are behind her work.
As a hospice nurse, Karen sees
her assemblages as metaphors
for life and death, and also an
expression of her spirituality. She
is perplexed that some people
find her assemblages rather dark
and challenging, and thinks that
the actual challenge the art issues
is to think and talk honestly
about life, aging, death and rebirth; by
acknowledging life as a finite state, you
can enjoy it more.
Karen is continually at work on projects
in many forms, including book making
and pottery, but assemblages and
photography are the main forms of
expression. With these artistic outlets
occupying much of Karen’s time (when
not working for hospice), we can expect
to continue to see work that challenges
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and doesn’t just pander to an aesthetic
that fits with interior decors.
Karen concludes, “It’s a good thing to be
challenged by art. The worst thing you
could say about my work is that it is ‘nice’.
What does nice do?”
Above) The Queen is in Residence - boxed shrine, rusted
plastic insect, bone, various metal objects, knitted garden
twine, Vietnamese coins.
Opposite page) Weltedy Max Candelabra
- doll parts, Dia de los muertos painted icons, found objects.
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3
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4
6
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Artworks Left to Right:
1) Polyphemus - upcycled Hindu shrine, sculpted tentacles and a multitude
of nautical/piratical found objects (including beautiful mermaid).
2) A Brush with Bling - paint brush, found objects.
3) Bad Ass Brush - paint brush, doll head, found objects.
4) Our Lady of the Divine Rusty Junk - rusted mannequin, doily, old tools,
household objects.
5) Sol Invictus - Rusted quiche tin, expandable foam, paper mask and found
objects.
6) Shrine for Trevor - boxed shrine dedicated to Trevor Cooper, much-loved
hospice volunteer (RIP).
7) Epona, goddess of My Little Ponies - Wolseley dashboard (circa 1950),
my little ponies, Kewpies and various found objects.
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M
Maz Williamson
AKA Mr Grumpy
usic is undoubtedly one of the salves
for modern living and everyone has a
musical salve of choice. When I decide
to actually purchase music, it seems to
be a vote for a sort of lifestyle choice
as much as something to tap your foot
to or sing along to. Whilst I am so old
now that I can’t be sure what the first
record I ever purchased was, I do know
that it was a deeply-considered and then
treasured item with both album cover and
music being fully engaged with over long
periods of time!
These days, it is an entirely different
process for my children. They consume
music in a much more piecemeal
and disposable way. Not for them the
hours spent listening through a whole
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album again and again while studying
every detail of the cover art and every
nuance of the lyrics! It has to work
immediately and fit what is happening,
and if you get sick of that idea after 30
seconds, you simply choose another
song. The immediacy of the experience
is core and it’s not something that
you bring yourself to, rather it must
come to you and be entertaining. This
is probably consistent with most of
the technological experiences that
entertainment brings to this generation
and that is just the way it is.
I actually did understand iTunes, with
purchases of single tracks, but it now
seems that buying music is a completely
out-moded idea!
I asked my kids if they had bought, or
were intending to buy, any music over the
Christmas period and they both firmly
said ‘no!’ They told me they were signed
up to Spotify, which streams music for
free, and all they did was get a playlist of
all their favourite tunes and listen to that.
I wonder how it will play out with the
artists if indeed a whole new generation
have no intention of parting with money
for music.
Another aspect of the new generation of
music consumption is that the quality
of reproduction of the music seems to
be almost irrelevant. Poor reproduction
through cheap ‘in ear’ headphones
or from a matchbox-sized, scratchy
speaker seems to be no deterrent to their
listening pleasure. Again, the difference
between us is profound. I may not be
a true audiophile, but the search for
high-quality sound reproduction with
substantial bass, nice crisp tops and clear
mid-range has been with me since my
youth. We would sit around, reverentially
listening to records on what was the
best we could get in terms of stereo
systems and loved to separate the various
instruments for analysis – great guitar
solos and solid bass were always the most
pleasurable. Paradoxically, I think the
perpetual availability of music on every
technological device we own, and in all
situations, has actually diminished my
appreciation of and dedication to my pure
and much-loved musical world.
Could it be that, as with almost everything
in our world of instant gratification and
infinite choice, we have just become
weary of the overwhelming amount of
stimulus to choose from? Could we be
over-entertained and in need of less rather
than more? Music seems to have almost
been turned into a background ‘jingle’
to a never-sleeping consumer marketing
machine. What was an artform in its own
right has been turned into the background
noise to the narcissistic pursuit of ‘your
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life’ – which is only worthy of being
called a ‘life’ when recorded in video
or photographic form with, of course,
a soundtrack! This might be a bit too
pessimistic or judgmental, and I am not
acknowledging the still very vibrant and
broad range of musical creation, but I
have the feeling it has been somewhat
devalued by the sheer quantity available.
Maybe less music, of higher quality, and
even at a small price, would turn the
tables a little towards the desire to reflect,
absorb and digest the range of emotions
and thoughts that good music can inspire.
It doesn’t need to be all about ‘quick edits’,
snap shots of life and the need to move
past things rapidly.
Maybe this is just another ampoule of the
opiate for the masses that prevents us from
being alert to where this one track, antispiritual, anti-human, consumer-driven
and financial-focussed global culture is
taking us. I really am a grumpy old man!
MARY JO HOFFMAN
A milestone year
White oak leaves in fall colors
Saint Paul, Minnesota
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We stumbled upon the work
of Mary Jo Hoffman when
searching for an image to
use in an identity we were
creating here at Halcyon
Design. Having found an
image on a Google search, we
contacted the photographer
(Mary Jo) who was
extraordinarily helpful and
generous in allowing us to
use her work for a modest fee!
Lovely work, lovely person.
Mary Jo Hoffman is a
photographer who started her
own blog on January 1, 2012.
Mary Jo thought she would
enjoy the discipline of producing
a photo a day, and hoped that
a few kindred wanderers might
find their way to her blog. She
could never have guessed that
thousands would come and
have their morning coffee whilst
viewing her latest post. She also
could never have guessed that
every stroll with her kids or dog
would turn into a treasure hunt,
or that Martha Stewart would
do a feature on her and that her
images would be included in the
website designsponge.com
The blog is called STILL and
Mary Jo posts one image, daily,
of gathered natural objects
found near where she is, which
usually means Minneapolis
and Saint Paul, Minnesota, her
home. Sometimes, it means
the Gulf Coast of Florida, and,
sometimes, Grand Marais,
Minnesota, on the north shore
of Lake Superior. Sometimes,
it also means the Languedoc
region of south-west France.
Mary Jo would love to see her
images used by designers and
artists worldwide. She has also
developed a ‘shop’ for elegant,
Still-inspired prints, textiles,
stitched wall-hangings, themed
card collections, and other
product ideas available for
licensing.
Still blog is a place to stop. A
place to look at one thing at a
time. A place to be still.
http://stillblog.net/
Gather, sort, repeat
A collection of Mediterranean shells, rocks, and sea glass
Séte, France
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I don’t have a studio, and
generally shoot on my
kitchen counter or on
my deck.
I truly believe with any
half-decent digital
camera and PicMonkey,
most people could get
similar results for very
little initial investment.
Mary Jo Hoffman
Gathered and assembled
An arrangement of purple and
green things in the village
Autignac, France
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Mary Jo’s technique
Unimpressed
A collection of small, silvery Mediterranean fish: daurade/dorade, merlu, merlan, maquereau, sardine
Valras, France
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My set-up is quite simple: I use any white paper (usually
white tag board), natural light, a not very fancy Canon
Rebel t1i with a good Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens,
and Photoshop. That’s about it. I usually put my white
paper background on the floor and shoot from above
my subject, or I set the paper on my kitchen counter
or tape it to a wall and hold the subject up in front of
me. Every once and a while, I will bring my white paper
out into the field to get a shot. But that usually requires
two people – one to hold the background and one to
photograph. So I only do that when I can sweet-talk my
husband or kids into it. They are usually good sports.
I do not use a softbox or a lightbox, although both have
been suggested. I spend a lot of time waiting for the sun
to go behind a cloud so I can get softer lighting. I don’t
have a macro lens. For the first year-plus of the blog, I
didn’t have a tripod, so I often ended up using chairs or
stacks of books as makeshift camera stands. I finally
bought a real tripod recently, and it is helping with
photo crispness a lot. I should have bought one a year
ago. On the other hand, I want to emphasize that what
I’ve been doing can be done without a tripod.
I don’t know why it took me so long to learn this, but if I
can prop the subject up off the white background even
a little bit, rather than have it lying flat, it provides a
more natural look and softer lighting.
In Photoshop, I use primarily the crop function, and the
curves function. Playing with the curves tool helps me
get my background nice and white without altering the
lighting on the subject too much. If the image has too
many shadows, I will sometimes have to use the dodge
tool. I try to use as few tools as necessary to get the
background white and the subject lighting right. I have
learned that the more I play with tools, the less natural
the results are.
I shoot one image a day, but I am usually carrying two
or three subject ideas in my head at a time because I
often find myself at 5 pm, running out of light, without
having posted for the day yet. So it is nice to have
ideas ready to go on short notice. If I go on vacation,
I will queue up a couple days’ worth of images until
I can get settled in the new locale. But then I resume
shooting from my new environment as soon as I can
because that is one of the joys of doing STILL blog –
being present wherever I am. When I am traveling, I will
often use an opened page of my journal as my white
background (that is how STILL blog actually started!).
We are not afraid of nepotism
BEAK
E
S
O
H
W
S THIS?
WHOSE
I
Candler
by Gillian
son
er William
Whose Beak is This?
by Gillian Candler, illustrated by Fraser Williamson
published by Potton & Burton in October 2015
BEAK IS
by Fras
illustrated
THIS?
It’s Tōrea’s beak.
mson
ser Willia
ndler & Fra
Gillian Ca
Oystercatchers have long, strong beaks to dig
deep in the sand and to crack open shells.
o
ur brother Fraser has been hard at
work since his return from Spain. He and
his wife Loisi, and their boy Antonio,
are getting over the culture shock of
returning from a simpler and slower life
to the pressure of Auckland living!
One of Fraz’s latest projects has been a
book collaboration with Gillian Candler
called Whose beak is this? published
by Potton & Burton in October 2015.
A slightly more representational series
compared to some of Fraz’s personal
work, this ‘guess the beak’ book is,
however, very beautiful.
See more of Fraser’s work at
www.redshark.co.nz
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There’s a guy in our office . . .
Bevan Woodward walking and biking advocate, and general rabble-rouser
,
Bevan, amongst other things, is founder and promoter of Skypath, the project to place a walking and
cycling tunnel on the side of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
We share an office with Bevan and he’s a very interesting and busy man.
We took a few minutes of his time to ask him about Skypath.
I spent a lot of time trying to convince bureaucrats and
politicians that we needed to invest in walking and cycling and
I was getting nowhere. So I decided I needed to pick a project
that was a great exemplar of the concept of walking and
cycling, and I decided to make it a BHAG – big, hairy, audacious
goal. We need more adventure. Skypath exemplifies that and
has great social and environmental merit.
It’s also a catalyst project. By investing in Skypath, we expect
to see a much greater investment in walking and cycling across
Auckland and the whole country. And because Skypath is such
a big project, lots of other projects now seem much smaller
and achievable, like the pink cycling path that just opened in
Auckland at a cost of $13 million.
I identified the Skypath project and led the charge but there
were a number of people who were interested. I started
writing letters to Transit NZ in 1999 about the idea. I then
joined Cycle Action Auckland a couple of years later and they
strongly supported the project, and allowed me to drive it.
The Auckland Harbour Bridge represents over 50 years
of complete vehicle domination of the city and I wanted
to challenge that. It screams motor vehicles and has no
concession to walking and cycling. It’s a very exciting project.
I really began to focus on it in 2003-4.
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We need more advent
This year we had resource consent granted for Skypath but
we currently have to go through mediation to deal with three
appeals to that. That will be dealt with by the Environment
Court but I’m confident that we will go ahead soon. We then
confirm all the arrangements for the construction and delivery
of Skypath, and a potential start time is June 2016. However,
it’s taken this long so, if it slips a bit more, I’m not going to
sweat it.
I always thought that we would have handed over the project
way before now but that hasn’t been the case. We assumed
that, if we resolved the engineering issues, then NZTA would
just pick it up as an obvious project for ‘the good’ but that hasn’t
happened. So we’ve had to find a funder and it’s only now that
they are starting to say that it might be best if they take the
project over. We’ll gladly hand it over as long as we can see
they are committed to delivering it. I’ve already told them, the
sooner you get on with this, the more time I can spend sailing.
ture. Skypath exemplifies that, and has great social and environmental merit.
My belief is that the toll on the crossings will only last for a
few years before it becomes politically untenable and the
government of the day buys out the project. Tolling walkers
and cyclists while cars go free just doesn’t make sense in the
future we’re going to confront – our clean, green 100% pure
New Zealand. That might be another fight ahead.
I’m not sure what comes next for me. I’m starting to think
about the future of transport in a *BHAG way. The sorts
of things I’m thinking about are going to be more difficult to
implement because they are behavioural rather than something
physical like Skypath. I want to see safer speeds throughout
the country. It’s not a sexy idea for most people so I have to
work out a way to sell that. I don’t believe in a future of selfdriving cars or even electric cars, but I do believe in electric
bikes which I think have huge potential. I also think we need to
look at ways to reward, pay even, people for choosing to use
better forms of transport. For example, when you use your Hop
card to take a bus, it won’t be deducting five dollars from your
account, it will be giving you a small credit for making good
choices about transport. This is combined with much heavier
taxes on people who choose to drive so that the whole thing
is revenue neutral but the incentive is to use public transport.
We live in a market-based economy so it’s time to provide
incentives to encourage the behaviour we want. We need some
serious carrots and not just sticks.
Electric cars don’t resolve the issues of the cost of building
more roads and congestion, making it unsafe and unpleasant for
walkers and cyclists. Electric cars are also too expensive and it
will take a vast amount of energy to replace our current fleet
of cars. And all that electricity has to be generated somehow.
The key is to try and replace all those short trips that we make
in cars with alternative, low-impact transport options.
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So, what the future needs to look like is communities with
really good, regular, pleasant-to-use public transport, and
good integration of walking and biking paths. If you make it
pleasant and convenient to use, people will flock to it. We
also need to use a credit system to reward people for using
public transport. Give them the cost of a coffee as a reward
for taking the bus.
We have to change our planning behviour so that when a
congestion or connectivity problem arises, the first reaction is
to plan a new bus or train service, or cycle path, and see if that
fixes the problem, rather than jumping to build a new and/or
bigger road. More road space will only be a last resort.
* BHAG – big, hairy, audacious goal.
* font used - RideMyBike Pro
One world - Mary Jo Hoffman
Willow leaves uncovered by a temporary thaw
Turtle Lake, Saint Paul, Minnesota
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Halcyon Design Limited Level 1, Millstream Building, 17 Elizabeth Street, Warkworth Phone: 09 425 9863 www.halcyondesign.co.nz
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