on converting a spruce plantation into a forest & other projects that inspire, by Cathy Fitzgerald
From the category archives:
Some of you may have heard my news? I will be continuing my experiments in film-making about Close to Nature permanent forestry on a different level. I will be starting a PhD in film practice and theory on ecology at NCAD (National College of Art & Design, Ireland) this September!
Just to recap, I started working [...]
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Image: Slovenian mixed species, non clear fell forest – what my Holly Wood forest in Co. Carlow will someday look like
When I went to Slovenia last Sept for the 20th anniversary of Pro Silva Europe and met with foresters from 27 member countries, I had little idea that I would be six months [...]
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A Hard Rains Gonna Fall -’It was a song of desperation. What could we do? Could we control the men who were on the verge of wiping us out. The words came fast – very fast. It was a song of terror. Line after line, trying to capture the feeling of nothingness.’ Bob Dylan. (Image [...]
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Things have been busy in our woodland over the last year and the year ended in a dramatic fashion with a storm from the east that saw 10 of trees come down (four more have to come down as they are leaning precariously – if you are coming to visit don’t dawdle on the driveway!).
Over [...]
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The first ‘forest to fuel’ meeting organised by the Transition Town group FutureProof Kilkenny and Glas last week turned out to be a good event with much local interest. Contributions were made from Glas on German woodburners and gasifiers. I made a short presentation about how my art project is documenting our transformation of our [...]
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Hi everyone
I have work in two galleries at the moment; firstly my short film ‘burning bright‘ is been shown in a group show, the 9 stone group of Artists at the Norman Gallery in Wexford near where we live -Martin, Anthony, Nicola and other friends are also exhibiting. It opens tomorrow Sat 27 June at [...]
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our new baby Ash forest is coming up!, originally uploaded by CathyArt.
Our forest floor is now covered with tiny green seedlings, our free future forest. We are finding it hard to walk now and not squash any but they’ll keep coming up next year too.
From all the seedlings appearing, we know it’s going to be [...]
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Hi all,
Just found out that my film that I made for Biodiversity week 2008 Burning Bright, has been selected for the Carlow 2009 Eigse Film programme. Yay!!! I know some of you watched this film as it was selected earlier this year for the Green Party’s youtube film festival and asked me how it go [...]
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Hi all,
Just an update on our chipping party that we planned for Easter last weekend. Well, the weather forecast was bad but in fact it was a beautiful spring weekend. Many thanks to friends, Eileen and Steph, even turned up early on Good Friday before we were to start chipping on Sat to help drag [...]
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follow me on twitter/ecoartnotes
My art & ecology notebook documents a SLOW ART project. It's an ongoing diary in images, short films; conversations between myself, foresters, our local community & beyond, detailing an example of how we are turning our small monoculture spruce plantation into an ecologically & economically, permanent real FOREST.
I am also interested in using film to convey personal stories of small backyard environmental actions in response to global ecological concerns. I am developing a personal, poetic narrative film-making style, that while documentary in certain aspects, allows a larger range of ideas and emotions to be presented, in contrast to standard nature documentaries.
My project 'the Holly Wood Diaries'has allowed me to create two experimental film sketches, 'burning bright' (08) and 'once i counted birds' (09) and builds on previous stories with beginner foresters and their young trees/new woodlands in the more traditionally styled documentary film 'the local project revisited', 2006
I also write about other eco-art works that inspire me & which may be inspire others.
rsa art & ecology blog Nils L. Elliot: Mediating Nature
