Save the planet, make art. It is my new project, campaign, social/environmental movement. Of course the planet isn't really endangered. After we have ruined it for human life, it will still be whirling around the sun, and rodents will survive. I know that because we have a mouse in our attic that I've been trying to trap for weeks.

The idea of my new movement is to have a planet that is hospitable to mankind, one that has polar ice caps, glaciers in Greenland, cities in place where they are currently located, and agricultural regions instead of deserts across the vast plains of the United States.

We can stop global warming, protect the planet's resources and it involves the arts. (though I'm not holding my breath.)

It seems that when human beings have the essentials in place, a steady, secure food supply, shelter and protection from danger, they start strutting their stuff to gain the notice of others. It fulfills a secondary need. We all need acknowledgement. We all need to see evidence of our reality. It provides a sense of psychic security that is almost as essential as food itself.

You can see the extreme lengths to which we go. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, or in some cases millions to live in the right neighborhoods. We might choose to drive a Hummer when a Civic would take us to the same destination safely and at less cost. If you begin measuring the time and expense applied to maintain an outward display of persona having no purpose greater than that of shameless flaunting to gain the attention of others, you can begin to measure the impact of the unnecessary environmental degradation we impose on the earth. Here in the U.S. our shameful consumption of the earth's resources seems to go unnoticed, but do you think it goes unnoticed by the rest of the world? If we could see ourselves from other eyes, we would feel ashamed.

Here in Northwest Arkansas, the home of Walmart, Tyson's and a number of other global companies, the MacMansions are popping up like mushrooms in spring. And yet, from the eyes of the artist, one can see the emptiness that incites such extreme hunger for attention.

So, what does this have to do with the arts? A simple thing happens when one engages in the making of things from simple raw materials... Instead of being dependent on notice by others for a sense of well-being, we find validation and security in the movement of our own hands. We find success in the creation of objects that can be shared with others.

It is a very simple concept. By placing one's attention on this moment, and fully engaging heart and soul in the process of making art, one finds fulfillment greater than what can be found in the hollow, selfish, flaunting of material wealth. If one is dependent on outside validation, there is no validation great enough to fill the emptiness within. Those dependent on that course move to larger homes, bigger cars, the endless chain of newer meaningless objects and it will never be enough.

On the other hand... (I like using this phrase.)

Those who shape the reality of their own world through the creative power of their own hands, have the opportunity to engage in endless growth, and continuous revelation of their own creative power. So, is it an environmental movement? or is it art? It is the real meaning of think globally, act locally. You make art for your own spirit and the world keeps spinning unchanged.

The photo below: a new home in Northwest Arkansas being sold under the come-on, "your castle awaits." It is one 29 from one realtor priced at over $750,000. When you have grown weary of this one, there are larger environmental disasters to choose from.