News

Anti-Intellectualism - an American Cultural Failing We Need to Fix

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Most Americans know who Albert Einstein was, but comparatively very few people know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is.  They know who Kim Kardashian is, though!  In the present in the United States, entertainment and lowest-common-denominator appeal are revered and expertise has less impact than demagoguery.  When people stop admiring intelligence, they stop working to attain it.  That's where we are now.  The United States has a lot to learn from other older, more mature cultures, and I hope we can wisen up soon.

Yellowstone Bison Culling

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A great op-ed, "The Bison Roundup the Government Wants to Hide," was just published in The New York Times about the politically motivated annual bison cull that takes place in Yellowstone National Park at the taxpayer's expense.  I'm all for the suggestions of the author, Christopher Ketcham, with the clarification that I'd like any seasonal hunting to be restricted to that which encourages an ecological balance as opposed to one based on farm/ranch priorities, fear, or the desire for trophies.

The Pursuit 2015 Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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The Pursuit, LSU College of Science's annual magazine, wrote an article in their 2015 issue about 3P Quick Cure Clay, Dr. Pojman, and our collaboration (although they accidentally misattributed my role to a Jessica Nelson).  You can read the article, entitled "LSU Chemistry Professor Creates Multi-Use Quick Cure Clay", on page 23 of 60 here if you're interested!

Domestic Terrorists Currently Occupying Unprotected Wildlife Sanctuary in Oregon

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From the Audubon Society of Portland:

The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions—the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups.

Apparently a set of keys was found outside by the "militia" thus letting them inside the small, unprotected bird sanctuary.  This ingenious hostile takeover is made even more impressive since while they are claiming to have 150 occupiers, journalists on scene are reporting only 6-15.

The real problem is that these terrorists' repeated claims to federal land are damaging the environment.  From the Center for Biological Diversity on the 2014 Cliven Bundy illegal grazing debacle in Nevada:

"The Gold Butte area south of Mesquite is officially designated as critical habitat for the tortoise – an area essential for its long term survival. But the BLM continues to allow grazing by trespass cattle.
... 
Despite having no legal right to do so, cattle from Bundy's ranch have continued to graze throughout the Gold Butte area, competing with tortoises for food, hindering the ability of plants to recover from extensive wildfires, trampling rare plants, damaging ancient American Indian cultural sites and threatening the safety of recreationists."

The United States needs to step up on federal land management so this type of terroristic action doesn't become seen as a viable option.  These armed sovereignists want to become martyrs or messiahs, but what they really need is to be imprisoned and fined.

Climate Science in the Public Eye

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I was sick recently, so I had the time to watch the television series Newsroom.  One clip really stuck with me:

Now given that this is from a fictional television series, viewers could be forgiven for thinking it an exaggeration.  But the facts check out, though sadly a few are outdated and have increased negatively in the meantime.

What really interests me apart from the immediate content is that the whole reason it's funny (admittedly in a macabre sense) is because most scientists are a little less depressingly stark about our situation.  Why is that?

It turns out that a recent paper "Duality in Climate Science" published in Nature Geoscience takes scientists and the media to task for underselling our ecological position due to fear of politically and professionally calamitous ramifications.  The paper summary reads:

Delivery of palatable 2 °C mitigation scenarios depends on speculative negative emissions or changing the past. Scientists must make their assumptions transparent and defensible, however politically uncomfortable the conclusions.  

What that's saying is that unless we can time travel backwards or develop technology in the future that we don't know exists yet, we're screwed.  Here's another not-at-all-comforting review of this and other papers saying in part, "The latest installment of depressing news is the delightful prediction that dozens of American cities are at risk of drowning before the century is out, turning places like New Orleans and Miami into the lost kingdom of Atlantis."

Goppert Gallery Exhibition Reception Tomorrow

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Not only are we on the eve of our biannual Student Art Exhibition, but university administration requested that we have a two-person faculty show as well!  So anyone who is in the area should stop by and check out my artwork, the work of my colleague Susan Nelson, and the work of our fabulous art students.

Opening Reception:
Friday, December 4th from 3-5pm (refreshments will be served; the exhibition is open to the public)

Exhibition Hours:
December 4-10, 10am-4pm

Location:
The University of Saint Mary
Goppert Gallery (located on the ground floor of Xavier Hall)
4100 S. 4th Street
Leavenworth, KS 66048

Press Release:
You can see the full release here, but I've included the bulk of it below.

Art Students Showcase Their Work in the Fall 2015 Student Art Exhibit

12/3/2015 12:00:00 AM
(Leavenworth, Kan.)—From whimsical drawings to captivating photography, the University of Saint Mary displays the impressive work of 41 art students in the Fall 2015 Student Art Exhibit.
 
All students enrolled in a studio-art course—including Drawing I, Ceramics I, Photography I, Computer Graphics, Digital Page Layout, and Advanced Studio in Airbrush—are given the opportunity to show their favorite pieces from the semester. The artwork of Associate Professor of Art Susan Nelson and Art Program Director Shelby Prindaville will also be on display.  
 
“Every semester, students look forward to sharing their work with the community,” said Prindaville. “It’s their chance to show what they’ve been learning and perfecting in class.”
 
She went on to explain, “Students learn how to select and mat appropriate pieces as well as get the valuable experience of having an audience view their work in the context of an exhibition. USM art majors and minors actually organize and install the show—learning gallery and museum preparator skills, too.”

Discouraging News on the Conservation Front

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) just released a new report detailing a 49% decline "in the size of marine populations between 1970 and 2012."

This follows their 2014 report which states in part that over the past 40 years:

Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.  Freshwater species populations have suffered a 76% decline, an average loss almost double that of land and marine species."

Aspire Magazine Coverage on Summer Achievements

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The University of Saint Mary not only issued a press release a little over a month ago on my summer exhibitions and awards, but also just published an article about it in the Fall 2015 issue of Aspire Magazine.

KNCK Radio 1390 AM / 94.9 FM Interview

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I just recently completed a radio interview about my career thus far with host Loren Swenson on KNCK Radio 1390 AM / 94.9 FM for the CHS Alumni Moment series.  (I attended Concordia High School from 2000-2004.)

I can't directly link to the piece, but if you're interested, visit KNCK Radio's website and then in the black header in the upper center of the page there's a button titled Alumni Moment.  If you click on that, you can find my interview!

Another Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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I'm so pleased 3P Quick Cure Clay has been getting so much press lately!  This latest article titled "An LSU professor has invented a curious clay with a range of applications, from art to industry" from the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report highlights my work with the product here:

About two years before officially launching 3P QuickCure Clay, Pojman reached out to art students at LSU to get some insight on his products. Pojman started working with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville to mold his mixture into something more useful to artists by perfecting the consistency. Then he began selling it online.

“He would send me test products, and I would tell him what needed to be tweaked,” Prindaville says. “At some point we reached the stage where I thought it was a really viable sculpting medium and I started making things with it. And he figured out how to make it cheaply enough that he launched the product out into the world.”

The final version of 3P QuickCure Clay allows artists to bypass much of the difficult and tricky parts of sculpting, eliminating the need for a kiln. Also, 3P Quick Cure Clay is strong enough to build sculptures without first creating wire and paper “skeletons” or armatures, Prindaville says.

Prindaville used the medium to create a series of small sculptures of lizards called Anoles. The whimsical figures depict the lizards in various positions, like one balancing straight up its thin tail, that are impossible to create using other types of clay without wire armatures.

Prindaville, now the art program director at the University of Saint Mary in Kansas, uses 3PQuickCure Clay in her classroom because students can cure their work with a heat gun before the class period ends. She says the college cancels classes for one week each spring and students work on projects outside the school’s curriculum.

“Last year, I invited John to come up; he shipped us a large amount of clay and sold us a large amount of the clay. The students did all sorts of stuff and they created a show at the end,” Prindaville says. Some of the student’s creations now mingle alongside the chemistry books and salamander tank in Pojman’s office at LSU.

Dig Baton Rouge "Breaking the Mold" Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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And here's Dig Baton Rouge with their new article "Breaking the Mold" on 3P Quick Cure Clay including some discussion of my work with it:

Working together with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville, Pojman developed the clay from its original houseware repair model to a final product fit as an artist aid.

“So that’s how it evolved into art,” said Pojman.

[...]

Pojman’s website contains examples of several art projects using QuickCure from the University of Saint Mary in Kansas where Prindaville serves as the art program director. “It was really exciting just to work with the students, get their feedback on features they liked, and also help them use it, and then see where their creativity went,” said Pojman.

Of the works the students created using QuickCure, Pojman notes his favorite are the lizards as they demonstrate the strength of the clay.  “That’s not something you can do with regular ceramics,” said Pojman.

University of Saint Mary News Release

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My university, the University of Saint Mary, recently issued this news release on several of my accomplishments this summer:

USM Art Program Director Honored for Her Impressive Work

8/17/2015 12:00:00 AM
(Leavenworth, Kan.)—The University of Saint Mary Art Program Director Shelby Prindaville was recently chosen by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to be one of only three featured tour artists within Art Works for Change’s new exhibition, “Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint,” for her extraordinary work capturing the beauty and frailty of the natural world. The subjects of both her painting and sculpture work encourage humanity to appreciate all creatures in nature—large and small—and reflect on our connection to them. The WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, dedicated to conserving nature and addressing its most pressing threats.  

Art Works for Change’s “Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint” exhibition highlights our urgent need to live sustainably—choosing wisely how and where to use Earth’s finite resources. Prindaville was one of only 28 artists selected for the curated international exhibition. The exhibit is accessible online at artworksforchange.org. Art Works for Change is a nonprofit organization creating contemporary art exhibitions that highlight critical social and environmental issues.

“I am beyond honored to have my works recognized by both the WWF and Art Works for Change,” said Prindaville. “I whole-heartedly support the mission of both charitable organizations, and these honors reinforce why I do what I do—to call on human reflection and influence change.”

On top of both of these impressive accomplishments, Prindaville also recently won the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri “Best in Show” for her bison painting “Confrontation.” The painting was selected by juror Ruth Ann Reese in the “Wild Things” national exhibition at the Council.  

To see her work, visit shelbyprindaville.com.

Newspaper Articles in Catalan about Bòlit Artist Presentation

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Somewhat belatedly, I thought I'd share two newspaper articles published in the Diari de Girona in Catalan about the artist presentation I took part in at the Bòlit Centre d'Art Contemporani in Girona, Spain.  

Els quatre artistes becats pel Bòlit amb residència presenten els projectes

Un becat pel Bòlit «reviurà» cinc edificis desapareguts de Girona

Studies Confirm Nature Is Soothing

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Research coming out of Stanford University's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources is unsurprisingly showing that:

A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature.

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Article on 3P Quick Cure Clay

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I was interviewed for this article on Dr. John Pojman's innovative 3P Quick Cure Clay.  Here's an excerpt:

About four years ago, Pojman started working with former LSU graduate student Shelby Prindaville to mold his mixture into something useful to artists, and began selling it online. Now 3P QuickCure Clay can be found in art stores in New Orleans and New Mexico.

The clay they developed allows artists to bypass much of the difficult and tricky parts of sculpting, eliminating the need for a kiln. Also, 3P QuickCure Clay is strong enough to build sculptures without first creating wire and paper “skeletons” or armatures.

Prindaville is now art program director at the University of Saint Mary in Kansas, and uses 3PQuickCure Clay in her classroom because students can use a heat gun to cure their work before the class period ends. She orders it by the pound from Pojman, who produces it from his office space at the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at LSU—a step up from his garage where he used to mix it on weekends.

“I think it’s a really interesting and innovative medium,” Prindaville says. “The great things is, it gives instant results. With regular clay you have to be careful about the moisture, and you can’t apply wet clay to a finished product, but with 3P you can apply wet to dry.”

From the Lab Bench Interview

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Dr. Paige Jarreau has just published an interview with me on From the Lab Bench!  

Paige is herself an extremely impressive and multi-talented science journalist and photographer, so I'm very pleased to count her as a friend, as well.  When you're done reading that fantastic write-up, make sure to dig around the site a while as it has loads of other interesting features including a page devoted to her beautiful photography.