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I’ve recently been asked to contribute to the HerCircle online magazine – a US portal site on all things to do with women’s socially engaged art work that has been operating for the last 6 years. One of the editors while visiting the UK had come across my article ‘networking the arts to save the earth’ in a copy of the Visual Irish Arts NewsSheet. Asking if it was ok to have my article as a feature on HerCircle, I didn’t think much about it, but was pleased that this article was travelling again (the associated and very long research paper on this has been downloaded a lot of times from my ecoartnotebook.com site).
Then I was asked to be a regular contributor on HerCircle to do articles as I wished on art, ecology, my film practice etc. They seemed to find my voice and snapshots from the woods ‘so different from everyone else’ on the site and it was a topic they could see would have a growing audience and they are also growing their audience across Europe too. I hesitated as writing for me is a slow process – its not the ideas – I’m pretty much overwhelmed with those but its knowing how to pitch such information while not completely freaking out audiences with the latest and frightening climate science or ecosystem losses for example. Its also a rapidly changing world when I can sit here and have my thoughts and work transmitted globally at a click of a button but this is another means to disseminate my research which I can’t ignore either. I suppose what made me decide to try this for awhile at least, is that HerCircle’s editors and audiences are thinking hard about contemporary issues and art and I have the freedom to attempt to write and post film jottings on what I think is important. Its also nice in some way to be associated with others, such as this poet and her filmmaker brother, who are trying to support others that are making a stand for change, in our cities around the world When Occupying Wall Street, Always bring a Dog (though unfortunately I am just reading of the forced clearance of OccupyWall Street in New York as I write this).
Anyway here’s snapshot of my latest post from the site – my posts will be every 2 weeks and can be followed from the RSS link there or just visit http://www.hercircleezine.com/category/blogs/eco-art-notebook/ Overall HerCircle is packed with great writing on exhibitions, books, poetry and film reviews. However its strange to see my first article under an ‘activism’ heading – its not really how I see myself but the polar bear image of ‘save the humans’ that I used for my article perhaps has caught the mood of the moment.
Save the Humans (2010) by Martin Salinas Creative Commons
The Hollywood Forest Story : An EcoSocial Art Practice | Co. Carlow Ireland 
I know what you mean by not wanting to freak people out about all the “gloom and doom” my motto for my own writing: “be an example how it CAN be, by not telling people how they should be or do things”. At times I find it hard to make that happen and fall in the trap of; do this, do that and it all will be better, while I know it becomes a burden for people if they must do it.
An other problem I see; to make people feel guilty or give them fear. I do not like the phrase: “if we do not act now it will be to late”.
Good luck with your writing.
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Thanks Clegyboia,
for your comments. Yes it is a delicate dance to inform and inspire when the realities are grim. I think that’s why working with a long term permanent forestry project interests me so much. So much to re-consider when thinking about existing in a delicate ecosystem rather than seeing it just as a resource for our needs. Good luck with your work two – there will be so many diverse ways to examine all of this culturally too.
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