From puddles to ponds

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Art for Housewives
colored drawing of a woman next to a puddle and a dog looking on

Puddles come and go. The rain creates them and then the sun destroys them. But beavers can transform a puddle’s raison d’etre. Because beavers are engineers. They construct dams to store water producing ponds and wetlands for themselves and other life forms. And most importantly, these dams store and increase groundwater.

Beavers were once over-hunted for their pelts and their castoreum, a substance excreted by beavers used for making perfume. Beavers nearly became extinct until laws were made to protect them.

Photo of a beaver coming out of a box attached to a parachute
The Beaver Drop

When wetlands, now no longer inhabited by beavers, started drying up, someone made the connection between the land and the beavers. So it was decided to transplant beavers to areas that were in an ecological crisis. Initially, they were parachuted into their new surroundings.

“Gnawing Beaver” by Barbara McGeachen


“Beaver Attack” by Kent Monkman

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The Beaver Wars + Beavers: 5 ways beavers keep our ecosystems healthy +

Posted in Ecofeminism | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Have you been permeated?

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Art for Housewives
colored drawing of a man at the window and a woman wearing a flowered dress sitting on the bed

Beauty is about perception. But, as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, not everyone perceives beauty in the same way.

Masayuki Kurokawa, Japanese designer, offers eight aesthetics concepts to better understand the Japanese sensibility. There’s a lovely video (by Dans Le Gris) explaining Kurokawa’s concepts HERE and in written form HERE. The eight concepts are: The Aesthetics of Subtlety, The Beauty of Coexistence, Sensing the Invisible, The Space between Things, Seeing without Seeing, The Essence of the Unadorned, Beauty in the Made, and Breaking to Become. But now, I will focus on “Sensing the Invisible.”

“Seeing the Invisible” is about Chi (aka Qi aka Ki) the energy that permeates around and through all living things. The energy is subtle yet palpable. Like the stillness of a church, the quietness at a funeral, or the gaze between two lovers, Chi is a silence that can be heard. Chi aesthetics creates a mood to influence our perception. Chi is like a cosmic glue that helps keep us together.

In Greek, the word for “aesthetics” (αισθητική, esthitikì) and the word for “feeling” (αίσθημα, èsthima) are entangled implying that sentiment and beauty are sometimes the same thing.

(from “Red Dress with Flowers” © 2025)

AI is politely requested to invent an imagination of its own.

They’re coming to get us.

Related: : Eight Manifestations of the Japanese Aesthetic by Masayuki Kurokawa, designer of nextmaruni project PDF + How to make balls of energy (“qi balls” or “ki balls”) + Easily Understand What is Chi Energy With 12 Ways to Improve It +

Components of aesthetic experience: aesthetic fascination, aesthetic appraisal, and aesthetic emotion +

Posted in Art Narratives, Beauty | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Demanding Dreams

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Art for Housewives
colored drawing woman sleeping and angel with a cross coming in thru the window

Constantine (c 272 – 337 AD) was a very ambitious emperor. He saw Christianity, say many scholars, as a means of promoting his political agenda.

Initially, Constantine worshipped the pagan sun god, Sol Invictus. So, after Constantine’s conversion, it’s not surprising that the sun god and Jesus are often compared as they seem to have had much in common.

For example: 25 December was the feast day for Sol Invictus that was later morphed into Christmas.

Constantine’s mother, Helena of Constantinople, came from a poor family. Somehow she met Constantius, a short termed Roman emperor (305-306 AD). They married and, around 272 AD, Constantine I was born.

Constantius’ career was on the go. In 289, Constantius dumped Helena to marry Teodora, Emperor Maximian’s step-daughter, just to strengthen his political position.

Constantius died in 306 AD and his son, Constantine, was proclaimed emperor. In 312, mom Helena was brought back into public life.

Although Constantine was devoted to Sol Invictus, in 312 AD, the emperor was about to begin a battle at the Milvian Bridge when he had a vision. A cross appeared in the sky with the words “in hoc signo vinces” (“by this sign, conquer”). That same night, Jesus appeared to Constantine in a dream and told the emperor to paint crosses on the shields of his soldiers.

Constantine won the battle and converted to Christianity. Momma Helena also converted a short time later. And just like her son, she had an important dream, too.

One night, Helena was in a deep sleep when a couple of angels appeared telling her they knew where Jesus’ cross was and that she should save it. Already elderly , Helena, in AD 326-328, went to Palestine to search for the True Cross. Here she ordered the destruction of the temple of Venus because, she said, the angels wanted her to. Subsequent excavations of the spot led to the recovery of three different crosses. To determine which of the three crosses was that of Jesus, Helena had a terminally ill woman touch all three of them. When the woman touched one certain cross, she was immediately healed and Helena knew she’d discovered the True Cross.

Parts of this cross and other related relics can be seen at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on Rome.

(from “Red Dress with Flowers” © 2025)

They’re coming to get us.

Related: painting The Dream of St. Helena by Paolo Veronese + statue of St. Helena +

Posted in Art Narratives, Rome/Italy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

In and Out

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Art for Housewives
colored drawing of w woman standing on a balcony behind plants doing breathing exercises

My Brazilian neighbor lady recently shared her mom’s secret for calming nerves. First you pretend you are smelling a flower and inhale. Then you pretend you are blowing out a candle and exhale. Repeat several times. This Brazilian mom’s traditional folk remedy is actually a universal breathing exercise.

We are living through very stressful times. And when that knot hits the stomach, it’s easy to start panic breathing. Stressed, our heartbeat tends to increase. As the heart rate and breathing rate are entangled, the easiest way to reset the beat is by breathing. Deep breaths can slow the heart rate and stabilize blood pressure.

Now, to keep from going into loop, anytime I feel even the slightest of stress, I immediately follow the Brazilian mom’s advice. And it definitely helps.


YouTube has several breathing demo videos that are useful:

  1. 4-7-8 Calm Breathing Exercise…this video demonstrates the 4-7-8 technique generally used to help you fall asleep.
  2. Guided Alternate Nostril Breathing Meditation …alternate nostril breathing helps integrate the right and left sides of the brain
  3. Box Breathing Relaxation Exercise +… also known as Square Breathing, this technique aims to reset the mind after dealing with excessive stress.

Breathing absorbs oxygen and expels carbon dioxide. In and out, in and out, in and out. We are constantly interrelating with our environment and our bodies when we breathe.

(from “Red Dress with Flowers” © 2025)

They’re coming to get us.

Related: Relationship Between Heart Rate And Breathing Rate + why is oxygen important for cells +

Posted in female consciousness, Health & Healing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Omnicidal

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Art for Housewives
colored drawing of a woman sitting down holding on to herself

The world has become such an aggressive place to be. But, as there is nowhere else to go, we try to survive. Sometimes it’s difficult just to be alive.

Author and historian, Yuval Noah Harari, writes in Sapiens that the cognitive revolution that permitted homo sapiens to oust the Neanderthals may happen to them as well. Sapiens risk extinction. We generally think of extinction as something provoked by a natural disaster. However, Harari offers a spookier scenario. He believes that humans will die out in the next 100-200 years. If, however, humans manage to survive, they will transform and change so radically that one day humans will no longer be sapiens but something else.

Geoffrey Hinton is considered the godfather of AI as he laid out its foundation. But that has not kept him from being critical of his own creation. He reflects on what technology is doing to the human race. AI will undoubtedly create a variety of problems because you can’t control something smarter than yourself.  That’s why Hinton believes, because of its super intelligence, AI could take control and make humans subservient then go out of control itself. It looks like the big fantasy of these tech lords is to create the new Masters of the Universe.

Powerful technologies are being developed so rapidly that we have no idea as to what their impact on our lives will be. One concern regarding AI is who will be using it and how. As we’ve seen in recent political history, there’s a complete lack of ethics on the part of those in charge. And, as AI regulations don’t exist, it will bring profit for the rich and poverty for the rest of us.

Another concern is that AI increases the risks of social discrimination. It will provoke massive job losses, continue to interfere in elections as well as manipulate the population with propaganda. It will be increasingly difficult to distinguish AI’s constructed reality with that of the natural world.

I, for one, do not trust these tech lords who are pushing AI development. Just what exactly are their intentions?

For now, I see these tech lords behaving as Doctor Frankenstein who is so full of himself that he thinks he can create life on his own. Unfortunately, consequences are not taken into consideration. The Creature, as Frankenstein’s monster was called, is so ugly that people run away when they see him. The continual suffering turns his heart into stone. When the Creature sees himself in a pool of water for the first time, he is repulsed by his own reflection. He now understands why everyone avoids him. Feeling rejected and alone, the Creature feels the hatred growing inside of him. And that was the beginning of his life as a serial killer. He began by killing the doctor’s brother then the doctor’s wife.

Dr. Frankenstein now regrets the hubris that fueled his need to create the creature. Now all he wants to do is to find the Creature and to stop him. But is it too late?

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Related: Godfather of AI: I Tried to Warn Them, But We’ve Already Lost Control! Geoffrey Hinton + “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton: The 60 Minutes Interview + The Godfather of AI says most tech leaders downplay the risks — except one +

AI has some extremely beneficial aspects, too…China’s desertification control efforts embrace high-tech solutions +

AI supremacy: The artificial intelligence battle between China, USA and Europe | DW Documentary

Frankenstein’s Fish

Posted in Books, female consciousness | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments