Soyuz-1
I DON'T KNOW WHERE THIS SPACESHIP IS GOING BUT I LIKE IT
Happy fall fellow climate activists! Reminder. We want to celebrate your hopeful climate art at the top of this newsletter. You can send it to me at andy@functionalmagic.org. There's only one rule: be inspired by solutions to global warming - not problems caused by climate change. Otherwise, anything goes. If we feature your art, we'll send you your choice of one our available prints.
This month we're featuring a painting by Bridget O'Brien, a Canadian-American painter living and working in Bloomington, Indiana. The painting is oil and pastel on a 300 lb piece of recycled steel. Bridget says, "it will rust and deteriorate over time". Here's a pic of the original piece of steel.
I dig the equations in the foreground combined with the pre-existing markings. The exhaust clouds from the rocket really draw me in. And if the Earth is in the background, where is that rocket leaving from!?
Bridget told me via email, "What inspired me to make this work is the Soviet rocket Soyuz-1 manned by cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov in 1967. Soyuz-1 was built hastily and therefore extremely dangerous, to the point where Kamarov knew that the man who piloted that spacecraft would unquestionably be incinerated upon reentry. The Soviet Government refused to address the issues on the spacecraft and would not budge on the date of launch. Kamarov and his friend Yuri Gagarin were both assigned the rocket - one man would fly the mission.
"Kamarov volunteered to pilot the craft, sacrificing his life to save his friend Yuri’s. (that's Yuri on left, Vladimir on the right) This story to me represents kind of what Octavia Butler’s seminal work Parable of the Sower gets at beautifully - defense of the defenseless, the inconceivable awe of space exploration, self sacrifice for a greater world."
Whoah. Love it.
WHO ARE YOU? WHERE'D YOU HEAR ABOUT US?
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I DON'T REALLY BUY THAT IF YOU PUT YOUR DREAM OUT THERE THE UNIVERSE WILL PROVIDE BUT SOMETIMES STRANGE THINGS DO MAKE ME WONDER
As you may know, I'm a phan. Which means I go to a lot of Phish concerts (163 and counting). Illustrator Jim Pollock has been making gig posters for the band for nearly 40 years and his designs are heavily associated with the Phish experience. I've got a couple of classic Pollocks hanging on my walls.
He recently did a little screen-print for Phish's charitable foundation Waterwheel. Just look at this guy! It's an LED! As soon as I saw it I realized Jim must do a piece for us. So I reached out on the contact form on his website. But, as is often the case with those website contact forms, I got no response. Cut to ... 2 weeks later. I'm on the field at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver, a hallowed venue for the band, waiting for the show to start, and sitting there about 20 feet away was Jim Pollock.
I'm introverted by nature. But obviously, I had to go and meet him. I could hear Alie Ward in my head telling me to "cut bangs". So I walked over and introduced myself and told him about Functional Magic. He was delightful! And liked the idea. But apparently he's slammed at the moment. Here's hoping we can talk him into it in 2025. Maybe the universe does provide?
ARTIVIST ANIMALS PAL IS SET TO LEAVE THE LAUNCH PAD
s I mentioned last month, we've got a new design by illustrator Kaia Sauter on deck. We're putting it on a T-shirt & it is all set to go via Kickstarter. We've decided to hold off on launching it until November to coincide with the holidays etc.
One of our supporters is the fantastic earth-first clothing company Toad & Co. And now they've generously donated some of their dead stock women's Ts to the campaign. So instead of them going to a landfill, we're gonna screen-print our new design directly on to them. And they're tie-dyed! We'll be printing regular unisex shirts as well on blanks from sustainable manufacturer Econscious. Keep it under your hat for now and stay tuned.
THANKS FOR READING
Functional Magic is an all-volunteer, donor-supported non-profit. You can keep it going by making a donation, buying a print, or simply keeping in touch via this newsletter. Thanks for being a part of this work!
Stay connected. Cultivate. Engage. Empower. Electrify. And keep on imagining the future you want to create.
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