Tomas Saraceno

Hot Air Balloon made out of recycled plastic bags

Solar powered hot air ballon with a message:

I took this photo above of my late husband Gert many years ago at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen and it has always been one of my favorite photos of him. At the time I probably knew the name of the artist who created the translucent sphere with live plants but forgot it and often wondered who he was. Well, I just came across a photo of a really cool hot air balloon made of recycled plastic bags and looked up who made it and realized it was one and the same artist I had loved so many years ago from the biosphere exhibition.

His name is Tomas Saraceno and he is from Argentina. He is one of the most interesting artists I have come across, combining his profound interest in nature and how we as humans interact with it on our small planet. His multidisciplinary art is both cerebral and down to earth and is very hard to categorize as he is truly an original thinker. His subjects cross disciplines and include but are not restricted to explorations of cities in the sky, nature and our interconnectedness, vibrations, climate justice and air pollution to name a few.

Saraceno had an exhibition recently at the Serpentine Galleries in London where he explored his fascination with spiders and their webs. "Spiders are essentially blind, at least according to human standards. This, however, does not stop them to create an image of the world through the tremors they send and receive through their webs,” he remarks. "A spider-web is more than a specialized instrument for transmitting seismic signals, it is “an extension of the spider’s body, it is the embodied cognition of its mind. Through it, spiders can orient themselves and communicate with other species.”

Saraceno knows that humans are not separate from the climate of the world and in fact, his interest in spiders has a lot to do with their webs, which he sees as integral and inseparable from the spider itself, just as we humans he sees as interconnected to the earth. This is the overall message he wants to convey as he sounds the alarm on climate change.

If you want to dive deeper, here is another interview with Saraceno on The Art of Noticing.

Coolest spider web I ever saw (in Nosara, Costa Rica)

Dolphin Communication

Here is an adorable video that caught my eye involving a young toddler and a dolphin in an aquarium…. Thought it might bring you some joy…

Dolphins have always been one of my favorite animals ever since I was a kid. It probably started with he tv show Flipper, which my sister and I absolutely loved, but it went way beyond that…and I have always thought that humans were anything but superior beings in the animal kingdom. I read a book How Smart Are Animals when I was six or seven and then I remember being fascinated by Margaret Lovatt and her experiment in Gregory Bateson's lab in the Caribbean, where she actually lived with a dolphin in a waterproofed upper floor of a lab, flooding the indoor rooms with a couple feet of water. Her bed was elevated slightly above the water and would allow the dolphin to live comfortably in the building with her for three months.

Click to hear a short documentary on human’s attempt to communicate with dolphins.

Recent sightings of dolphins in southern California, home to nearly 450,000 common dolphins.

Lessons from Ted Lasso and Mr. Rogers

THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM TED LASSO

1. "Be Curious, not judgmental."

2. "Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing."

3. "I have a really tricky time hearing folks that don't believe in themselves."

4. "Change isn't about trying to be perfect. Perfection sucks. Perfect is boring.

5. You know what the happiest animal on earth is? It's a goldfish. It has a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish."

6. "For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It's about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field."

7. I think that if you care about someone and you get a little love in your heart, there ain't nothing you can't get through together."

8. I think that you might be so sure that you're one in a million that sometimes you forget that out there, you're just one of 11." (about teamwork)

9. "Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you are doing it, you're probably doing it wrong."

10. I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and sad. Ain't no one in this room (world) alone."

WISDOM FROM MR. ROGERS

"All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we're giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That's one of the things that connects us as neighbors—in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver."

"Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero."

"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression."

“When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong with the fearful, the true mixed in with the façade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way."

t's good to be curious about many things.”

"Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work, but it's worth the effort."

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

"The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others."

To watch Ted Lasso from the beginning.

On one of the last days of my sister Judy Smilow's life, she wanted to spend the afternoon with me and she decided to go to the movies to see this film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. We sat holding hands, laughed and cried, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Painting of the Week

Back working in my beautiful Maine studio on the ocean. work in progress…

Song of the Week:
Where is the Love by the Black Eyed Peas

Charity of the Week:
Doctor's Without Borders

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.