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A Real Life Urban Hero


A few years ago I wrote an urban fantasy essay about being able to take our household plastic garbage to a central place – then a gizmo could restructure the plastics into everyday useable things. Could this happen in reality though?

There’s a lot more to melting down plastic that is best explained in an aritcle I found: “Why Can’t Plastics All Be Melted,” published by The Hour.com. There’s many issues involved and may include the issue that only plastics of the same type of resin should be melded together. . . but then I’m no expert!

Here is a modern day Unsung Hero I’ve come across, worth knowing about! She has figured out a way to make bricks from the plastics that usually go in the trash. She’s also was the winner of the Young Champions of the Earth Award in 2020 for Africa.

Don’t miss finding out about Nzambi Matee and her enterprise in 2 minutes and 26 seconds.

Urban fantasies can come true.

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Create Mathi-Magical Shapes

Need to make shapes? This site has a whole bunch! Check out the polypad tool at https://mathigon.com !! Directly below is the shapes I then digitally manipulated in PhotoShop, and below that is the original collection of shapes.

Digital revision of the original image, by Mary Gow.
Digital manipulation of the original image below, both by Mary Gow Pincus.
geometric shape composition by Mary Gow Pincus
Shape composition using mathigon.com, polypad tool.
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Beneath Our Feet

Photo by Mary Gow
Floor Studies, Photo No. 5, by Mary Gow

Continuing with the inspiration from Tyler Mitchell’s MasterClass, “Tyler Mitchell Teaches Storytelling Through Portrait Photography,” I took this photo looking at the living room floor. What you see when you look at your floor? In my July posting I mentioned Mitchell’s recommendation to take pictures every day. Observe the floor beneath our feet — that’s do-able.

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Wabi-Sabi-ish Painting

Pink Watercolor by Mary Gow
“Wabi Pink,” watercolor on paper by Mary Gow.

Recently I took “Wabi Sabi Abstract Painting” with Sherrie Lovler. (A few years ago I took a two day class with Sherrie called “Calligraphic Abstraction,” in person, in Sebastopol, Calif.). This Wabi Sabi class was virtual thanks to the O’Hanlon Center For The Arts in Mill Valley, Calif. The whole class description is here.

I might already be painting wabi-sabi style and not know it. Going with the flow and relaxing into what is – is that what wabi-sabi is about?

After some research I found out wabi-sabi is about finding beauty in every aspect of imperfection. Perfectly imperfect.

Could spontaneous, automatic, gestural painting also be synonymous with wabi-sabi?

In the class we reviewed what wabi-sabi art is. We practiced painting the enso – fluid circles early in the class. With Sherrie leading the way with suggestions on starting our paintings, we went through the exercise of creating a few compositions.

This pink purple exploration is what flowed yesterday morning.

Here’s one piece I created in Sherrie’s class.

Mary Gow- Wabi-Sabi-Painting-2021
Wabi-Sabi Painting by Mary Gow

At times I found myself ‘working at” creating something to look naturally at ease without trying. I made a few examples of pieces I wanted to share with the class that I felt were truly wabi-sabi — many I felt were my explorations ink brush work. . . which I loved.

My natural artistic painting style is to go with the flow of what I’m feeling. . . enjoy the process more than fixate on what the end must look like.