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seed is a publication of gathered ideas which have sprouted from our many thoughts and conversations that seem to fall outside the current ‘conversation’. It is about the state of the environment, our hearts, minds and souls, and NOT the economy, which seems to be pretty much the only conversation happening at the moment.

We thought that these personal pieces could be the seeds for new conversations about things that don’t speak of success, acquisition and wealth as the only aspirational markers of our time. We are fed up with a media that offers nothing but the same party line that says ‘growth’ is our salvation and that all things about community, love and support of those less fortunate are ridiculous, socialist or out-moded.

So, hopefully, there is something here that speaks of the positive aspects of pursuing spiritual, environmental and societal ideals that protect and enhance rather than run the same tired ‘winner and loser’, ‘right and wrong’ dualistic arguments. Something here might be of interest to at least a few of you who may also be tired of the single-minded vision of salvation offered predominantly by over-privileged, egotistical and self-serving groups. Be they government or media-based, they speak only of a very narrow, rather inhumane and environmentally unfriendly form of modern existence.

The biggest challenge here is to not be negative or bitter about our lot, but to try and move towards something thoughtful and positive. We equally don’t want to claim these little reflections are ‘the answer’, or to become as self-centred and egotistical in our own way as the very groups that we feel are blinding us to alternative thought.

We offer this little document in good faith, and with a pinch of humour, in the hope that it is, at best, something different from the current norm in our mainstream media.

We would encourage you to, in the immortal words of Walt Whitman, “...dismiss whatever insults your own soul”.

Matthew & Luke Williamson - Halcyon Design Limited

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‘We eat the sun’ Fraser Williamson ( Painting - gouache on board - 900mm x 900mm )

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contentsPage 2 In favour of swimming (nearly) naked.

Page 4 The state of our oceans and scenarios for what might be the best outcomes we could hope for in 2050.

Page 10 Beach peace. Contemplating ‘loafing’.

Page 12 The assemblage artwork of Karen Williamson .

Page 16 The musical generation gap.

Page 18 Mary Jo Hoffman – photographer.

Page 22 We are not afraid of nepotism.

Page 24 There’s a guy in our office . . .

Published by:

Halcyon Design Limited

Level 1, Millstream Building

17 Elizabeth Street,

Warkworth

Phone: 09 425 9863

www.halcyondesign.co.nz

Cover Image:Fertility specialistsSeed pods from all over –Mary Jo Hoffman S

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W e began our swim by jumping off the bridge into the swirls of the outgoing tide three metres below. Holding tight to my cap and goggles, I leapt in, feet first, and shivered, not with cold, but pleasure at how perfect the water felt – not too warm, not too cold, alive and chatty.

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There were shouts and squeals around me as enthusiastic and nervous divers alike launched off the bridge and into the tide. We all floated and gabbled about how nice it was while we got ready for the journey ahead. The outgoing tide had livened up sufficiently that I could feel fragments of seaweed and stick bump into me as they pressed on towards open ocean, and I watched as I floated away from the bridge, no swimming required, eddies curling around me and tickling my skin.

As instigator of the swim, to which 15 people turned up, I made sure everyone was happily on their way before ducking my face into the water and getting my engine started. With 5.4km ahead, I was in no hurry to use up excess energy, knowing that I would need that extra strength to get through the final stages. I could feel the sun on my back as I slowly got up to cruising pace. The light through the water made rippling patterns on the sea floor a mere couple of metres below, and a gorgeous mosaic of muddy thumbprints began to emerge made up of starfish, stingray and shell patches.

I fell in behind one of the other swimmers to ride his bubbly wake, feeling the effervescence trickle down my chest and stomach, but soon pulled out and away as I was faster and much prefer to find my own peace and pace when ocean swimming.

The outgoing tide soon had me to our first mark, a catamaran mid-channel. Following the deepening channel beneath, as it turned about twenty degrees to the right, I whisked past the moored yachts on my way to the boat ramp that signaled the one-third mark. The tidal current was performing just as hoped and propelling me past the stationary yachts at an inspiring but deceptive pace, almost making me believe I could really swim that fast.

Soon the channel narrowed as it prepared to turn nearly 180°, and get squeezed between a rocky

headland and a projecting sand spit. As hoped, the current picked up to warp speed and a kilometre and a half was covered in about half the time it would normally take. At one point, I simply stopped swimming, spread my arms wide and ‘flew’ at four or five knots over the sandy surface below. I also remembered to pause, raise my head and truly appreciate how rapidly the shore was passing by on this amazing leg of the swim. Merely turning one’s arms over at minimum speed was enough to slingshot around the corner at top pace.

The prevailing current surged off for a way down the beach and I rode it until a counteracting surface breeze, fresh out of the south, sucked the energy out of that conveyor belt and made me glad I had preserved energy for the beat up the beach.

The wind was brisk enough to form perpetual wavelets that slapped against my forehead as I began to put in some heavy work. Where the competing currents met and mixed, surges of colder and warmer water oozed over my body and back again, making me wish for one or other depending on how tired I was. The chains of salps made a reappearance and, for brief moments, it was like swimming through tapioca. A little further on, I felt a tingling itch on the hairless part of my wrist and knew I must have bumped into a jellyfish.

The haul up the beach was slower than usual and required the fine art of distracting myself with thoughts of other interesting things while slowly ticking off the well-known landmarks that told of my progress towards the final destination – clump of trees #1, three pines that line up as you swim past, clump of trees #2, lone pine, flag pole.

As the surf club came into view and my mouth began to feel puckered by the saltwater, I splatted my hand into a large clump of seaweed that caught in my fingers, disentangled and then

scratched its way down my entire length as I swam on towards the finish line.

With a last burst of energy, I caught a small wave to shore, careful not to lose my goggles in the melee of whitewater, and grounded myself on the sand with an exfoliating rasp. I slowly stood up with the customary wobble of those who have completed a long swim and was greeted by the two swimmers who had beaten me home. The sun was warm and the wind was cold, and I stood and shook hands with each swimmer as they struggled up the beach, feeling the salt drying and crusting on my face and shoulders. It felt good.

I didn’t actually do the swim naked but I wish I had. I wore Speedos which is about as close as you can get to bare while being socially acceptable – sort of.

I have been pondering the disappearing art of “togs” swimming in this age of wetsuit dominance. Wearing a wetsuit is understandable given the advantages of confidence, warmth and speed that it confers. However, I love ‘being in contact’ with the ocean when I swim, feeling all the bubbles, ripples, rubble and marine life that swirl past. Getting to the finish point of a swim is important but, much like life itself, I love to make sure I fully experience the journey with all its quirks. So, next time you are heading out to do your ocean swim, maybe leave the wetsuit (the togs too if you can find some privacy) at home and take the time to experience all that the ocean has to offer, and you might find yourself a convert to less-is-more swimming.

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If we were logical, the future would look bleak indeed. But we are more than logical.We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work. - Jacques Cousteau

We asked Dr Roger Grace, a local marine scientist and environmental advocate to offer some optimistic scenarios for what might be the

best outcomes we could hope for in 2050 and then to tell us where we stand now on some of these key marine environment issues.

THE FUTURE

NB: interview was recorded before the announcement of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary in September 2015

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2050 2050

NOW NOW

In 2050, the national Marine Protected Areas (MPA) forum process will be complete and a minimum of 10% of the New Zealand coastline will be no-take MPA. This

would have to be a representative network that covered all the different types of habitat and, preferably, more

than one example of each type of habitat.

It is worth noting that less than 1% of New Zealand’s territorial sea is designated as MPA, and around 97% of that is made up of reserves around the Kermadec and Auckland Islands; so very little of the mainland coast and islands.

A national review of MPA began around 2004 with the country being divided up into marine bio-regions. It was envisaged that each region would then have a forum of interested parties who would discuss and plan for a series of MPA in their region, and this process would be part of a coordinated national plan. Fora were held for Westland and the sub-Antarctic islands but then the government mothballed the whole scheme and withdrew funding.

The recent (March 2014) announcement of three new marine reserves, covering 435,000 hectares of ocean, in sea surrounding the Antipodes, Bounty and Campbell Islands is a sign of some momentum returning to the debate around creating more MPA. The government has also

begun work on an MPA forum in Otago to look at the options for MPA in that region.Roger says, ‘We need to have reserves that represent all types of habitat, from estuarine and rocky shore, to deep water and sandy coastline. That means that you have to have a pretty open run at what’s available before too many other rules and claims get in the way. And these reserves need to be total no-take areas – we know that this is the only type of reserve that works from a conservation point of view.’Roger sites the examples of Mimiwhangata and the Poor Knights which, as marine parks (commercial fishing banned but recreational fishing allowed), failed to recover from their degraded state. When the Poor Knights became a marine reserve with total no-take coverage, the area improved rapidly.He adds, ‘The MPA also need to be replicated so that a disaster can’t wipe out one whole type of protected habitat, and the reserves need to be

spread evenly, geographically, so that there is representation, connectivity and access for the public.’

Roger finally points out that the 10% figure for marine reserves is not set in stone and should only be an aspirational figure on the way to a higher total, if possible. Once the benefits of MPA on this scale were experienced, it seems likely that the public would see the advantages of continuing the programme of marine conservation.

The public is well aware of the tourism and ecological advantages of current mainland MPA, but it is a hard sell to create new ones as people are always reluctant to have their favourite fishing spots made unavailable – this despite the scientifically-proven ‘spill over’ effect of fish from the reserves. By 2050, this will be well-understood and result in the creation of a string of coastal reserves.

of our land is protected for its

natural values

30%<1%

of coastal waters are protected for their natural values

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2050 2050

NOW NOW

‘I want the Marine Spatial Plan to be a success and, as a result, for the environment of the Hauraki Gulf to improve, not get worse as it is now. That’s what success means to me in this case.’

In 2050, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) will have been successfully implemented leading to an overall

improvement in the health of the Hauraki Gulf, including the provision of MPA for long-term conservation.

The aim of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan is to bring together a broad cross section of stakeholders and come up with a plan to arrest the ecological decline of the Hauraki Gulf, and to secure a healthy, productive and sustainable resource for all users.

‘I want the Marine Spatial Plan to be a success and, as a result, for the environment of the Hauraki Gulf to improve, not get worse as it is now. That’s what success means to me in this case,’ Roger explains.

While Roger is positive about the intentions of the MSP, he has concerns about its early priorities. He wants to see the inclusion and implementation of marine reserves as a specific goal in the planning process. Currently, this is not the case and Roger is worried that the opportunity will be overlooked and, subsequently, prove to be too difficult to address if left until the end of the process.

‘I would like to see discussion around the Marine Spatial Plan double as a Marine Protected Areas forum,’ he says, ‘because once the Marine Spatial Plan is in place, how are we going to go back and have a sensible discussion about MPAs? Now is

the time to be having these discussions as all the advocates are already gathered.’That the MSP is being approached in a coordinated way with representation from all the stakeholders is a wonderful thing, as is the overall agreement that the health of the Hauraki Gulf continues to deteriorate and something must be done to reverse that. The challenge will be to agree on a set of goals that satisfies the broad collection of stakeholders, and to set in motion actions that will achieve those goals.

In 2050, sediment and nutrient runoff into the

marine environment will have been severely reduced.

“We know that the runoff of sediment from our relatively-recently cleared land area – I’m talking the last 200 years – is huge and it has been filling the surrounding marine environment, particularly estuaries. We now have the added complication of nutrient runoff from farming. The Waikato and Hauraki Plains areas account for a huge input of nutrients to the Gulf every year, to the point where it is estimated they will be responsible for “dead zones” in the Firth of Thames in a few years,’ says Roger.

Dead zones occur when high nutrient levels cause algal blooms on a scale that results in the complete depletion of oxygen from areas of the ocean. Nothing else can live in these zones as long as the nutrients keep being added and the algae keep blooming.

There is a lot of discussion around nutrient runoff from farms, and councils and farming groups are encouraging and assisting farmers to fence off streams from livestock, and to plant the margins of waterways as a means of intercepting the runoff. However, this is a huge problem throughout the country and mitigating it will involve unprecedented cooperation with the farming industry.

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NOW NOWwould return and they are the nursery grounds for more fish. 40% may not be a high enough figure but it’s a good level to start at.’

‘Our main fish species are being maintained at far too low a population level. I want to see the maintenance level raised to at least 40% of pre-fished biomass.’

In 2050, our populations of snapper, crayfish and all the main commercial fish/shellfish species will have been

increased to at least 40% of pre-fished biomass and maintained at or above that level.

Most commercial species are theoretically maintained at approximately 20% of pre-fished biomass but often slip under this level in the ebb and flow of population management. (Pre-fished biomass is a theoretical figure that represents the amount of fish that would have been in the ocean before commercial fishing began.) This lower level leaves insufficient breathing space for miscalculations of quota or adverse environmental effects, and actually robs the fishing industry of a potential higher take, if the fisheries were given a chance to rebuild.

Roger says, ‘Our main fish species are being maintained at far too low a population level. I want to see the maintenance level raised to at least 40% of pre-fished biomass. I was very pleased to see MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) acknowledge this figure when they set the new extraction levels for the Snapper 1 fishery in 2013. This was a recognition of the fact that, if the snapper population is raised to 40%, it allows for roughly a 50% increase in the sustainable take. It improves the snapper population and the potential yield.’

Roger was frustrated that the discussion around the snapper quota limits failed to centre on the proposed 40% figure as it was such an important step in the right direction and vital to the long-term recovery process, but it got lost in the static around cuts to recreational fishing quota.

There is still a very long way to go on this vision as there is enormous pressure to maintain and even lift the foreign exchange earnings from fisheries. The review of the Snapper fishery last year was a classic example where the revised quota limits mean it will still take approximately 100 years to reach 40% of pre-fished biomass, and only in the most optimistic of scenarios. Contrast that with a total closure of the fishery which would result in a population of 40% of pre-fished biomass in 8-12 years.

Roger points out that the increase in the fish populations restore balance to the environment and create a ‘virtuous cycle’ whereby the habitat improves so the fish population improves so the habitat improves, etc. ‘An increase to 40% in the snapper population would mean that the kina barrens would start to disappear, the kelp forests

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2050 2050

NOW NOW

‘Fishing contests are barbaric. Imagine if you had a contest in the Auckland Domain where you threw out baited hooks in order to catch birds and then reeled them in.’

In 2050, commercial fishing will exclude all bottom-impacting

methods, e.g. trawling, dredging, Danish seining.

‘Most of the damage has already been done,’ Roger explains with a resigned sigh. ‘When you look at the Hauraki Gulf, it used to have small reefs all over the ocean floor that we call “oasis communities”. They weren’t attached to anything as such but were made up of things like mussel communities which provided a substrate for other animals and, over time, these oasis communities built up to become quite a significant size – the size of a house for instance. They would build up over a thousand or more years and could include coral trees and sponges, and were real biodiversity hotspots. They would be very valuable as snapper nursery areas.

‘Those communities are nearly all gone now, removed by repeated trawling in the Hauraki Gulf. Fishermen even went to the trouble of dragging a heavy chain between two trawlers to clear out all the nuisance rubble that was filling their nets. This is similar to what has occurred on seamounts where they fish for orange roughy – huge metal rollers scour the surface in front of the net so that they can have a clear run at the fish.

‘So, even if we stopped these fishing methods now, it would still take hundreds, if not thousands of years for these communities to recover and rebuild.’

In 2050, recreational fishing will not be seen as a ‘sport’ and there

will be no fishing contests.

‘It bothers me how popular recreational fishing is,’ Roger states. ‘This is largely driven by the recreational fishing industry and its desire to sell boats, outboard motors, depth sounders, rods, bait and so on. It’s big business and it’s in their interest to push that as much as possible. The result is that the so-called sport fishing industry has increased in size dramatically, and it is having a huge effect on the number of fish caught. The current rules around recreational fishing are not adequate to avoid serious environmental impacts from this sector.

‘This sector has gotten away with it to some extent because, unlike other forms of land-based hunting, fish aren’t seen as warm, fuzzy creatures that you can feel sorry for. If you tried to get the same acceptance of bird shooting or deer hunting, it would never take off. However, because people see fish as cold, slimey creatures that don’t have feelings, that don’t feel pain, they consider this level of hunting to be OK.

‘Fishing contests are barbaric as well. Imagine if you had a contest in the Auckland Domain where you threw out baited hooks in order to catch birds and then reeled them in. There would be a huge fuss, but because it’s fish, and you can’t see or hear them when you catch them, people think it’s OK to make a sport of it.’

In 2050, the mussel beds in the Firth of Thames will be

restored and protected.

Huge mussel beds in the Firth of Thames were relentlessly fished in the 1900s to the point of extinction. In some places, the reefs that the mussels created formed the basis of oasis communities and were valuable habitats for a multitude of other species. They were also an incredibly efficient water-filtering mechanism for the Gulf.

‘There has been no sign of recovery in these communities following their final decimation in the early 1960s. There are experiments going on currently to see if we can rebuild these communities by using reject and leftover mussels from nearby farms. It will, however, depend on limiting the runoff of sediment and nutrients into the Firth of Thames because there is no point trying to grow mussels if they get smothered or starved of oxygen.’

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2050 2050

NOW NOW

‘Using 2kg of small fish to get 1kg of larger fish is an on-going problem for fish farming around the world.’

In 2050, aquaculture in New Zealand will be carefully controlled and monitored to make sure that it doesn’t cause undue environmental damage and the benefits

are not outweighed by the drawbacks.

The Government has announced its intention to facilitate the doubling of agricultural exports in the next 10-15 years. A large proportion of this is expected to be land-based agriculture which means we face the threat of even more nutrient and sediment run-off into the sea.Part of the push to increase our exports will include seafood, both farmed and wild, and is a real concern for a number of reasons. Most of our farmed seafood, currently, is mussels and salmon but the growth area is in fin-fish farming, e.g. snapper, kingfish and hapuka.‘A few years ago, hundreds of thousands of juvenile kingfish were bred for a proposed kingfish farm near Whangarei, but they subsequently failed to get resource consent for the farm. So they released all the juvenile kingfish into the ocean, saying how wonderful it was that they were boosting the numbers in the wild,’ Roger explains.‘That made me really mad because they were potentially introducing disease from the farmed stock, but, most importantly, they were artificially changing the genetic balance of the wild population by introducing hundreds of thousands of offspring from about 30 parents.’

There will always be these sorts of risks (disease and genetic imbalance) with fish farmed in cages in the ocean because it is inevitable fish will escape. This has been happening for years with the salmon farms. There is also the problem of waste products from that sort of concentration of fish fouling the seabed and surrounding ocean so that other species can’t survive.‘Fin-fish farming would only be acceptable if the operation was entirely on land in ponds or tanks. Nothing from those farms could go into the sea unless it had been through very strict filtering and quarantine of some sort,’ says Roger.Also, there is little point, from a sustainability point of view, of using 2kg of small fish to get 1kg of larger fish. This is an on-going problem for fish farming around the world and one that hasn’t been adequately addressed.Roger concludes, ‘So, I don’t want to see big increases in aquaculture and I don’t want to see fin-fish farming in cages in the sea. I could accept fish farming on land with all those provisos for waste management but that still doesn’t address the problem of what to feed them. However, if we were to manage our wild fish stocks properly, then fish farming would probably be redundant.’

So, in 2014, what are the chances of us achieving these goals for 2050?

Roger is a veteran of the long, slow battles that are required to achieve any of these goals, but he is optimistic about the systems being in place for some important strategies such as the Hauraki Gulf MSP and MPA. History shows that any of these things can be side-lined or forgotten, but the fact that there is legislation in place means that they can also be picked up and promoted just as easily. There are small victories along the way, such as MPI acknowledging the need to aim for a level of 40% of pre-fished stock in the snapper fishery, and the beginning of a coordinated strategy to rescue the Hauraki Gulf environment, and it’s these small steps that keep Roger going. With just a few more small steps and a slightly larger move in attitude towards environmental protection, Roger’s goals for 2050 just might come true.

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I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

- Walt Whitman

There is something so wonderful in loafing and ‘inviting the soul’. It seems that we have perhaps lost the art of loafing and, in doing so, our connection to spiritual or meditative aspects of life – simply being, experiencing nature and being the passive recipient of pleasures from a truly divine world.

I grew up doing quite a bit of loafing, ‘beach loafing’ in particular, and now feel a little disconnected from what was, I see now, more a spiritual practice than a sign of laziness or disconnection. We have replaced the joy of natural communion with a neurosis of connectivity and activity. It seems people can no longer be still and I can, disappointingly, include myself in this. I don’t know what happened to the sense that just being warmed by the sun and feeling relaxed was a pleasure, not a guilt-ridden exercise

that had to cease immediately in order for one to go somewhere else or do something else.

The act of being as close to naked as is comfortable, or allowable by social dictates, and the giving away of the ego of clothing, cars and other material attachments was, and I think still is, a healthy form of social equality that we may have grown unable to enjoy. Maybe we are so sold on the idea of acquisition and showy wealth being the only measure of a worthy life that the simple and freely-available activity of loafing is no longer tolerable to our avaricious and egotistical modern souls? I suggest this because the now inescapable lure of communication technology means that, even at the beach, people are texting, tweeting, taking selfies and posting to Facebook so as to not feel disconnected from activity, and to prove that their life has validity because they are reporting or recording it!

Beach PeaceM at t h e w p o n d e r s . . .

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I know these things to be true because I see them regularly now and feel in myself a certain uneasiness with time ‘wasted’ at the beach. My children, as digital natives, are totally lost to this loafing concept it seems, and the idea of spreading out a towel and snoozing until the desire for another dip overtakes you is as foreign to them as life without WiFi. Within minutes, there are cries to return to the car, the house, the technology, the shops . . . anything but wiling away peaceful time on the beach.

I have become very fond of the poems of the American poet Mary Oliver, and she articulates beautifully that spiritual connection that can only emerge in peace and contemplation. This idea extends to making our spiritual lives healthy as our current, modern, self-centred activities simply are not conducive to spiritual growth – or, in more modern terminology, that of mindfulness.

MindfulEvery day I see or hear something that more or less

kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle

in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for – to look, to listen,

to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over

in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help

but grow wise with such teachings as these – the untrimmable light

of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~( Why I Wake Early )

Beach Peace

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The art of assemblage is a method that Karen Williamson has found to be both

challenging and creatively rewarding. It is the classic trash to treasure process,

and the whimsical and beautiful final objects are not just nice!

A r t b y K a r e n W i l l i a m s o n

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Karen started creating these mixed media assemblages about four years ago after she became familiar with the work of Micheal deMeng (www.michaeldemeng.com), a Vancouver-based assemblage artist. In his work, she saw infinite possibilities for the creativity that can emerge from sticking ordinary everyday items together, a process that she says, strangely, gives her a lot of enjoyment, especially if power tools are involved!Being attracted to unwanted or discarded things, Karen is constantly on the lookout for objects at garage sales, second-hand stores, on the beach or at the side of the road. Friends know not to throw out old paint brushes, but to leave them in her letterbox. “I am a hoarder really, a fact that is evident if you take a look around my house, both inside and out, even sometimes spilling out to spaces in the car. Ask my family!” says Karen Being a photographer, Karen’s eye is keenly tuned to seeing things in a way that other people might not notice. “When choosing, I don’t really look at the function of the item, but rather I’m interested in its shape and imperfections. This view is akin to the Japanese wabi-sabi – seeing beauty in objects which are damaged, old, cracked, rusty and broken. If the object is perfect, I will usually make it imperfect.” For example, the old bolts and nails Karen uses in her work tend to be rusty, but, if she needs to buy a new bolt to complete a piece, Karen will dip it in hydrochloric acid and leave it for a few weeks until the rust appears. It makes for slow work sometimes but it needs to look right.

Karen sees her work as a comment on our disposable society, and likes to consider the objects as being honoured and given a new life. “I am respectful of the mauri (life-force) of an object, particularly if it’s organic, like a skull or feather.” Karen prefers the word ‘recycled’ to ‘repurposed’ as she feels it implies environmental consciousness rather than a more self-gratifying form of work.Karen quotes New Zealand photographer Marti Friedlander as saying, “a photograph is only good if it evokes a reaction”. She feels the same is true of all artwork and hopes her work evokes some of the messages she says are behind her work. As a hospice nurse, Karen sees her assemblages as metaphors for life and death, and also an expression of her spirituality. She is perplexed that some people find her assemblages rather dark and challenging, and thinks that the actual challenge the art issues is to think and talk honestly about life, aging, death and rebirth; by acknowledging life as a finite state, you can enjoy it more.Karen is continually at work on projects in many forms, including book making and pottery, but assemblages and photography are the main forms of expression. With these artistic outlets occupying much of Karen’s time (when not working for hospice), we can expect to continue to see work that challenges

Opposite page) Weltedy Max Candelabra- doll parts, Dia de los muertos painted icons, found objects.

Above) The Queen is in Residence - boxed shrine, rusted plastic insect, bone, various metal objects, knitted garden twine, Vietnamese coins.

and doesn’t just pander to an aesthetic that fits with interior decors.Karen concludes, “It’s a good thing to be challenged by art. The worst thing you could say about my work is that it is ‘nice’. What does nice do?”

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Artworks Left to Right:1) Polyphemus - upcycled Hindu shrine, sculpted tentacles and a multitude of nautical/piratical found objects (including beautiful mermaid).2) A Brush with Bling - paint brush, found objects.3) Bad Ass Brush - paint brush, doll head, found objects.4) Our Lady of the Divine Rusty Junk - rusted mannequin, doily, old tools, household objects.5) Sol Invictus - Rusted quiche tin, expandable foam, paper mask and found objects.6) Shrine for Trevor - boxed shrine dedicated to Trevor Cooper, much-loved hospice volunteer (RIP).7) Epona, goddess of My Little Ponies - Wolseley dashboard (circa 1950), my little ponies, Kewpies and various found objects.

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Music is undoubtedly one of the salves for modern living and everyone has a musical salve of choice. When I decide to actually purchase music, it seems to be a vote for a sort of lifestyle choice as much as something to tap your foot to or sing along to. Whilst I am so old now that I can’t be sure what the first record I ever purchased was, I do know that it was a deeply-considered and then treasured item with both album cover and music being fully engaged with over long periods of time!

These days, it is an entirely different process for my children. They consume music in a much more piecemeal and disposable way. Not for them the hours spent listening through a whole

album again and again while studying every detail of the cover art and every nuance of the lyrics! It has to work immediately and fit what is happening, and if you get sick of that idea after 30 seconds, you simply choose another song. The immediacy of the experience is core and it’s not something that you bring yourself to, rather it must come to you and be entertaining. This is probably consistent with most of the technological experiences that entertainment brings to this generation and that is just the way it is.

I actually did understand iTunes, with purchases of single tracks, but it now seems that buying music is a completely out-moded idea!

Maz WilliamsonAKA Mr Grumpy

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I asked my kids if they had bought, or were intending to buy, any music over the Christmas period and they both firmly said ‘no!’ They told me they were signed up to Spotify, which streams music for free, and all they did was get a playlist of all their favourite tunes and listen to that. I wonder how it will play out with the artists if indeed a whole new generation have no intention of parting with money for music.

Another aspect of the new generation of music consumption is that the quality of reproduction of the music seems to be almost irrelevant. Poor reproduction through cheap ‘in ear’ headphones or from a matchbox-sized, scratchy speaker seems to be no deterrent to their listening pleasure. Again, the difference between us is profound. I may not be a true audiophile, but the search for high-quality sound reproduction with substantial bass, nice crisp tops and clear mid-range has been with me since my

youth. We would sit around, reverentially listening to records on what was the best we could get in terms of stereo systems and loved to separate the various instruments for analysis – great guitar solos and solid bass were always the most pleasurable. Paradoxically, I think the perpetual availability of music on every technological device we own, and in all situations, has actually diminished my appreciation of and dedication to my pure and much-loved musical world.

Could it be that, as with almost everything in our world of instant gratification and infinite choice, we have just become weary of the overwhelming amount of stimulus to choose from? Could we be over-entertained and in need of less rather than more? Music seems to have almost been turned into a background ‘jingle’ to a never-sleeping consumer marketing machine. What was an artform in its own right has been turned into the background noise to the narcissistic pursuit of ‘your

life’ – which is only worthy of being called a ‘life’ when recorded in video or photographic form with, of course, a soundtrack! This might be a bit too pessimistic or judgmental, and I am not acknowledging the still very vibrant and broad range of musical creation, but I have the feeling it has been somewhat devalued by the sheer quantity available.

Maybe less music, of higher quality, and even at a small price, would turn the tables a little towards the desire to reflect, absorb and digest the range of emotions and thoughts that good music can inspire. It doesn’t need to be all about ‘quick edits’, snap shots of life and the need to move past things rapidly.

Maybe this is just another ampoule of the opiate for the masses that prevents us from being alert to where this one track, anti-spiritual, anti-human, consumer-driven and financial-focussed global culture is taking us. I really am a grumpy old man!

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We stumbled upon the work of Mary Jo Hoffman when searching for an image to use in an identity we were creating here at Halcyon Design. Having found an image on a Google search, we contacted the photographer (Mary Jo) who was extraordinarily helpful and generous in allowing us to use her work for a modest fee! Lovely work, lovely person.

Mary Jo Hoffman is a photographer who started her own blog on January 1, 2012. Mary Jo thought she would enjoy the discipline of producing a photo a day, and hoped that a few kindred wanderers might find their way to her blog. She could never have guessed that thousands would come and have their morning coffee whilst viewing her latest post. She also could never have guessed that every stroll with her kids or dog would turn into a treasure hunt, or that Martha Stewart would do a feature on her and that her images would be included in the website designsponge.com

A milestone yearWhite oak leaves in fall colorsSaint Paul, Minnesota

M A R Y J O H O F F M A N

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Gather, sort, repeat A collection of Mediterranean shells, rocks, and sea glassSéte, France

The blog is called STILL and Mary Jo posts one image, daily, of gathered natural objects found near where she is, which usually means Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, her home. Sometimes, it means the Gulf Coast of Florida, and, sometimes, Grand Marais, Minnesota, on the north shore of Lake Superior. Sometimes, it also means the Languedoc region of south-west France.

Mary Jo would love to see her images used by designers and artists worldwide. She has also developed a ‘shop’ for elegant, Still-inspired prints, textiles, stitched wall-hangings, themed card collections, and other product ideas available for licensing.

Still blog is a place to stop. A place to look at one thing at a time. A place to be still.http://stillblog.net/

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Gathered and assembledAn arrangement of purple and green things in the villageAutignac, France

I don’t have a studio, and

generally shoot on my

kitchen counter or on

my deck.

I truly believe with any

half-decent digital

camera and PicMonkey,

most people could get

similar results for very

little initial investment.

Mary Jo Hoffman

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UnimpressedA collection of small, silvery Mediterranean fish: daurade/dorade, merlu, merlan, maquereau, sardineValras, France

Mary Jo’s techniqueMy set-up is quite simple: I use any white paper (usually white tag board), natural light, a not very fancy Canon Rebel t1i with a good Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens, and Photoshop. That’s about it. I usually put my white paper background on the floor and shoot from above my subject, or I set the paper on my kitchen counter or tape it to a wall and hold the subject up in front of me. Every once and a while, I will bring my white paper out into the field to get a shot. But that usually requires two people – one to hold the background and one to photograph. So I only do that when I can sweet-talk my husband or kids into it. They are usually good sports.I do not use a softbox or a lightbox, although both have been suggested. I spend a lot of time waiting for the sun to go behind a cloud so I can get softer lighting. I don’t have a macro lens. For the first year-plus of the blog, I didn’t have a tripod, so I often ended up using chairs or stacks of books as makeshift camera stands. I finally bought a real tripod recently, and it is helping with photo crispness a lot. I should have bought one a year ago. On the other hand, I want to emphasize that what I’ve been doing can be done without a tripod.I don’t know why it took me so long to learn this, but if I can prop the subject up off the white background even a little bit, rather than have it lying flat, it provides a more natural look and softer lighting.In Photoshop, I use primarily the crop function, and the curves function. Playing with the curves tool helps me get my background nice and white without altering the lighting on the subject too much. If the image has too many shadows, I will sometimes have to use the dodge tool. I try to use as few tools as necessary to get the background white and the subject lighting right. I have learned that the more I play with tools, the less natural the results are.I shoot one image a day, but I am usually carrying two or three subject ideas in my head at a time because I often find myself at 5 pm, running out of light, without having posted for the day yet. So it is nice to have ideas ready to go on short notice. If I go on vacation, I will queue up a couple days’ worth of images until I can get settled in the new locale. But then I resume shooting from my new environment as soon as I can because that is one of the joys of doing STILL blog – being present wherever I am. When I am traveling, I will often use an opened page of my journal as my white background (that is how STILL blog actually started!).

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It’s Torea’s beak.Oystercatchers have long, strong beaks to dig

deep in the sand and to crack open shells.

Whose beak is this, filtering the water for food?1514

Whose Beak is This?by Gillian Candler, illustrated by Fraser Williamsonpublished by Potton & Burton in October 2015

WHOSE BEAKIS THIS?W

HO

SE BEA

K IS TH

IS?

by Gillian Candler

illustrated by Fraser Williamson

Gillian C

andler & Fraser W

illiamson

9 7 8 1 9 2 7 2 1 3 6 4 3

ISBN 978-1-927213-64-3

our brother Fraser has been hard at work since his return from Spain. He and his wife Loisi, and their boy Antonio, are getting over the culture shock of returning from a simpler and slower life to the pressure of Auckland living!

One of Fraz’s latest projects has been a book collaboration with Gillian Candler called Whose beak is this? published by Potton & Burton in October 2015. A slightly more representational series compared to some of Fraz’s personal work, this ‘guess the beak’ book is, however, very beautiful.

See more of Fraser’s work at www.redshark.co.nz

We are not afraid of nepotism

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I spent a lot of time trying to convince bureaucrats and politicians that we needed to invest in walking and cycling and I was getting nowhere. So I decided I needed to pick a project that was a great exemplar of the concept of walking and cycling, and I decided to make it a BHAG – big, hairy, audacious goal. We need more adventure. Skypath exemplifies that and has great social and environmental merit.

It’s also a catalyst project. By investing in Skypath, we expect to see a much greater investment in walking and cycling across Auckland and the whole country. And because Skypath is such a big project, lots of other projects now seem much smaller and achievable, like the pink cycling path that just opened in Auckland at a cost of $13 million.

I identified the Skypath project and led the charge but there were a number of people who were interested. I started writing letters to Transit NZ in 1999 about the idea. I then joined Cycle Action Auckland a couple of years later and they strongly supported the project, and allowed me to drive it.

The Auckland Harbour Bridge represents over 50 years of complete vehicle domination of the city and I wanted to challenge that. It screams motor vehicles and has no concession to walking and cycling. It’s a very exciting project.

I really began to focus on it in 2003-4.

This year we had resource consent granted for Skypath but we currently have to go through mediation to deal with three appeals to that. That will be dealt with by the Environment Court but I’m confident that we will go ahead soon. We then confirm all the arrangements for the construction and delivery of Skypath, and a potential start time is June 2016. However, it’s taken this long so, if it slips a bit more, I’m not going to sweat it.

I always thought that we would have handed over the project way before now but that hasn’t been the case. We assumed that, if we resolved the engineering issues, then NZTA would just pick it up as an obvious project for ‘the good’ but that hasn’t happened. So we’ve had to find a funder and it’s only now that they are starting to say that it might be best if they take the project over. We’ll gladly hand it over as long as we can see they are committed to delivering it. I’ve already told them, the sooner you get on with this, the more time I can spend sailing.

There’s a guy in our office . . .

We need more adventure. Skypath exemplifies that, and has great social and environmental merit.Bevan Woodward, walking and biking advocate, and general rabble-rouserBevan, amongst other things, is founder and promoter of Skypath, the project to place a walking and

cycling tunnel on the side of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

We share an office with Bevan and he’s a very interesting and busy man.We took a few minutes of his time to ask him about Skypath.

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My belief is that the toll on the crossings will only last for a few years before it becomes politically untenable and the government of the day buys out the project. Tolling walkers and cyclists while cars go free just doesn’t make sense in the future we’re going to confront – our clean, green 100% pure New Zealand. That might be another fight ahead.

I’m not sure what comes next for me. I’m starting to think about the future of transport in a *BHAG way. The sorts of things I’m thinking about are going to be more difficult to implement because they are behavioural rather than something physical like Skypath. I want to see safer speeds throughout the country. It’s not a sexy idea for most people so I have to work out a way to sell that. I don’t believe in a future of self-driving cars or even electric cars, but I do believe in electric bikes which I think have huge potential. I also think we need to look at ways to reward, pay even, people for choosing to use better forms of transport. For example, when you use your Hop

card to take a bus, it won’t be deducting five dollars from your account, it will be giving you a small credit for making good choices about transport. This is combined with much heavier taxes on people who choose to drive so that the whole thing is revenue neutral but the incentive is to use public transport. We live in a market-based economy so it’s time to provide incentives to encourage the behaviour we want. We need some serious carrots and not just sticks.

Electric cars don’t resolve the issues of the cost of building more roads and congestion, making it unsafe and unpleasant for walkers and cyclists. Electric cars are also too expensive and it will take a vast amount of energy to replace our current fleet of cars. And all that electricity has to be generated somehow.

The key is to try and replace all those short trips that we make in cars with alternative, low-impact transport options.

So, what the future needs to look like is communities with really good, regular, pleasant-to-use public transport, and good integration of walking and biking paths. If you make it pleasant and convenient to use, people will flock to it. We also need to use a credit system to reward people for using public transport. Give them the cost of a coffee as a reward for taking the bus.

We have to change our planning behviour so that when a congestion or connectivity problem arises, the first reaction is to plan a new bus or train service, or cycle path, and see if that fixes the problem, rather than jumping to build a new and/or bigger road. More road space will only be a last resort.

* BHAG – big, hairy, audacious goal. * font used - RideMyBike Pro

We need more adventure. Skypath exemplifies that, and has great social and environmental merit.

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One world - Mary Jo HoffmanWillow leaves uncovered by a temporary thawTurtle Lake, Saint Paul, Minnesota

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Graphic communication

Halcyon Design Limited Level 1, Millstream Building, 17 Elizabeth Street, Warkworth Phone: 09 425 9863 www.halcyondesign.co.nz