Albuquerque, NM

Thanks to the Growing Dome you can keep
eating fresh garden goods through the fall!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2008 Taos Fall Arts Festival:
Friday, September 26-Monday, October 13
Monday, September 22: Taos Invites Taos entries to Rio
Grande Hall 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tuesday, September 23: Taos Open entries to Bataan
Hall 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Wednesday, September 24: “Meet Th e Masters,” location,
time and ticket info TBA
Th ursday, September 26: Free Public Opening at Bataan
and Rio Grande Halls 5 p.m.-8 p.m.
Monday, October 13: Last day of Taos Fall Arts Festival
for 2008
Th e Taos Fall Arts Festival is located in both the Rio Grande
Hall and Bataan Hall at the Taos Convention Center,
120 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos New Mexico. For an updated
schedule of events, visit taosfallarts.com.

There’s a certain joy in the act of planting, joy in watching the
progress of the seed as it emerges toward the light, and still
more joy in the gratifying moment when it bears the desired fl ower
and fruit. Th at so much can come from such small beginnings is
ever-astounding. If you cultivate plants as a hobby, or if you haven’t
grown a plant since your mother’s day project bean plant in the
second grade, the guy who came up with Th e Seed Project wants
you to grab some seeds and sew.
One time New Mexico resident and current New York City artist
David Cohen just wanted to do something diff erent. Th e idea for
Th e Seed Project came out of Cohen’s interest in connecting art
and environmental sensitivity to creatively expose the connection
between humans and their world. Simply by planting a seed the
human who plants it is engaging in a creative act. By giving back
to the planet and the greater green good while playing a hand in
just how and where that creativity takes place, the “artist” now has
an even more direct eff ect on the outcome. Well, that’s the idea
anyway, but what’s really exciting
to Cohen, is that his seed idea has
blossomed into a fantastically fun,
and positive global art project.
A main source for Cohen’s
inspiration was the creative
environmental thinking of artist
Joseph Beuys. Born in Germany
in 1921, Beuys was one of 500
founding members of the Green
Party, among other notable
involvement in political and social
change and modern art. Beuys’
primary endeavor into “Social
Sculpture”, (Social Sculpture as
defi ned by Beuys is the “way we
mould and shape the world in
which we live. Sculpture as an
evolutionary process”) the 7000
Oaks project, began in 1982
in Kassel, Germany. His goal
was to plant seven thousand
trees, beside each tree would be
“planted” a columnar basalt stone
approximately four feet high, in
the city of Kassel. Th ough the
small oaks would grow, change, and move with
the elements the stone beside them would remain
relatively unchanged. Beuys wanted the idea of
deliberate planting and the living art to continue
throughout the world as part of a global mission
to eff ect environmental and social change and also to create a more
hospitable urban environment. Th ose who worked with him then
continue his work and promote his ideas – the 7000 Oaks project
has been continued in New York City along the entire block of 22nd
Street from 10th to 11th avenues. Cohen says that Beuys’ work
showed him that everyone is an artist and has the power to change
the world around them, and to him, the seed itself is metaphorically
the idea, or creative pure potential.
Cohen began his work in “Social Sculpture” by planting wheat
grass because it is nice and green and it will grow anywhere. “You
can drop it on your carpet and it will grow”, he said. Cohen wanted
to invite people to create unique growing environments, not so much
The Creative Potential
David Cohen’s Seed Project
by Caitlin Legere
MiyA Pottery Andrew Sanders ✙ Miya Endo

This is just part of a long and fascinating article in this months issue of Readfive.com go visit the read five magazine for a plentitude of well written and timely articles that can give you an geat inside look at Taos NM.