Author Archives: Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

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About Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

I'm a French artist living near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 I studied at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, then at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for my BFA. My work for many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. Various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments took me originally to the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and subsequently to Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil. Over many years, during the winters, I studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, my interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced my artistic practice. The voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. They are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. My concern for the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest has inspired my films and installation projects. Since 2005, I've created a perfomance and film project - Fire Sculpture - to bring urgent attention to Rainforest issues. To protest against the continuing destruction, I've publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolize the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.

Micro-Season: “The Bear Retreats To Its Den” — Naturalist Weekly

We have entered the micro-season of “The Bear Retreats To Its Den”. This is the first micro-season of the mini-season Major Snow. To celebrate this season, we will learn about a bear’s winter survival strategies and then read some seasonal … Continue reading

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PLEASE LISTEN TO THE YANOMAMI SHAMAN’S MESSAGE – THE PLEA OF THE RAINFOREST! – And discover how we can help Indigenous peoples!

photo: Renato Soares « Hey – Look at me We see you We tried to show you You never bothered to learn our language You were always looking down We’ve been warning you since the beginning The land is alive … Continue reading

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Here are 13 Reasons Why You Should Boycott Gold For The Yanomami People! — Palm Oil Detectives

Hunger for Gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell in the Global South. Here are 20 reasons why you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami 13 Reasons Why You Should Boycott Gold For The Yanomami People — Palm Oil Detectives

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British place names resonate with the song of missing birds | Aeon Essays — msamba

Photo by Owen Humphreys/Getty In the dark, sylvan villages of medieval England, people named places after the birds that filled the night with music In one of the oldest poems in English literature, there is a beautiful moment when a … Continue reading

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Todos los vivos son interdependientes: una entrevista con la artista Barbara Crane Navarro — Open Americas

Barbara Crane Navarro es una artista, autora y activista francesa que actualmente vive cerca de París. Durante 12 años, pasó los meses de invierno con el pueblo Yanomami en Venezuela y Brasil, una experiencia que inspiró su práctica artística y … Continue reading

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“All That Breathes” — Screen Zealots

A touching documentary that celebrates the very best of humanity, and is an encouraging picture of two men who are working tirelessly to make this world a better place. “All That Breathes” — Screen Zealots

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Deforestation: EU law bans goods linked to destruction of trees! — Stigmatis

By Antoinette Radford | BBC News The European Union has agreed a new law that would ban the import of products linked to deforestation. Household goods such as coffee, chocolate, and some furniture will have to pass strict checks to … Continue reading

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Tout le monde vivant est interdépendant: une question & réponse avec l’artiste Barbara Crane Navarro — Open Americas

Barbara Crane Navarro est une artiste, auteur et activiste française qui vit actuellement près de Paris. Pendant 12 ans, elle a passé les mois d’hiver avec le peuple Yanomami au Venezuela et au Brésil, une expérience qui a inspiré sa … Continue reading

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How animals perceive their environment — Conservation Sense and Nonsense

Ed Yong introduces us to the topic of his book, An Immense World (1), by inviting us into an imaginary gymnasium populated by a menagerie of animals who perceive their environment in different ways because they have different sensory mechanisms.  … Continue reading

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Nature has a lot to tell us, literally! — Darcy Hitchcock

Scientists are discovering that a lot of animals make a lot of different sounds, often outside our own hearing range. Nature has a lot to tell us, literally — Darcy Hitchcock

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