I got the sense that the positive things Detroit is now best known for — farming, art collectives — are closer to hobbies than real solutions.
In the heart of downtown Calgary, under the shadow of the Calgary Tower, is a restaurant accented with reclaimed barn wood, big farm animal art and communal style tables.
Other Workaway placements (there are dozens available around the world) include an "off-grid" creative retreat in the mountains of Almeria, Spain, where volunteers help with childcare, language practice, cooking, farming and art projects; and looking after tourists and farming at an eco-hostel in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
Much of his work, in other words, involves a crafty appropriation and reassembly of previously existing stuff, an ongoing exercise in content farming for art's sake.
Investigating all three cases is the enigmatic Ogden Walker, deputy sheriff in Plata, a fictional county in the northern part of the state, physically not far from the health farms and art galleries of trendy Taos, but in all other respects a world away.
O'Keeffe grew up with six siblings on a Wisconsin dairy farm and received art lessons at home as a child.
He teaches the boy on the adjacent farm to observe art, to appreciate it and finally to make it.
It is true that, even here, it takes more than art, farm stands and caffeine to make an economy work — especially for those who don't make a living with a laptop or a paintbrush.
Doug Michels, an architect and artist and a founding member of Ant Farm, a radical art and design collective of the late 1960's and 70's, died on June 12 at Eden Bay near Sydney, Australia.
The owners of Restoran said they had originally hoped for an easy tourist draw, featuring Russian-village-style decor with the usual rustic motifs like farm tools, folk art and bright red peasant clothing for the staff.
