Mariko Nightfire: A Virtual Life: Sasha

Mariko Nightfire: A Virtual Life: Sasha

Bag Hunting in the rain

I dream plastic bags.  I dream of collecting them, cutting them, crocheting them.  My nights have no boogie men, no romantic conquests in my sleep..just Medusa Bloom..over and over.

Saturday night I went bag hunting in my sleep and when I woke it was pouring and I couldn't wait to go get some backs that I saw along the road side in Murrieta.  Finally around 3 pm, rain and I, I dragged my good friend Jon out with me to slip around in the mud, and pull up plastic bags.  Probably found a couple dozen at least.  This was just one little strip of road along a bit of a tiny wash on Jefferson road.  The fields behind were green, and we looked up to see a rainbow.  Jon did a great job not getting dirty.

Thanks to Cathy, from Temecula Valley Stitch N Bitch,  for her bags!

the stitching has begun

Thursday after I started stitching up my own bags from 2009.  The fun has begun!

I will post photos soon.

Also I have a friend who has offered to make a map of where the bags come from, so if you find them littered take a photo, get the gps coordinates, or just jot down a note of where you found it, right on the bag will do.

Also when you submit your personal use bags, please let me know what part of the world they are coming from, your name - nickname is fine, and how many members in your family, as well as the period of time you saved the bags for.  

Project Medusa Bloom Progress 2/4

So far I have about a dozen people offering to save bags, and I could use a few hundred more, so get your friends involved if you will. I have two people who have already started getting their bags to me.

My daughter cleaned out the car and proceeded to take one group of bags to the trash can, and when I noticed they were gone, she was none too happy to have to get them back out of the trash. But she did.

In November, a friend pulled plastic bags from my home and stuck a big bag of them in each car. The amount was rather ridiculous, as we have several reusable bags. The problem was, the bags were being used too often to store things in, and not making it back to the market.

There were a couple generic bags, dozens of grocery store bags, and half a dozen huge bags from the local cheese shop...a sign that not only were we using too much bags, but we were also eating too much cheese. I took those bags, and the rest from 2008, cut them to shreds, trying to cut each bag into one long strip. After each cutting session I wound them into one big ball. Today I finished and have a ball 18" in diameter, approx. 6.5 inches across. Next step is turning this plastic yarn into a sculpture of sorts.

Thanks for Bags- January

Thank you to Eric C. and his family of four in San Diego, for six months worth of bags.

Thanks to Jon L. in Orange County, CA. for his bags from January.

What is the Medusa Bloom Project?

The Medusa Bloom Project is an art project, that focus's on consumer waste, as well as global warming using both Plastic bags, as a symbol of consumer waste, but also as my medium, and Jellyfish otherwise known as Medusa, as my subject matter.

Jellyfish are currently blooming globally, disrupting the fishing industry, tourism, and the eco system. The main cause for the global bloom is thought to be global warming.

Medusa is also in reference myself, the artist, who has always identified with the misunderstood women in history and mythology.

The bags will be unrecycled bags, saved by different households over a period of time, up to one year, or taken from the litter stream.

Each collection of bag will represent that households usage, and may contain just shopping bags, or a collection of all plastic bags that they use, such as bagel bags, bread bags, produce bags.
Or a location for the littered bags..such as mountain, city, beach.

The collections will be knit or crocheted, arts that I have embraced and a rebellious act of feminism, into various Jellies.

Contributions are welcome from the global community so save your bags and pass the word on.

Artist Bio

Compulsive Obsessive artist dabbled in bronze work, blown glass, oil painting, pencil work, clay, and jewelry, drowning in fiber, computer imaging, acrylic paints, glass work and frosting.

Girly feminist with an affinity towards dangerous female deities, and a curiosity for the unknown, and a facination towards bugs with communistic social systems, and a propensity for migraines, with a passion for always learning something new, I love to create paintings of giant anthropomorphic ants with colors straight from the tube, kaliedoscopes with hand blown ampules, and artsy shawls and scarves out of unusual fibers, plus a regular spattering or smack, if you will, of what every obsession I must get out of my system.

My current projects include stained glass jewelry, repurposed messenger story bags, an exploration of the renissance snood, virtual cakes, and my big long term project, Project Bloom, a social, enviromental study, expression in sculptures of Jellyfish.

My art has been shown in galleries throughout Southern California.

Medusa Bloom Project

Medusa - Both the name of an adult Jellyfish and the name of a beautiful deity that was turned hideous as a punishment for sleeping with the wrong man. Often a symbol of female rage.

Bloom- To blossom, grow, or support life, or the achieve one's potential

Medusa Bloom -v. a smack of Jellyfish

or

Medusa Bloom- v. Jellyfish maturing often occurring in numbers

Most often used for an explosion in the population of Jellyfish.

Medusa Bloom - n. An art project using petroleum based plastic bags, to explore environmental effects and consumerism, and explore a obsessive curiosity of Medusae, using a medium traditionally associated with female sub servitude.