A lovely place

The Artdog Week of Book Quotes

This is National Library Week. Instead of a Quote of the Week, I decided to dedicate this as the Week of Book Quotes, with help from the marvelous New York illustrator, Simini Blocker.

Even if you've seen Simini's wonderful illustrated quotes before, I hope you'll enjoy them again. And if you're not yet familiar with her work, I offer you the joy of discovery.

IMAGE: Many, many thanks to Simini Blocker's Tumblr for today's marvelous Quote-Image, featuring the words of an anonymous author.

Power of words

The Artdog Week of Book Quotes

This is National Library Week. Instead of a Quote of the Week, I decided to dedicate this as the Week of Book Quotes, with help from the marvelous New York illustrator, Simini Blocker.

Even if you've seen Simini's wonderful illustrated quotes before, I hope you'll enjoy them again. And if you're not yet familiar with her work, I offer you the joy of discovery.

IMAGE: Many, many thanks to Simini Blocker's Tumblr for today's marvelous Quote-Image, featuring the words of Cassandra Clare (thanks also to Uppercase).

Books like air

The Artdog Week of Book Quotes

This is National Library Week. Instead of a Quote of the Week, I decided to dedicate this as the Week of Book Quotes, with help from the marvelous New York illustrator, Simini Blocker.

Even if you've seen Simini's wonderful illustrated quotes before, I hope you'll enjoy them again. And if you're not yet familiar with her work, I offer you the joy of discovery.

IMAGE: Many, many thanks to Simini Blocker's Tumblr for today's marvelous Quote-Image, featuring the words of Annie Dillard (thanks also to Uppercase).

The only thing you absolutely have to know

The Artdog Week of Book Quotes

This is National Library Week. Instead of a Quote of the Week, I decided to dedicate this as the Week of Book Quotes, with help from the marvelous New York illustrator, Simini Blocker.

Even if you've seen Simini's wonderful illustrated quotes before, I hope you'll enjoy them again. And if you're not yet familiar with her work, I offer you the joy of discovery.

IMAGE: Many, many thanks to Simini Blocker's Tumblr for today's marvelous Quote-Image, featuring the words of Albert Einstein (thanks also to Uppercase).

8 incredible environmentally friendly buildings

The Artdog Image of Interest

In honor of Earth Day, this month I'm exploring YouTube videos that show some amazing environmentally efficient architecture.

Today's video explores eight different buildings on the cutting edge of sustainability. Several even generate more energy than they can use.



VIDEO: Many thanks to All Things Human's YouTube Channel, for this video.

Trees on buildings: a growing trend

The Artdog Image of Interest

A major theme in environmentally sustainable architecture is the incorporation of plants into design. This requires some unusual logistics, but confers such research-established advantages as mitigating urban heat islands, carbon sequestration, and psychological benefits for people using the buildings.





In the small but burgeoning sub-genre of speculative fiction called Solarpunk, incorporation of plants into urban life and buildings (along with rivers and streams, solar and other sorts of sustainable power, and sustainably-sourced materials) is also a prominent element.

My own forthcoming novel, What's Bred in the Bone (to be released May 22, 2019) probably doesn't count as Solarpunk per se, because it's not set in our Solar system. But its setting, a habitat space station designed to be self-sustaining, and powered by light from the local system's day-star, is almost a character in its own right. I've drawn heavily on recent developments in architecture, intensive gardening, and related areas.

VIDEO: Many thanks to The B1M on YouTube for this excellent video survey of tree- and plant-enhanced architecture. My subscribers may notice I posted this a day earlier than normal for an Image of Interest; I have a special series running next week for Library Week that starts on Sunday, so I rearranged the posting dates just a bit. (Oh, and . . . sorry for the pun in the post's title. I couldn't resist.)

Investing in . . . WHAT?

The Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE: Many thanks to Phil Harding, an environmentally progressive influencer, for this quote graphic.