Pica (disorder)

In the very beginning of my time at EF New York we got the assignment to bring current news to the class every morning. I still remember one of it, that I once presented: It was an article about a young girl from England, who nearly died because she ate a light bulb.
She suffers from a disorder called "Pica", which is characterized by an appetite on non-nutrive things like stones, batteries, iron or earth. There are different kinds of this disorder - so that it can result from a cultural tradition as well as an acquired taste or a neurological mechanism. In cases of an intoxication this mental disease might also lead to an impairment of the physical development or surgical emergencies. Pica has been linked to mentally disabled people as well as stressors such as maternal deprivation, family issues, parental neglect, pregnancy and poverty. It is particularly seen in women and children, especially pregnant women, young children and such with a developmental disability like Autism.

Other causes for Pica can be mineral deficiencies, whereby the eaten substances often contain that mineral which that individual is deficient. Of course this is still related to a mental disorder, as it is not normal to get body-needed minerals from things like pure iron or zinc. Because of these circumstances blood tests are sometimes done to see if the patient potentially suffering from Pica has a lower nutrient level of iron and zinc, which can be one indicator for the syndrome.

The treatments vary from patient to patient, depending on the cause for the disease and the person's nature. Besides the treating of mineral deficiencies the basic approach is mostly a psychosocial therapy which can include environmental and family-guiding aspects.

The picture shows the stomach content of  a psychiatric inpatient with Pica.

Elephants

As my favorite animals are elephants, I decided to write this blog about them.
Even if they are not one of the official "endangered species", they are still hunted for their ivory in some regions of the world.
Elephants had been hunted for their ivory for decades, and as the shrinking number of elephants shows, they were pretty successful:
In 1976 the elephant population in South Africa still counted 1 300 000 animals, in 1989 there were only 620 000 left - today, South Africa has 8 840 elephants, of which 7 470 are found in the Kruger National Park.
Ivory has been valued by men since the Stone Age, where it has been used for jewelry and tools - in our days now it's still used to produce jewelry (even if people already disapprove of your wearing it in most parts of Europe), but there have also been articles like pianos keys or billiard balls made of it. Currently Japan is the biggest user of worked ivory.
With a rapid rise in demand for ivory, the price and especially the amount of illegal traded ivory increased drastically: From $60/kg in 1979 it has risen to $300/kg within 10 years - and this development is still ongoing as hunting elephants has gotten forbidden in more and more countries over the years. But still there are not many controlling institutions and so especially elephants outside of National Parks can be hunted without punishment.

One organization that specialized on saving elephants is "Save the Elephants: A non-profit organization with its head quarter in London, England, that operates in five regions in Africa: South Africa, Mali, Kenya, Gabon and Congo. To protect and help the elephants they stated the "four pillars of endeavor":
1. Research and Conservation: They try to find out as much as possible about the life and behavior of elephants through observation and GPS-tracking. Like this they can look on problems through a "elephants perspective", and find better and more effective solutions.
2. Protection: They assist wildlife departments in their fight against ivory traders and poachers. They also developed an early warning system for poaching which is working through monitoring and GPS-tracking.
3. Grassroot Education: They also try to involve local people to get into conversation with them. On the one hand because these people know the best about the elephants habits as they share their land with them - and on the other hand to make them aware of the bad situation of the elephants.
4. Global Communitcation: They try to give people world wide an understanding of what fascinating creatures elephants are, and that they have a high level of consciousness and intelligence. They try to reach this through films publications, a computerized elephant library, a news service and their website.

Personal items to sale

old not working laptop: 20 $

old magazines: 1 $ each, 5 for 3$

snowsuit: 7 $

rabbit hutch: 20 $

mp3 player: 8 $

Art events in Manhattan

As my teacher told us about a new exhibition in the Metropolian Museum of Art, I checked it out and found this:

Since November first they got a new gallery about islamic art: Art of the arabic lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. As I am highly interested in islamic art I will go to visit the exhibition this sunday with my roommate who I was able to convince to come with me. I've already been to one exhibition of this kind of art in Berlin one year ago and I was totally impressed by it so that I'm totally curious about the gallery in the Metropolitan now!
I'm really interested in the islamic kind of art as it represents a great sense of aesthetic for me and I am really attracted to the culture it has its seeds in. Furthermore it appears in so many forms like architectural styles, old everyday items, Koran versions with beautiful ornaments and illustrations and many more!

Concerning this exhibition there will be an event on November 9  from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. where there is a guided tour through the gallery with the art of the arab lands, which could be really interesting to join. Unfortunately I have a long day in school on wednesdays - I've got classes until 5.20 p.m. so that I probably won't attend it.

Art

When starting my research on an artist I would like to present, I entered "artist abstract" into Google - and this is what came out of it:

http://abstractartist.com/

I'm really into that site from the first moment I opened it! It gives a really good overview over all different types of abstract art during showing you the different artists with their works.

As it is really difficult for me to decide which of the artists I like the best, I decided just to present several one shortly with my favorite pictures of them.

The first one I was really impressed by is Hilary Winfield:

She's an artist originally from Washington, North Carolina, who lives now in Portland, Oregon, for 10 years. She get's her inspiration from the elements of the environment and from nature itself. Her pictures really remind me of Mark Rothko's work as she got many pictures with horizontal block stripes in different colors like these ones:

another artist a found who does similar drawings is Erin Ashley. He also get's inspired by nature as you see in this quotation:

"I love how mother nature has this way to age things in the most wonderful ways, like the colors of a flower pot that has been left outside in the elements for years or an old door that shows distress, and the beauty that comes through behind every layer. I begin my work without any preconceived ideas at all what the finished work is going to look like. I like the idea of each painting being a journey, ending at a beautiful destination. My paintings are made using many layers of texture and paint. Sometimes I find myself using just my hands to create a painting while other times using an array of different untraditional tools."

For me this quotation is really interesting because he also talks about his way of working - and as I draw paintings myself at home I  can identify with what he says and love his metaphor about each painting being a journey.

These are some of his paintings, they are all done in the same style but still they are all unique and seem to tell different stories and emotions:

His style is a little less linear than the one of Winfield and the transition between the colors is softer, while in the whole Winfileds paintings are a little more rough.

I didn't know about his art but I really have to say that I'm totally in to his work, this assignment really made me having one new favorite artist. For this reason I will post some more of his pictures, like these ones:

If there was any opportunity for me to paint here I would start immediately, but I think I will have to wait until I get back home. But then I'm sure I will paint a lot as I am so inspired by Ashley's style and technique now!