Manzanita News: Reverse Income Housing and The World After Us

A small exhibit of oil paintings, graphite concepts and ink drawings. July 1 thru 31 at Manzanita News and Espresso, Manzanita, Oregon

This exhibit is about a distant future, beyond several generations, and the remnants we leave behind. The work is inspired by and illustrates the surreal nature of the current affordable housing crisis in the US and the wasted resources of our time. In two parts, the work explores uncommon compositions of our common life – Reverse Income Housing and The World After Us.

Today,

·         Over one third of Americans, 103 million of 342.6 million, rent in 44 million households. PEW Research Center

·         Nearly half of US renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. PEW Research Center

·         About half of renting households are cost burdened. PEW Research Center

·         US ranks among the worst, with highest share of renters spending 50+ percent of income on housing, worse than Spain, UK and Australia. NLIHC

·         Recent estimates show the U.S. homeless population at roughly 745,000 to 771,000 individuals on a given night. H.U.D

Within the remnants of the unhoused, are examples of reverse income housing where surreal habitats are cobbled together from unrealized vacations.

 The World After Us, through drawings and paintings illustrate remnants of humanity, or what we leave behind in a time after human extinction. Our Anthropocene Epoch describes the era in which human activity has become the dominant influence on the Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and bio-geophysical processes. Based on current science, ignored pathogens, consumption, and disregard for signs of environmental decline, the American melting pot continues to boil and we are the frogs.

One example is ground level air that becomes unbreathable (Ozone build up), pushing industry and habitation higher and higher until it reaches the atmospheric ceiling where humanity falls. Human behavior adapts to reach for breathability. Manufacturing and consumption behavior neglects necessary changes to save humanity suffering irreversible, ever-decreasing air supply. 

Beyond traditional media, brushes, pencils, ink and paper, the tools that help me create come in three forms. First, my physical environment provides fuel for my imagination. Forest paths, long expanses of beach, spindrift, and an ever-changing sky, provide a robust tool for color selection and composition. The calming coastal environment clears my head. On hikes, I make lots of photographs for resource files. These are tools to change the beat if I become stuck.

Second, I keep sketchbooks. They are wonderful tools for quickly getting down ideas before they evaporate. I draw, paint, tape images or doodles and write my ideation. I like unruly sketchbooks.

 Third, art is an exploration and invention of stories, imagined places and atmospheres. Therefore, my tools are whatever fits my mood or my artistic needs. Art, for me, is meditation, a continuum, and a flow of ideas, expressions and interpretations of uncommon landscapes, places and feelings.

Art is a lifetime journey of discovery and is a personal endeavor. Often artists collaborate to achieve a common goal and common work. But for individual artists, and for coastal artists in particular, preferred tools and explorations are a personal choice. Growing up with Walt Disney characters and cartoons dancing around in my head, I always thought that it was all about illustration. But later in life I found that Disney was more about the story than the illustrations he and his team brought to life on the big screen. So, I would recommend identifying a storyline. It can always change, but like with Disney, the story can become the armature upon which to hang exciting images of the mind. Lloyd Lindley II, lloyd_lindley_ii @instagram, Lloydlindley.com‍ ‍