{"id":850,"date":"2009-11-17T01:39:05","date_gmt":"2009-11-17T06:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/?p=850"},"modified":"2014-12-14T21:27:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T02:27:49","slug":"the-spirit-of-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/17\/the-spirit-of-weeds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit of Weeds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sidewalk

Sidewalk Reclaimed, 2004, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Weeds<\/a> are feral plants, the bane of gardeners and pavers.\u00a0 They thrive in the most inhospitable settings, taking root in the sooty dust that collects in cracks, taking over abandoned urban spaces with remarkable speed, breaking concrete and reclaiming mankind’s barrens for the kingdom of plants.<\/p>\n

\"Straight

Straight and Scribbly Lines, 2004, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Weeds

Weeds on Stairs, 2003, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Urban

Urban Copse, 2006, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Weeds may be glorious wildflowers or medicinal herbs, thistles, grasses or ivies.\u00a0 The kind that thrive in cities often seem to have forms that are ragged, jagged, scribbly, electric.\u00a0 They’re tough and prickly, like many urban dwellers.<\/p>\n

\"Street

Street Grass, 2008, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Grassburst,

Grassburst, 2007, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Demolition

Demolition Site, 2009, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

In our uncertain time, everything seems to be breaking down.\u00a0 Industrial civilization defines prosperity only as growth, but the limits to growth are looming everywhere.\u00a0 Population and consumption of resources have exploded.\u00a0 The atmosphere is running a fever.\u00a0 Our food and all our technology are built on reservoirs of oil that may be running dry.\u00a0 Our financial system is metastatic, a cancer growing on the real economy.\u00a0 Our political system is sclerotic, too beholden to moneyed interests to act for the common good.\u00a0 Bold change will not come from our leaders, but only from our forced adaptation to catastrophes.<\/p>\n

\"Greenpoint

Greenpoint Dandelions, 2003, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Such times will be hard for vast monocultures, and for hothouse flowers (and I do intend those as human metaphors).\u00a0 Such times call for weedy spirits, for those that can find their earthly grounding even in the decaying manufactured world, and who burst with green power, determined to reassert the forces of life.<\/p>\n

\"Storm

Storm Drain Greenery, 2004, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cobblestone

Cobblestone Grass, 2002, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Blue\/Yellow\/Green,

Blue\/Yellow\/Green, 2002, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Backlit

Backlit Weeds, 2002, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vacant

Vacant Lot, 2002, photo by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

I took all the photos in this post in New York City, over the last seven years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weeds are feral plants, the bane of gardeners and pavers.\u00a0 They thrive in the most inhospitable settings, taking root in the sooty dust that collects in cracks, taking over abandoned urban spaces with remarkable speed, breaking concrete and reclaiming mankind’s barrens for the kingdom of plants. Weeds may be glorious wildflowers or medicinal herbs, thistles, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[227,196],"tags":[61,82,51,29,28,27],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-philosophy","category-photography-urban-nature","tag-nature","tag-nyc","tag-philosophy","tag-seasons","tag-snapshots","tag-urban-landscape"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Spirit of Weeds - DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/17\/the-spirit-of-weeds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Spirit of Weeds - DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weeds are feral plants, the bane of gardeners and pavers.\u00a0 They thrive in the most inhospitable settings, taking root in the sooty dust that collects in cracks, taking over abandoned urban spaces with remarkable speed, breaking concrete and reclaiming mankind’s barrens for the kingdom of plants. 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