Terri Hughes-Oelrich

My contributions to the What’s Next For Earth project have been inspired by not only the Think Resilience online course but also my current and past artworks. Listening to podcasts such as How to Save a Planet, Time Sensitive and At a Distance, and the book Braiding Sweetgrass have been instrumental in framing my recent projects. I typically use humor and incorporate a futurist perspective in my art.

My Chickens

photograph
2023

For the "What's Next For Earth" call, I thought about my chickens. It's cheaper to buy organic free-range eggs in the store than to raise chickens. That's economic efficiency. But currently, when a shortage of eggs due to bird flu happens, my chickens start laying more as the days get longer. I can walk in the backyard and find the latest spot where they lay their eggs. On the other hand, balance is key. Growing cocoa trees and making chocolate will not work so easily in my backyard. And, I am so lucky to even have a backyard to do this.

"Economic efficiency tends to lead to more specialization: individuals specialize according to their skills, and regions specialize according to their relative abundance of resources (such as minerals, water, or energy). Efficiency also leads to economic stratification, both within regions (because some professions are more highly rewarded than others) and across regions (as manufacturing moves to places with lower labor costs)."
Richard Heinberg, “How globalization undermines resilience“, from the Think Resilience course.
2023
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Electrification, Efficiency, & Equity

The artists' team: Lori Lipsman, Fedella Lizeth, Yvette Dibos, Sasha Sanudo, and Terri Hughes-Oelrich.
Gallery Art Produce, San Diego, California, 2023.

Electrification, Equity, & Efficiency invites conversation, interaction and education around local electrification and energy efficiency. The project includes a gallery installation and a series of events and lectures to jumpstart our community through what we hope will be a just transition.

Six Foundations of Building Community Resilience video provoked many thoughts but this quote captivated me the most, “In systems thinking we choose from among many possible perspectives, and accept that we can’t know everything we might want to know… And this is especially important when we are talking about human communities, where there are always diverse views and interests.”
2022
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

My Last Fork Project

Community project

60 people at San Diego City College participated in the event on October 12th, 2022 by eating a piece of cake with their last single-use plastic fork. Then, they cleaned and hammered their fork onto their plaque to take home. A beautiful community of diversity representing our college participated. A young student said, "This will remind me every day not to use plastic utensils."

Project by Terri Hughes-Oelrich Art project documented through photos by Gabriela Ponce Featured participant: Anna Delgado.
2022
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Just Transition

digital art
2022

As our society transitions from oil to green energy, how will the power grid change? Will these beautiful wooden poles in my neighborhood be gone underground, will they get bigger, or will they be replaced by steel? While increasing green energy, how can we justly transition with the oil industry being transformed into power storage or other beneficial energy production? It's exciting to think about how we can be resilient.
2022
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Terri Hugues Oelrich – Dirt, Soil, Clay, Sand

photomontage, photos Terri Hughes-Oelrich

There's something so special about walking on dirt that makes me feel closer to nature and happier. While walking on the earth, I find all sorts of interesting things. Each of these things makes me think, wonder, and question more complicated systems. I will keep walking.
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Don’t get your fingers dirty!

digital photo

One day I found this on the street near my house. It took me some time to figure out what its use is. One end was open and the colors told me it was a children’s toys. It’s not a beautiful piece of trash, but I added it to my plastic collection. When I figured out that it holds chalk to probably draw on the streets, it made me sad. Not only can kids not get chalk on their fingers, but someone actually spent their time creating this chalk holder and design the ugly pattern. After studying plastic more closely last year, many lids and caps have extra plastic for aesthetics reasons. Beauty and function have long interested me, and this adds to the reasons we love plastic so much and hate it.
2021
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Make-Buy

stop motion of photograph

2021
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Gusher

digital image
6″ x 6″

The oil wells have been disappearing from my childhood home, Huntington Beach, for the past 50 years. I watched the derrick over my back fence meditatively, not knowing what it stood for. I wish I could have seen a gusher too.
2021
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Threatened Species in British Columbia Coast

Collage 11″ x 17″

2021
  • Terri Hughes-Oelrich

Articles from the MAHB

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