Dear listener,
I am happy to share Episode 57 of the SneakyArt Podcast, a conversation with John Muir Laws. Episode description and show notes below.
Listen to this episode on your choice of streaming service, or pick one below:
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Episode Description
San Francisco-based artist, naturalist and educator John Muir Laws talks about nature journaling and the many benefits of paying deep attention to our natural environment.
(00:13:50) Sketching in the wild.
(00:43:21) Ways to keep a nature journal.
(00:59:23) John’s lifelong obsession with field guides and nature conservancy.
(01:24:13) They read poems to each other. Aww.
(1:34:40) BREAK
(1:44:21) How to draw a bird.
(2:28:55) Nature stewardship, the role of the amateur, and the Wild Wonder Foundation.
📲 Follow John’s work on Instagram, visit his website, and learn more about the Wild Wonder Foundation.
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Links from the Episode
The Seek App to identify flowers and trees
The Merlin App to identify birdcalls
What is metacognition?
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
“Did that really happen?”, on the Hidden Brain Podcast
“Why 40% of Americans misremember their 9/11 experience” - Time Magazine
Doors of Perception, quote by William Blake
Ozymandias, poem by Percy B Shelley
The Summer Day, poem by Mary Oliver
Biography of Jim Morrison by Stephen Davis
Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
What is Nature Journaling? on the Wild Wonder Foundation Website
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds by John Muir Laws
The Zeigarnik Effect
Finding a Tree Library in Queen Elizabeth Park
Find (or start) a Nature Journal Club
The Nature Journal Connection series of videos for the classroom
Who are Tiny People? Nishant’s book proposal to publishers this year
Top quotes
(38:15) “Essentially, we're doing I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of, and taking all those things and putting them into our journals by any means necessary - using words, pictures, numbers, haikus, diagrams, maps, all these different sorts of things. And different people also have different strengths or preferences in how they would record something.” - John M Laws on teaching nature journaling.
(1:01:33) “I brought my nature journal with me and said, I like nature. I brought it out and they spent the whole time just looking through the book and asking me questions about like, like, oh, like what about this? Oh, this is cool!” - John M Laws describes getting the Horace Albright Scholarship to study nature conservancy.
(1:14:01) “To be honestly curious about things really changes our relationship with others, with nature, with people, with places… it becomes more and more difficult just to label and objectify people.” - John M Laws on avoiding labels and paying attention.
(1:33:51) “Tell me what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - John M Laws reads The Summer Day by Mary Oliver.
(2:18:22) “And it's very easy for people like to think like, what do you do with, with plants and trees? Oh, you go out and identify them. Once we identify them, then we have this sense of task completion. And so we stop paying attention.” - John M Laws on the Zeigarnik Effect and why knowing the names of things is unimportant.
(2:33:58) “That's my work, that's my mission. If I want to help people fall in love with this world, to be motivated to protect it and care for it, I need to teach them how to pay attention.” - John M Laws on inculcating nature stewardship.
Share your favourite moments and quotes from the episode in the comments!
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