"the Great Reset" - so many of us are in need of it!

"the Great Reset." READ IT! Please? It it Richard Florida's new book and it is well worth reading and discussing. 


Just now, I am focused on what Florida, quoting Youssef Cassis, says about locales needing new talent to replenish the location's energy level and its capacity to innovate. This is why our financial centers, New York and London, while feeling some economic pain, are still making it and WILL remain WORLD financial centers.  They are diverse and because they are diverse in social, cultural and economic ways, these places are attractive to educated, young people with a lot of good energy.


Having lived in a one industry town (coal) for a long time, and having re-located to another, I identify. Lack of affordable housing options for young singles with money and young couples with jobs, lack of cultural amenities, lack of mixed use structures does nothing to quell the brain drain. Persistent brain drain is one of the key reasons so many of Pennsylvania's post-industrial cities and larger boroughs are unable to lure and to keep the talent we desperately need. 


I think this is what Florida is saying. If not, it is what I am saying, based on what I have seen and felt and by what I work with on a daily basis.  

How long does it take you to ...?

More than two years ... for this altered book ... and I am not certain the last spread is done. The book is recessed and mounted onto a hand-cut frame, which I painted. Why so long to finish, or almost finish? I don't have a definitive answer. I just know it happens. Not with all pieces, but with some. So, this "board book" sat on a shelf,its first spread partially completed, for a long time. Last week, I removed it from the shelf, paged through the prepared spreads (sanded and gessoed) and decided the time had come to work with the piece. The book, rescued from a dumpster abd re-purposed, contains original photography, handmade paper, rice paper, acrylic paints - layered and textured and various embellishments.