Ray is the president and founder of Interface, the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in the world and after a sort of “awakening” after reading and contemplating Paul Hawkin’s tome The Ecology of Commerce, Ray has managed to take his gigantic company towards a world class model of sustainability by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions in his operations by over 60% over the last 10 years.  This is no small feat for a company in carpet manufacturing which is one of the most toxic industries in the world, and a incredible example to those in business who say it cannot be done without curtailing profits drastically.

As Ray makes the case about his efforts to do so effectively:

”Sustainability “doesn’t cost, it pays” — in customer loyalty, employee spirit and hard cash…Interface sustainability efforts have saved the company more than $336 million since 1995.”

Not only has Ray been able to do this for his company, but because of his remarkable success and growing world wide reputation, Ray is recognized as one of the main leaders in the sustainability movement for industry and travels extensively around the world spreading the message of sustainability with CEO’s of major corporations from all industry areas of focus.

Ray has earned such a remarkable reputation that the New York Times ran an article on him called: Executive On A Mission: Saving The Planet.

In describing Rays incredibly successful efforts to turn his company around,

The New York Times had this to say:

“…in the process, Mr. Anderson has turned into perhaps the leading corporate evangelist for sustainability. He had a head start, he acknowledges, because he ran his company and controlled its voting stock. But he can make the case effectively, he said, because his Interface experience teaches that sustainability “doesn’t cost, it pays”

As a world-renowned advocate for sustainable industry, In 1997 Ray was named co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and then in 1999 he published his book:
Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise — The Interface Model.

Today Ray travels the world, spreading the consciousness of sustainability with a passion and intelligence rare in the corporate industrial world.

I invite you to listen to a remarkable man describe his work to uplift humanity and bring about a transformation of business and industry to become conscious co-workers towards the sustainability and balance that is so critical as we move into the next election cycle, and the next ecological cycle.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Jeffrey discusses the play of cause/effect in the events surrounding this disaster and the connections it has to The Democratic National Convention with Barack Obama and Joseph Biden and the role that Stuart Shepard from Focus On The Family has played.

An interesting thought piece for an interesting time.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Today is a fitting release for this show because Barack Obama just delivered his historic acceptance speech to become the official democratic candidate for President of The United States.  Obama’s remarkable speech was the culmination for the Democratic National Convention in Denver as he carefully outlined his policies and programs that he will pursue in his administration if elected. Before a huge crowd of democrats and well wishers, Obama drew rave reviews, with comparisons it to the electrifying charisma and content of John F. Kennedy’s acceptance speech in 1960.

In his speech, Barack Obama promised to seriously address the issue of global climate change and forever remove American dependence on fossil fuels as the mainstay of energy for this nation.

The Presidential Climate Action Project is tailored to reduce carbon emissions in specifically  measurable ways, and we hope that Barack Obama’s campaign will incorporate most if not all of it into his administration once he is elected. Only time will tell.

Senator Hart, who was a former presidential candidate himself has been working on this 100 day plan for the next administration to use in putting into effect a specific action plan to address global warming.

Other committee members on the Advisory Committee for the project include Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute, Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of Interface, Inc.; Dr. D. James Baker, former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Prof. David Orr, Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College; Scott Bernstein, Executive Director of the Center for Neighborhood Technology; Hunter Lovins, President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Inc.; Brian Castelli, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance to Save Energy; Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation; April Bucksbaum, Vice President of the Baum Foundation; and Chris Beem, Environmental Program Director of the Johnson Foundation.

This is a remarkable interview with one of the worlds great leaders whose efforts to create an environmentally sustainable human future is historical, timely and  guided by the highest of aspirations.  It is an honor to present it to you.

You Tube Video Clip of Gary Hart

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Time magazine featured  “The Global Warming Survival Guide, 51 Things You Can Do To Make A Difference” on it’s cover a while ago, and now with the presidential elections with Barack Obama and Joseph Biden in full swing against John McCain and his unannounced vice presidential candidate, it will be interesting to see how both the Republican and Democratic party’s address the issues of climate change, and whether they follow through with realistic plans to address it.

With the continued attention that Al Gore has gotten from his film An Inconvenient Truth, even George Bush has conceded that he too is taking global warming seriously.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Offering an historical perspective from 1981 through today, this three-part podcast covers many aspects about the five dimensional cosmology of Omni Art and how Omni Art followed the end of the Pop Art era.

Listen to Jeffrey recount his many stories about Madonna , Andy Warhol, Keith Haring,

Tama Janowitz, Holly Hunter, Liz Torres , John Larroquette, Hapi Phace , Lady Bunny , Sting, Barney’s New York, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Los Angeles Theater Center,

The Rolling Stone, The Pyramid Club, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, The National Gallery of Art, The National Cathedral, The Boulder Planetarium, Gunston Hall in Virginia , The Tunnel nightclub, St Patrick’s Cathedral, The New York Art scene in the late 1980’s and much more.

These two photo’s are taken from the street installation in front of the National Gallery of Art with Curator Trish Waters and the National Cathedral both in Washington D.C.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Offering an historical perspective from 1981 through today, this three-part podcast covers many aspects about the five dimensional cosmology of Omni Art and how Omni Art followed the end of the Pop Art era.

Listen to Jeffrey recount his many stories about Madonna , Andy Warhol, Keith Haring,

Tama Janowitz, Holly Hunter, Liz Torres , John Larroquette, Hapi Phace , Lady Bunny , Sting, Barney’s New York, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Los Angeles Theater Center,

The Rolling Stone, The Pyramid Club, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, The National Gallery of Art, The National Cathedral, The Boulder Planetarium, Gunston Hall in Virginia , The Tunnel nightclub, St Patrick’s Cathedral, The New York Art scene in the late 1980’s and much more.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

These two photo’s are taken from the street installation in front of the National Gallery of Art with Curator Trish Waters and the National Cathedral both in Washington D.C.

Offering an historical perspective from 1981 through today, this three-part podcast covers many aspects about the five dimensional cosmology of Omni Art and how Omni Art followed the end of the Pop Art era.

Listen to Jeffrey recount his many stories about Madonna , Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Tama Janowitz, Holly Hunter, Liz Torres, , John Larroquette, Hapi Phace , Lady Bunny , Sting, Barney’s New York, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Los Angeles Theater Center, The Rolling Stone, The Pyramid Club, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, The National Gallery of Art, The National Cathedral, The Boulder Planetarium, Gunston Hall in Virginia , The Tunnel nightclub, St Patrick’s Cathedral, The New York Art scene in the late 1980’s and much more.

The Omni Art Salon theme music When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

These two photo’s are taken from the street installation in front of the National Gallery of Art with Curator Trish Waters and the National Cathedral both in Washington D.C.

Retiring from the dance world in 1986 at the Santa Fe Opera House, David immediately moved into computers becoming an expert in computer-based training and winning a national award for CBT project design in 1992. David has led projects that included NASA’s International Space Station, Top Gun School, NYNEX, Northern Telecom, American Airlines, and Halliburton.

For 18 years, David worked with Persons With AIDS in a therapeutic capacity and in 1988 founded the AIDS Response Holistic Health Program in San Diego, now the largest program of its kind in the country. He currently ghost writes books and has 7 books of his own in progress. He is President of the Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center Board and Endowment Fund Chair.

David speaks about his experiences in world of dance in New York and how he overcame paralysis against all the predictions of the doctors who consulted him. It is a fascinating recounting of a miraculous experience and what is possible when one focuses with determination and discipline to overcome even the most impossible odds.

The Omni Art Salon theme music, When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

After Alice was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2000, and survived the long ordeal, she wanted to give back to others. Dragonfly’s Delights was first born to originally create beautiful baskets filled with gifts aimed at comforting, soothing, and delighting the woman who have just found out they have breast cancer.

In 2007 Alice was once again dealing with another round of cancer treatments that is still ongoing and so In December of that year, Alice and her husband, Edgard, owner of Stepbridge Studios, New Mexico’s leading recording studio for music and audio post production, decided to rebirth Dragonfly’s Delights with a new focus & mission.

Dragonfly’s Delights now provides stories, quotes, inspiration & art for those who either have cancer - Messages of Hope, and for those who are giving support to someone with cancer, Messages of Cope. In this way Dragonfly’s Delights offer Messages of Hope and Cope when dealing with the complications of living through cancer.

Alice is now back working in her art studio, creating paintings, mail art and digital art, while still undergoing treatment. Her paintings are featured on every page of Dragonfly’s Delights web site as Alice is busy creating and living with joy and gratitude. She is currently busy with Dianne McKenzie creating a daily affirmation card deck, note cards, and a daily journal and a book featuring Alice’s art work with wonderful Messages of Hope & Cope. There are also plans for audio recordings and music for those affected by Cancer and it’s many challenges.

Dragonfly’s Delights is now gathering positive, hopeful messages: stories, quotes, inspiration & art for those who either have cancer, Message of Hope, or for those who are offering support for someone with cancer, Messages of Cope.

Through these shared expressions on the Dragonfly’s Delights web site, Alice and Edgard want to inspire & illuminate those who are touched by living with cancer: to encourage and support them to live a meaningful life to the fullest, with courage, strength and determination. and to inspire them to live a life full of joy, gratitude, hope and well-being.

I think you will find my conversation with Alice inspirational and uplifting as we explore her path and story that reveals what it really takes to change the course of one’s path when confronting what appear to be insurmountable odds.

The Omni Art Salon theme music, When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Bill Siegal, owner and founder of the William Siegal Gallery in Santa Fe.

For over thirty years Bill Siegal has been assembling the world’s largest collection of fine ancient and antique Andean textiles dating from 750 BC to the 19th Century. His gallery also exhibits ceremonial objects and artifacts from Meso and South American Cultures, as well as objects from China’s Han and Tang Dynasties and Southeast Asia. Distinguished African and Indonesian textiles are also prominently featured.

The Gallery opened its new 5,000 square foot exhibition space in May of 2007, in which antiquities are now hung side by side with the works of outstanding contemporary artists, conveying sublime and timeless trans-cultural aesthetics.

The gallery is located in Santa Fe’s newly revitalized Railyard District, which is rapidly becoming the central locus of Santa Fe’s contemporary art scene.

In June, Lea Feinstein of ART NEWS said this about the William Siegal Gallery:

“With an informed eye, William Siegal has mixed contemporary art with antique textiles and ancient sculptural artifacts in a way that enriches both. In placing the old and new side by side, Siegal took them out of historical context and underscored their graphic analogies.”

Bill first became involved in textiles in 1971 working with the molas of the Cuna Indians of Panama. In 1974, he made his first trip to Bolivia in search of other textile art forms. He returned to La Paz, Sucre, Cochabamba, and Potosi several times in 1975. The weavings he found were of such technical excellence and beauty, he moved permanently to La Paz to study and collect on a full time basis.

By 1977, he was making long journeys throughout the 13,000 ft. high Altiplano with his associates. Using La Paz as a base, they traveled from one village to another buying what was available while learning as much as possible about this incredible and little-known art form. He visited every corner of the Altiplano over the next ten years. In 1988, Bill returned to the U.S. where he continued to study the ceremonial textiles of the Aymara.

In May, The Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center produced a monologue series called The Testosterone Testimonials, which was similar to The famed Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

In this series of monologues however, the testimonials, as they are called, are self- written by the presenters themselves who were a diverse collection of community leaders from Santa Fe talking about what it means to be a man. The evening presentation was such a smash success that people have not stopped talking about it.

Bill Siegal was one of those presenters and gave a remarkable performance of his personal story. I enjoyed his presentation so much that I asked him if he would come on the Salon and perform it for us. He agreed, and so we are fortunate today to be able to hear Bills monologue from that evening as an introduction to the marvelous conversation that follows.

The Omni Art Salon theme music, When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth

Bill Siegal, owner and founder of the William Siegal Gallery in Santa Fe.

For over thirty years Bill Siegal has been assembling the world’s largest collection of fine ancient and antique Andean textiles dating from 750 BC to the 19th Century. His gallery also exhibits ceremonial objects and artifacts from Meso and South American Cultures, as well as objects from China’s Han and Tang Dynasties and Southeast Asia. Distinguished African and Indonesian textiles are also prominently featured.

The Gallery opened its new 5,000 square foot exhibition space in May of 2007, in which antiquities are now hung side by side with the works of outstanding contemporary artists, conveying sublime and timeless trans-cultural aesthetics.

The gallery is located in Santa Fe’s newly revitalized Railyard District, which is rapidly becoming the central locus of Santa Fe’s contemporary art scene.

In June, Lea Feinstein of ART NEWS said this about the William Siegal Gallery:

“With an informed eye, William Siegal has mixed contemporary art with antique textiles and ancient sculptural artifacts in a way that enriches both. In placing the old and new side by side, Siegal took them out of historical context and underscored their graphic analogies.”

Bill first became involved in textiles in 1971 working with the molas of the Cuna Indians of Panama. In 1974, he made his first trip to Bolivia in search of other textile art forms. He returned to La Paz, Sucre, Cochabamba, and Potosi several times in 1975. The weavings he found were of such technical excellence and beauty, he moved permanently to La Paz to study and collect on a full time basis.

By 1977, he was making long journeys throughout the 13,000 ft. high Altiplano with his associates. Using La Paz as a base, they traveled from one village to another buying what was available while learning as much as possible about this incredible and little-known art form. He visited every corner of the Altiplano over the next ten years. In 1988, Bill returned to the U.S. where he continued to study the ceremonial textiles of the Aymara.

In May, The Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center produced a monologue series called The Testosterone Testimonials, which was similar to The famed Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

In this series of monologues however, the testimonials, as they are called, are self- written by the presenters themselves who were a diverse collection of community leaders from Santa Fe talking about what it means to be a man. The evening presentation was such a smash success that people have not stopped talking about it.

Bill Siegal was one of those presenters and gave a remarkable performance of his personal story. I enjoyed his presentation so much that I asked him if he would come on the Salon and perform it for us. He agreed, and so we are fortunate today to be able to hear Bills monologue from that evening as an introduction to the marvelous conversation that follows.

The Omni Art Salon theme music, When Angels Smile, is provided courtesy of Back To Earth