In the past few decades we have been made aware of our declining environmental status. Poor air & soil quality, over-crowding, decline of natural resource, and waste of resources just to name a few or our global ailments. Right. We are seeing the impact of our mistakes & misuses first hand. We are all in agreement that we must each make changes in our everyday life. Become more conscious of our bad & wasteful habits. No matter how big or small the action is, it’s still action, & we must act now.

And with this being said let’s start looking at alternatives & start thinking outside the box. In the art community many are taking to recycling, reuse, & reduction of waste headed to the landfill. Turning what at times can be very ugly garbage, are re-purposed into things of beauty. Saving items from trips to the landfill & giving it a new look and/or voice is a brave step for some artist. Reassuring us creativity & re-purposing is very much alive & well.

Example: I went to the most amazing show last weekend, it was an art exhibit, but not just any old art exhibit. This exhibit showcases many artist who used different mediums. The requirement for this recycled art show was to use fifty percent or more recycled materials. This recycled art show was inspiring & imaginative. The work ranged from collage, garments, paintings, jewelry, to sculpture. The creativity involved was breathe taking & wide ranged. A dress made up of shopping bags to a 500 pound, magnificent, bold, metal beast made of everything from; discarded auto parts to beverage containers. Another stunning piece was discarded laces & silks from a lingerie drawer of cast offs made into a wall hanging mural, 5 ft x 3 ft width, each fiber projected rich texture & color completely completely unique to itself… I was more than amazed to see what wonderfully, incredible, ingenious ideas these talented designers had created.

A statement made by one of the participating artist was profound to me. He said: “It is a joy for me to discover usable salvage thrown out forever by a previous owner. There is so much salvage to be found. As I build, I watch my creation become real. My vision, watching it take shape, is life blood for me. I feel so fulfilled giving things life again, a new purpose. There is nothing in this world that I would rather do. My life is art & without creating my art I would die!” And in his intense eyes, I could see he meant every word. His artwork comes from his soul & his work reflected that.

I talked to other patrons & the since of shock, amazement, & awe was in the air. Most repeated that there should be a higher awareness of what the art community is doing to encourage recycling & reuse as it relates to creativity & art. Many communities promote & hold shows to showcase artist & some even feature recycled art, but we need to do this more & to include virtually virtually everyone in our community. You can check your community schedule see if have any recycled shows and/exhibits in your area. If not see what you can do to get something started.

The use of recycled materials & waste can be a catalyst of change in the building resources, construction, & design field. If artist can see innovation in trash, whose to say we can not have other application for reusable waste? A lot of company are looking into recycled material application, but I think all should at every level of production & consumption. What do we have to lose? Our planet!
Let love our planet, reuse, recycled, renew!

In the trying is the doing, in the doing is success.