Harder Than It Looks!

To finish off our project, we attempted to create our own piece of art, using only materials that had once been discarded. We met in Melinda’s apartment and we started by walking down the hall to the recycling room. After digging around a little bit, pretending to be real dumpster divers (it was quite the sight), we found some things we thought would be useful to our final art project. The only things that we did not find in the trash were the scissors, glue, sharpies and tape. The rest of it was trash, which was now about to become treasure! We decided to make something related to nature, because that is a big part of our Environment and Literature class. We struggled for a bit, our biggest challenge was to get the flower to stand up straight. But after half a roll of tape, we finally made it. The feeling of triumph welled inside us as we finally got that darn thing to stand straight. We painted the beads black and yellow and made them into a bee. Then we constructed wings out of black tape and attached it all on a pipe cleaner in order to make it appear the bee was actually flying. After learning about all the amazing artists who make sustainable art we have newfound respect for them. Making our own piece of art was harder than we had imagined, and as you can see not even close to being as beautiful. Even so, this whole project has been a joy to work with and even though we don’t have the same talent as all the artists, we think we get an A for effort.

/Melinda & Blair

It's Been Real, It's Been Fun, It's Been Real Fun

            Today marks the end of a fruitful journey, or maybe it is just the beginning.  Along the way we met many wonderful, inspirational people, learned about progressive organizations and discovered the true meaning of recycling.  In today’s world, resources are becoming less and less abundant and it is vital that we find alternate means of energy and supplies, and we found that one of the most progressive strains of this movement was artwork that uses recycled materials.  Art supplies are expensive to purchase and sometimes detrimental to the environment to create, but by using materials that have already served another purpose, artists are saving the environment one brush stroke at a time and making a serious statement about consumerism. There is something to be said about creating something that is beautiful from things that have been discarded and labeled unusable and unappealing by others.  In truth, nothing is done serving a purpose, and can be given new life, another chapter in its existence.  Artists like Val Britton and Eric Otto have taught us this, and we fully intend to apply this philosophy to every aspect in our lives because not only is it good for the environment, it is good for the soul.  We encourage all of you to think more in the “Rebuild” paradigm because it can truly make a difference in our consumerism and our lives.  This project has been a joy to work on, and we are grateful to have learned to see the world in a new light and train our eyes to see the beauty in everything.  Tomorrow we are going to attempt to make our own recycled art from things we found in our own trashcans. Although it won’t be as spectacular as the work you have seen in this blog, it is a step in the right direction and a chance for us to apply our newfound knowledge.  Thank you for going on this journey with us, and we sincerely hope that we have inspired some of you to see the beauty in the trash.  Over and out, Melinda & Blair.

Zachary Scholz

Zachary Scholz is an artist who also participated in the AIR program at Recology.  His art has a very modern and simple aesthetic which is achieved through the use of recognizable materials. Check more of his work out at: http://zacharyscholz.com/home.html

Enjoy! /Melinda & Blair

Materials: Cotton, thread, batting

Materials: Concrete blocks, mirror

Materials: Milk Crates, mirror

Daily Message

This is our message to you today, in one simple word: Rebuild. Simple enough, right? At times it is easier to live by the rules that this two-syllable word embodies, but it is important that we keep this concept in the front of our minds, especially when it comes to recycling, reducing and reusing.  So go ahead and rebuild something today, whether it is something drastic or simple, at least you are on the right track.
/Blair & Melinda

Photo: More of Eric Otto's inspirational work

Recology: A Philosopy

Check out Recology's official video at this link:


http://www.sunsetscavenger.com/recologists_movie.htm


It's more than a company, it's a philosophy and way of life.


/Blair & Melinda

Where the Magic Happens

Recology San Francisco is home to the Artists in Residence Program, the place where the magic happens. If you ever wondered where all your cans, bottles, tissues, old newspapers, unwanted junk mail and rotten food end up, wonder no more, it all goes straight to Recology, a huge dump and recycle center, to be separated, processed and turned once again into usable materials.  The mecca of all things trash was the perfect venue to foster innovative artists who are interested in bettering the environment, and thus the Artists in Residence Program was created in 1990 (Recology).  The AIR program hosts different artists every year and provides the artists with a huge studio space and all the materials they will need to turn “trash into treasures” (Recology).  The mission of the program is to “use art to inspire people to recycle more and conserve natural resources”, which is essential in the fight against consumerism (Recology).  One of the most exciting aspects of AIR is the exhibition of the artwork at the end of the artists’ stay, which is highly revered in the art community.  AIR is a great opportunity for artists to come and work and have access to virtually unlimited resources and inspiration, while teaching the world about how to use what we already have instead of consuming more.


/Melinda & Blair

Works cited:

"About the Recology Artist In Residence Program." Recology SF  Web. 09 Dec. 2010. 
<http://sunsetscavenger.com/AIR/>.

Val Britton

Val Britton was born in Livingston, NJ but is now a San Francisco resident. She has exhibitions all over the States; New York, Wyoming and San Francisco to only name a few. Britton makes immersive-collaged drawings, drawn on the language of maps, and is her way of putting together the pieces of her past. This body of extraordinary work is a reflection of longing to connect to her father who used to be a truck-driver, who travelled all around the States transporting industrial machinery. By creating the routes that her father often drove, she is dealing with the lost parts of her childhood. Britton makes collages by using pieces of paper put together in a spectacular way. She draws on it, makes detailed symbols and stains it all with salty washes of ink. Her creativity and sense of fine details are all clearly visible in her pieces of stunning art. She does not know how her work is going to help her stitch her past together, but says that it “compels me to put myself in an explorative mode, employing the abstract space of the map to create a pliable structure for intuition, improvisation and chance”. By making her art she has become her own therapist, navigating the blurriness from her past by putting it together in her own creative way. Putting all the small pieces of paper together and making into something bigger is Britton’s way creating “closeness and depth of value”. The maps symbolize the unknown, a search for and a record of where we have been in the past.

Britton is one out of many artists that has been part of The Artist In Residence Program at Recology San Francisco. The program encourages local artists to learn more about recycling as well as provide them with materials and a workspace. All of this is provided at the Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center.

More information about the Artist In Residence Program is coming shortly!


/Blair & Melinda

Some of Val Britton's amazing pieces

Work Cited:

Britton, Val. "Val Britton." Val Britton. Flickr, 2010. Web. 9 Dec 2010. <http://www.valbritton.com/>.