Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Paper Flower Fields Mural at the 2012 Carlsbad Art Splash

After seeing an article in the North County Times showcasing the "Recycled Avocado Tree," Joni Miringoff of the Carlsbad Flower Fields in Northern San Diego County contacted me about this year's Art Slash, and if I could possibly do a project for the children to participate on during the festival.

After a bit of brainstorming the idea for the paper flower mural of the Carlsbad Flower Fields was born!

The Flower Fields are the most breathtaking landscape of multi-colored ranunculus. When in season, the grounds are a rainbow of color that can be seen all the way from the freeway. They take great pride in educating children on conservation and offer a large variety of activities for children during the months they are open.

Staying true to my recycled nature, I wanted to do some sort of mural of the Flower Fields that would last all through the year, but including a recycled activity that could spark children and adult's creativity for reusing everyday household items to make art.

I decided on using recycled paper to create rolled paper flowers that could be attached to the mural that closely resemble the Flower Field's ranunculus. After presenting the idea to the board, everyone loved it and promised to begin saving their newspapers and magazines for the mural.

Here are a few photos of the mural's progress.


Here we are on day 1 with my lovely little helper Brigitte, preparing the paper into color-sorted bins so that the kids could sift through and pick their favorite magazine or card-stock pages. 

As you can see, I constructed the mural out of 4 4'x8' sheets of particle board, attached together with door hinges. The mural is supported by triangular braces and covered in chicken wire so that the wire "stems" of the paper flowers could be easily attached to the mural. 








We all had a great time making flowers together. Both kids and parents participated and took home a fun lesson that can easily be done at home. There's nothing like a bouquet of flowers that will never wilt and don't cost a penny!


Here is the mural after day 2, just before breaking down to be taken to its new home! Though the board was not completely covered, the Flower Fields has decided to keep the mural on display at the flower fields and during the flower season the mural will be used as a fun activity for kids to continue adding flowers to until it is as full as the Flower Fields themselves!



The Tidal Wave of Trash Finds a New Home!

The Huntington Beach Sufrider Foundation chapter has given the Tidal Wave of Trash to the Chula Vista Nature Center! It has joined the traveling exhibiton "Washed Ashore" with Oregon-native artist, Angela Haseltine PozziYou can visit the wave at 1000 Gunpowder Point Drive in Chula Vista, San Diego from 10 am to 5 pm daily. Here are a couple photos of the wave in just the perfect setting for spreading the good word on helping fight pollution as an educational art piece, enjoy!




The Avocado Tree Spreads Roots at the Fallbrook School of the Arts

The "Recycled Avocado Tree" has found its home at the Fallbrook School of the Arts. Here are a couple photos of its new stage area where it is sure to be enjoyed by many onlookers for as long as it lasts in the great outdoors!



Avocado Festival Photos

I wanted to go ahead and throw in a couple more pics of the festival. These kids are just too cute to resist including them! I think these projects have the greatest impact on me when I see the parents and their kids working together to make art, even if its just to decorate a leaf to add to a tree. Giving people a free and fun art activity to work on together not only brings families together, but it brings the community together. This was a truly magical day in my short career as a recycled artist bringing art projects to the community.