Litter River Otter

For our first official Asheville-based Repurposed Arts installation we have our Litter River Otter!

Repurposed Arts has joined forces with GreenWorks, a stellar environmental organization dedicated to cleaning up the environment, river water quality, youth development and all around environmental awesomeness!

We have started using the trash collected in GreenWorks' street and nature clean ups to be used towards art materials for this mural and future sculptures. We select, wash and sanitize, and color sort the trash before it is presented as art materials. The quantity of trash collected is outstanding, sending a real message home that this is a good route for us to take for future art projects. We hope to continue this relationship and keep this trash from the landfill by making these environmental art installations to educate the public on the issues with pollution in our area.

This mural was created with a summer school Enka Middle school group with YMCA

We washed and color sorted the trash and then worked from an under-painting. This was the first "impressionistic" trash mural I have created. We learned a lot of lessons in this pilot program on how to approach the construction of the mural, but the kids had a lot of fun and we were all super happy with the results!

Repurosed Koozies!

We are getting fancy with our beverages up in here!

Busting out some seriously cutesy koozies made of scrap fabric and leather handles and insulated with used plastic grocery bags.

Trash Flowers for Earth Day '15

As we have relocated to Asheville, here are some of the craft projects we have been involved with this past year...

Recycled Flowers were created for the 2015 Earth Day Festival hosted by the House of Balance at New Mountain on April 22nd...

Kids were invited to create 3 different flower options and pre-made flower bouquets were available for interested parties to design their own bouquets to take home.

Washed Ashore

Its been a while but its looking like I need to catch up on some past experiences, namely my 2013 summer artist residency with Washed Ashore.

This is one impacting organization with a heart of gold. This art is all about the environment. Bandon, OR is its base location and being a coastal Southern Oregon town it is in a heavy trash location for the tides bringing in debris from the Pacific ocean, especially after the tsunami in Japan.

Volunteers pick up trash and assemble panels that are later added onto the sculptures at their downtown gallery and community work space. Artists residents travel 8 miles south of the downtown to the main workspace. Here Simple trash washing and sorting stations are situated around Yurts used for workspace. Main volunteers assist with the bodies and bases of the installations while lead artist and founder, Angela Pozzie, creates the heads of all of the animals and monitors the works of her understudy interns.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash have already been collected from the shores within a 20 mile radius of Bandon. Not only has this trash been removed from nature but it has been kept from sitting in the landfills.

Here are a couple sculptures I assisted with during my artist residency with Washed Ashore in Bandon, OR.

Angela Pozzie is an incredible environmental artist and it was such an honor working alongside her.

Please check out their website at washedashore.org for more info!

This puffin sculpture was working on by quite a few artists but in this particular photo the body of the puffin was created by this gal...

Here is a massive Jellyfish sculpture. The body/base was done by yours truly.

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 Pozzi. You 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!