"Canoe" 2008
One of my favorite indoor places in the world is Barnes and Noble. No I am not getting paid to talk them up or anything, but man, do I have fun there! This week's trip led me to bring a pile of 15 books and magazines to my table at the coffee shop area, but of course I only got to 2 of them... I will share one with you this time:
In an effort to live a greener life our family has made several adjustments; you know, the stuff you hear about everywhere like recycling your trash, turning off lights, unplugging appliances, not flushing when you pee (this one is not yet under full compliance, yuk!!) organic gardening, safe cleaning supplies, green shopping bags, etc;
http://www.epa.gov/ to get started, also, links for kids of all ages to learn about environment awareness:)
(we have not yet changed all of our light bulbs to energy efficient ones, or put together a compost bin, but we'll get to that...) There is SO MUCH more we can do, eventually, but unless someone wants to donate to the "fund for greening my entire house" we are gonna have to take baby steps... And that's cool, all good!
However, I am not sure that my role as an artist and this environmental consciousness had made a true connection yet. Sure, living a frugal lifestyle almost forces you to reuse and recycle, I rarely ever have to buy art supplies, and just kind'a deal with what I have around the basement. But to make a statement towards environmental awareness through art? Now that's some good stuff... So, this book I came across is called "Green Guide for Artists- Nontoxic Recipes, green art ideas & Resources for the Eco-Conscious Artist" by author Karen Mitchel.
So fun! Full of ideas, and ways to create responsibly, beautifully made and wonderfully informative. For experienced painters, it provides them an opportunity to learn about substituting toxic materials such as adhesives, canvas and paint for better, greener alternatives. For me, (NOT an experienced painter), it just sort of revived the idea of using found objects, sharing supplies, and continuing to pursue a mixed media avenue in my own work.
This beautiful quote by William Blake is in one of the first pages...
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy, is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity...and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
Locally, here are some places to check out:
http://www.artsandscraps.org/ (Detroit)
http://www.scrapbox.org/ (Ann Arbor)
Possible trips with the kiddos
http://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/exhibits/recycle.html at the Boston Children's Museum
http://www.wonderscope.org/rmc.php at the Children's Museum of Kansas
I was looking through a book of Holiday crafts with the 6 year old, and we came across this penguin potato print idea! Since we are all quite fond of penguins around here, I took the idea and tried to incorporate it with some found materials: sticks, paper bag, some yarn- plus acrylic paint and brushes to add the finishing details. We made 5 penguins, each representing a member of our family and tied them through holes we made with a hole punch! It looks really cute hanging on the wall in the living room and it was super easy to do:)
