Why Trash to Treasure?
If you’ve been wondering why Impact Earth supports local artists and the trash-to-treasure art movement, consider our mission to divert materials from landfills.
What could be better than recycling those materials into engaging pieces of art?
For those aspiring to live a low-waste lifestyle, the proverb “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” is a no-brainer. And the human desire to create something beautiful? Even back in prehistoric times, early humans were inclined to decorate. “Honey, the Cro-Magnons have a beautiful painting in their cave, can we get one too?” The graceful drawings etched into stone over 30,000 years ago preserved artists' work, which was then discovered by scientists digging up artifacts centuries later. At Impact Earth, we’re a little giddy by this connection since we love both artists and scientists!
We can imagine those early artisans using everything within their shelter to create serviceable items by hand and then adding a decorative touch. It makes us think of Rochester area artist John Grieco, who works with a variety of salvageable materials to create something new, perhaps a table or other home decor.
Since all artists need materials to create their works, why not use items that would otherwise be sent to a landfill or made with natural pigments like the paintings of Hayley and Alexander? If you are one of the creatives in our midst you can start incorporating recycled materials into your work.
Inspiration: A Sampling of Incredible Artists
Whether you are an art lover or an art creator, these works made from recycled materials will blow you away:
Jean Shin - transforms accumulations of discarded objects into powerful monuments…using collections of everyday objects—Mountain Dew bottles, mobile phones, and 35mm slides to highlight their history of use and environmental impact.
Elizabeth Simonson - uses materials like tape, wire, beads, tiles, fishing line, office supplies, or anything that comes in multiples for inspiration in her work.
Willie Cole - is a contemporary American artist with work reflecting traditional African imagery, through the use of found objects.
Brian Dettmer- creates sculptures from old books.
Functional Creativity for Everyone
What’s been gathering dust in your home? Wine corks, pine cones, floppy disks? Another word for trash-to-treasure projects is upcycling. With information always at our fingertips, you can easily Google any item you have collected and see an array of projects that could be made from them. Your problem will never be a lack of ideas (especially if you are connected to Pinterest: Trash-to-Treasure). Instead, the challenge is selecting the project that best matches your interest and skill level. Toward that end, it never hurts to gather with others to share creativity. As useful as a YouTube video can be, it’s no substitute for having a caring instructor physically present to answer your questions and show you how to do something.
Impact Earth will continue to offer space at our store for artists to display their work, giving special consideration to pieces completed with recycled materials. Also, we would love to host maker parties of trash-to-treasure crafts.
If you value the development of sustainable art in the Rochester region, visit our Sustainable Arts page.
Send your comments to Nancy Steinkamp.