Mar 24, 2011

3 R's & an S

Alyssa Kail, Creative Reuse Center Manager @ SCRAP

As an artist, I sometimes wonder if the work I'm producing is worth it's environmental impact.  I wonder how many trees were cut down for all the paper I have used for preliminary sketches and illustrations?  Or where exactly does the paint-ridden water I pour down the drain end up after it passes through the pipes of my utility sink?  I wonder about the toxicity of the chemicals used to develop my photographs or what corner of the Earth has been exploited for the minerals used in a tube of paint.  I imagine the air sickened by the fumes of spray paint and thousands of markers decomposing in the hull of a scow somewhere.  Given the fact that we as a society are on the periphery of ecological collapse, art sometimes strikes me as disgusting and vain.  Art be damned, savage nature will reclaim us all in time.      

The School and Community Reuse Action Project intertwines these ecological concerns with the inevitable creative yearnings of the human animal.  SCRAP aims to reduce waste by collecting  unneeded materials and reselling them to the community on the cheap.  Their inventory includes fabrics, paints, glue, used magazines, office supplies, cd cases, just about anything that is clean and has merit as a reusable item.  The assorted bric-a-brac not only cuts down on waste, but also provides starving artists with affordable materials with which to pursue their muse.  By adopting more environmentally friendly, low cost approaches to art-making, we may potentially change our overall consumer habits, as well as further the aesthetics of preservation into more cultural avenues and shape the dialogue of conservation overall.  While it may be difficult to be as "green" as Andy Goldsworthy, we all must take steps to save this beautiful world.  We can start with three R's and an S:  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Support organizations like SCRAP.  They care because you do.         

  

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