Texan Mosaic

Photos by students in COMM 1316 News Photography

Photos from students in News Photography, COMM 1316

     What do beer cans hanging from the ceiling, a spiral cascade of 45 rpm vinyl records, and a headdress that looks like a human spine have in common?  Not a lot unless you have a great imagination and you use cheap art supplies.

     Two art displays inside the Christine Devitt Fine Arts Center this semester featured student work made from recycled materials.

     The first display, the one featuring the cans on the ceiling, included about a dozen projects scattered throughout the inside the building in February.  Some projects featured broken pottery, yarn, full sized vinyl LPs, or twisted wire.  Each project included a picture of how the piece “interacted” with the environment. 

      All of these projects came from students in Kara Donatelli’s Design 2 class.

     “I try to have the students use materials they can find,” she says, “as opposed to buying because it can get expensive. This just lends itself to reclaiming or recycling materials.”

     Donatelli says students feel comfortable experimenting with recycled materials because they haven’t spent a lot of money, and they can usually get more of the recycled material if they aren’t happy with what they’ve done.

    Instead of tin cans, student Jude Haragan created her art project using old books.  She said the assignment was to use emphasis on lines using recycled objects.

     “I chose what I did because I have got a love for books,” she says.  That included an “extreme overflow” of sci fi and old library books that she says were going to be recycled anyway.

    “So, I thought I might as well use them,” she says, “to show movement of line through a big old pile of books falling over and what that would look like.”

     Another set of student art pieces went on display in March from Donatelli’s class.  These were all shapes and sizes of  headdresses.  They appeared behind glass in the main hallway.  And again, many of these pieces featured recycled materials.

     A quick Google search turns up plenty of websites that feature how to create all kinds of art projects or household items out of recycled or upcycled materials.  Recyclart.org, for instance, offers tutorials on how to make pallet Christmas trees or a table out of mannequin legs.

     One company called Iberdrola, a multinational electric utility company based in Spain, has a whole  page on its company website devoted to upcycled art.  It makes sense when you read that the company describes itself as a leader in renewable energy.

     “Glass bottles, plastic bags and other waste that would end up filling landfills or

floating in the sea,” the company’s page says, “have, in the hands of some

artists, become a form of sustainable art that highlights the degradation of the

planet and surprises with its originality. The possibilities stretch as far as the

imagination.”

     Hmm.  Kind of makes you rethink tossing your recycling into a random dumpster somewhere.  With a little imagination, who knows what you could create on your own?