Recyclable Art

After just finishing exhibiting at the New Orleans Home and Garden Show on Sunday and still being down South, I didn’t post Friday and I’m late posting today but will follow up later this week with some interesting Art Is Everywhere photos from the show. Until then, here are some remarkable art projects that are “green” — they were created from recyclable materials.

Many types of art can be created from recyclables. What’s one man’s trash is another one’s treasure is an artistic philosophy. It’s hard to believe but this portrait of Van Gogh, on the side of The Red Brick Gallery in Martinsburg, W. VA, was created with bottle top lids through the Put a Lid on It Project, designed by David F. Heatwole

What a great idea! I have to really commend them for doing such a great job as a collaborative effort.

Here are more examples of recyclable art. This is an inspiring article about the Nigerian artist El Anatsui that ran in the New York Times Magazine. Anatsui makes truly unique artwork with garbage — others’ cast off trash. He collects bottles, tin cans, etc and makes these incredibly, fluid, shimmering sculptures.

I’m inspired by these projects and would like to think that my latest endeavor, casart coverings, falls into this criteria for recyclable art because it can be reused many times and the vinyl material itself is 99% recyclable. Of all the many comments that we received at the home show, this was the most noted — that our decorative coverings were reusable and convenient to use, not permanent, like traditional wallpaper. In fact, anyone who had used traditional wallpaper was dead set against ever using it again. They were pleased that our wall coverings offered the flexibility and ease that both wallpaper and paint do not provide and they liked that they could decorate seasonally with our “Slipcovers for your walls.”