Art Show: Repurposed: Art from Recycled Materials
Prospectus and Entry Instructions
Exhibit Entries accepted from 4/1/2007 to 4/30/2007.
Prospectus
Repurposed: Art from Recycled Materials. A somewhat deceptive title. It's more than getting out old family photos and using them to make something or taking a tool box and turning it into a toy chest. This show is about taking things that are destined for the landfill and turning them into art. Yep, we're talking trash here. This is "One man's trash is another man's treasure" on steroids and your challenge for this show is to take what would normally never get a second look, what most people would throw away, and create. It can be anything from a coffee filter to a broken chair. An old, spare wheel or an abused and broken toy. Box tops, cans, scraps of fabric, cd cases, jars, coolers, old oven racks... you get the idea. Anything that has found its way into the dustbin or onto the curb is fair game. What you do with your finds - what other things you combine them with, is entirely up to you and limited only by your imagination.
To make things even more interesting, this is a juried show benefiting Environmental Defense, with a $10 fee-per-entry for participation. Half the proceeds with go directly to Environmental Defense, and the other half will go to the winner selected by juror Jeff McIntire-Strasburg of Treehugger.com.
Please tell us what items you used to create your entry, where they came from and how you put it all together. Also include why you used what you did and why it caught your eye. As texture or other small elements may be pivotal to your piece, please include any necessary detail shots. All points of the prospectus should be met. If you have any questions regarding the prospectus and its requirements, please send them to edu@ebsqart.com.
Some additional items of note:
This exhibit is open to all paid members of the EBSQ Self-Representing Artist community. Not yet a member? Consider joining today!
Entry fees ($10 per entry for up to 5 entries) should be sent via PayPal to info@ebsqart.com using the "send money" option with "entry fee" as your subject heading. Please include your name and EBSQ user id in the message box so we can properly attribute your application fee. In the event that your work is considered inelligible, your fees will be refunded in full.
You bring the trash, we'll bring the treasure:
An anonymous patron just came forward and bribed us with an additional $150 for the winner of the show if we extend the deadline until Earth Day. Consider it done! Now in addition to half the funds generated by entry fees, the winner will also receive said $150. And because we feel the need to sweeten the deal even more, EBSQ is throwing in a lifetime membership for the winner of the show. So what are you waiting for? Go forth and repurpose!
About Environmental Defense:
Founded in 1967 as the Environmental Defense Fund, or EDF, we speak for 500,000 members. We find innovative, practical ways to solve the most urgent environmental problems.
About the juror:
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg isn't sure whether he's a true Renaissance man, or just suffering from undiagnosed ADD. He does know, though, that since starting sustainablog in July, 2003, he's become a passionate advocate for building a greener world. This former English professor and current professional web content writer finds no greater joy than when he's scouting down the latest developments on sustainability in all its myriad forms: renewable energy development, organic agriculture, cradle to cradle design, green business… you get the picture. He also maintains Squidoo lenses on the green blogosphere and vermicomposting.
A native Southerner, Jeff grew up in Milton, Florida, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. After a sojourn into the desert (he attended graduate school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), he's settled into a semi-respectable life in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Jan, his three step-children, one dog and five (yes, five) cats. He enjoys long walks in the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Tower Grove Park (both just down the street from his 102-year-old house), spontaneous visits to ethnic restaurants (particularly Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisines), Saturday afternoons on the couch with a good mystery novel, and long, unproductive visits to local coffee shops (that sell fairly-traded, organic java, of course).
About Treehugger.com:
TreeHugger is the leading online media company dedicated to everything modern yet environmentally responsible. Their leadership has been recognized by the Bloggies, the Webbies, the Vloggies as well as Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Time and many others. Offering environmental news, information, and tools to help people green their lives, TreeHugger brings sustainability into the mainstream.
This is a Juried Show
Juror: Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Juror's Statement
I choose Deborah Leger's "Tulips and Tools" as the winning entry. This was a hard decision -- there were many wonderful uses of found materials ("trash"), and I thoroughly enjoyed how all of these artists saw "treasure" in these objects. In the case of "Tulips and Trash," what struck me was the artist's use of the "trash" that comes from her own process. Many of us recognize the waste of others -- Lager's work looks at how her act of creation also creates "trash." The rhythm of the piece emphasized that to me -- these "useless" objects are fit together to trace the creative process while also emphasizing the notion of finding in beauty in things others find disposable.
Honorable mentions:
Deborah Sprague's "The ARTIST Self Portrait" -- I had the same kind of reaction to this one as I had to Leger's work -- thought it went a step beyond simply seeing beauty in trash, and made a statement about art as creation, both of beauty and of waste.
Logophilia's "Not Yer Auntie" -- I particularly like the way the artist took the notion of seeing beauty in discarded objects, and transformed it into a statement on the notion of culturally-defined notions of human beauty. I was especially reminded of the work of Harlem Renaissance-era artist William H. Johnson, particularly his female nudes.
Diane G. Casey's "Eye of the Beholder 2" -- I enjoyed Casey's use of color, the commentary on the dichotomy of beauty and ugliness, and, finally, how she emphasized the upward movement created by the shape of the bottles themselves.
About the Juror
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg isn't sure whether he's a true Renaissance man, or just suffering from undiagnosed ADD. He does know, though, that since starting sustainablog in July, 2003, he's become a passionate advocate for building a greener world. This former English professor and current professional web content writer finds no greater joy than when he's scouting down the latest developments on sustainability in all its myriad forms: renewable energy development, organic agriculture, cradle to cradle design, green business… you get the picture. He also maintains Squidoo lenses on the green blogosphere and vermicomposting.
A native Southerner, Jeff grew up in Milton, Florida, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. After a sojourn into the desert (he attended graduate school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), he's settled into a semi-respectable life in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Jan, his three step-children, one dog and five (yes, five) cats. He enjoys long walks in the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Tower Grove Park (both just down the street from his 102-year-old house), spontaneous visits to ethnic restaurants (particularly Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisines), Saturday afternoons on the couch with a good mystery novel, and long, unproductive visits to local coffee shops (that sell fairly-traded, organic java, of course).