What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1481738
OCTOBER 16-22, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 7 FYI Small Changes Make An Impact "I see it as an opportunity to share with our communities about our impact on the environment. We can all do some- thing to help; one habit at a time. Our role as artists is to share images that will compel audiences into action," artist David Gómez says about the "Goal 14 Water for Life" show at Art Ventures. "Simple changes in our habits are funda- mental to making big changes, adds Lourdes Valverde. She also suggests the following small changes in habits. 1. Stop using plastic straws if it is not necessary. Use straws that are made from paper. 2. Swap your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo brush. 3. Carry a reusable bag when you go to the supermarket. (Keep a spare or two in your car for unexpected trips.) 4. Plastic containers need to be free of food particles before going in the recycling bin, otherwise they cannot be recycled. 5. Choose products that have cardboard packaging. 6. Instead of a plastic water bottle, switch to a reusable one. You will save money, and you will be contributing to the environment. 7. While it's hard to say no to coffee on the go, disposable coffee cups usually go into landfills. According to a report by National Geographic, while the outside of the cup made be made of paper, on the inside is a thin layer of plastic called polypropylene which keeps liquid warm and from seeping out. Since there are two different materials, the cups cannot be recycled unless the materials are separated, which requires a special machine. 8. Change the hot water for cold when washing clothes. The micro fibres also contaminate the water and it can be decreased 30% with cold water. "This is some of the most simple things that we can do, but there are many amazing ways to help the environment. If we start with this simple changes, the difference will be enormous," says Valverde. Bonus — Rebecca Davis and Audrey Nguyen at NPR compiled a great article about reducing plastic use and easy changes in habits. See it at https://n.pr/3Cpoj2r. Read the report that inspired the "Goal 14 Water for Life" show at: sdgs.un.org/goals/goal14. "A Winter's Day" by Dexta Jean Rodriguez (Courtesy Image) "Café No Me Late" by David Gomez is on display as part of Goal 14 Water for Life at Art Ventures in Fayetteville. (Courtesy Image) Briseida Ochoa incorporates plastic and cyanotype onto her canvases for this show. Her piece, "#plasticpollution #loveplastic" looks like a scan of a plastic bag with the phrase "Thin-fill plastic is everywhere," emblazoned over the image like a warning to the viewer. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Monica Hooper) paintings in the exhibit focus heavily on the impact of plastic on the environment, especially in her multi-media creations, "Fake Food," and "Asphyxia," in which she uses those very plastics in the pictures. "Desperation" shows a man who appears to be laughing but is actually suffocating. In her painting, "Asphyxia," rows of mechanical pencils are positioned like arrows toward a choking woman painted onto the canvas. "My son noticed that there were many mechanical pencils on the floor at the school, so he started to pick them up. In a semester, he got 200 pieces." Lourdes says that she wondered how many of these objects wind up "in the drains, the rivers, and the sea," pointing out that plastics such as these can take 150 years to break down, and even then they become micropieces that "still damage the environment." That same dread inspired her painting "Fake Food" which depicts a mother bird feeding pieces of trash to her babies in a nest made of plastic bags, showing how the overabundance of trash affects animal life. "The piece 'Fake Food' is about the problem we have with the birds close to the sea that are taking the plastics from the sea to feed their chicks. Obviously, the chicks die," Lourdes explains. She uses a nest of plastic to reiterate that the birds get stuck in the plastic which prohibits them from flying, eventually leaving the birds to die, too. Rather than despair, Lourdes hopes that the exhibit inspires people to take a look at their habits and how they affect the world. "The goal of this exhibition is to make people think a little bit about their habits of consumption and change with simple decisions such as carrying a reusable bag for groceries, having a reusable water bottle, a reusable coffee cup, buying things in a cardboard box or recyclable materials. Simple changes make big changes if all of us do it," Lourdes says. After the exhibit comes to a close in Fayetteville, it will be at the ACANSA Gallery in North Little Rock from Dec. 16 to Feb. 12, 2023, and then at the River Valley Art Center in Russellville from April 15 to May 13, 2023. Speaking of recycling, "Under the Sea" will be recycled after the exhibit's run, Lourdes says. "Or maybe I could construct another piece of art with it. You never know."