Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Arts Council Hosts Transformation: Artful Recycling by STEPHANIE CRIDER When many people see an empty plastic bottle, they see garbage. Artist David Edgar sees potential. A retired Associate Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Edgar has more than 25 years experience in the art world, including contributions as a production artist on Epcot Center and Tokyo Disneyland. His most recent exhibit, Transformation: Artful Recycling, is on display at the Arts Council through Aug. 17. His work is colorful and playful, and consists mostly of plastic bottles that he transforms into brilliantly colored sea creatures and masks. Several local artists contributed to this exhibit as well. While using found and/or discarded objects in art is not a new idea, this exhibit offers an insightful and thought-provoking look at recycling and waste while offering whimsical and colorful creations. "We have done a recycled art exhibit for the past several years in partnership with the city environmental resources department," said Mary Kinney. "Our sponsors are on behalf of the City of Fayetteville. This exhibit brings attention to the importance of recycling and turning trash into something wonderful, useful and enjoyable instead of putting it into landfills." According to environmentalistseveryday.org, garbage has a huge impact Transformation: Artful recycling is a celebration of recycled art. on our lives and our planet. "The average American discards 4.43 pounds of garbage every day. (EPA "Woodforestdream." facts and figures). The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. "Woodforestdream is a great addition to this exhibit," said Kinney. each year is equal to the weight of more than 5,600 Nimitz Class aircraft "We spend so much time thinking in flat planes. The words on a page are carriers, 247,000 space shuttles or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets flat and we read from left to right. Looking out over the ocean we see a (Beck)." horizontal plane. This piece challenges us to think more vertically and to Dosomething.org further notes that more than 75 percent of waste is look at the world in a new way." recyclable, but we only recycle about 30 Phil Atwood created three pieces using percent of it and Americans throw away found objects. One is called "Birdfeeder," 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour. and the other two are both titled "Elegant This year the exhibit was an invitational. Birdfeeder." It includes some local favorites as well as a RMA Megan Dietzen made a stunning American visiting artist. FO flag using a wooden pallet and acrylic paint. S A professionally trained sculptor, Edgar Greg Hathaway used found metal to spent more than three decades welding steel create a piece called "Still a Rose." Other sculptures. Even then, his work included pieces contributed by Hathaway include found objects. His first foray into recycled art RECYCLING wood and found objects titled "Small Fish," involved a football game. "Vessel:Nuclear Artifact," "Santee Cooper July 26 - August 17 "We were new in Charlotte nine and a half River Bouquet" as well as a series of junk owls. years ago," said Edgar. "The day the Panthers Regina Lloyd-Dodd used magazines to played the New England Patriots in the Super create collages with titles like "Raeford Bowl we were invited to a party. I didn't have Old Gin Mill," "Water is Life," "Country a hat or T-shirt, but I had a plastic bottle that Window" and "Take Me There." was the right color blue. So I used that and Brian Tyler submitted "Order," "Flower part of a rotisserie chicken tray and some I and Political Arena," "3x#," "Flower II," other scraps to make a mascot mask to take "The Lottery," "Garden Ball I," "Garden Ball to the party. That was the beginning." II," "Grape Table" and "Garden Table." The Maybe it's the whimsical nature of his pieces are made of found objects and include pieces, or perhaps it is the "focus group drawers and mosaics. approved colors" as Edgar calls them. Either Some of the things that Edgar especially way his pieces were well received from the appreciates about this exhibit is that the beginning. So much so that now plastic is the pieces address a serious topic in a fun and only medium Edgar shows. original way. "When I first started working with plastic I "I like that the work makes people smile. It thought I was in denial about my steel work is fun to watch people walk by and do double and that I was not confronting my serious takes when they see my work. I think that Sponsored by: calling," said Edgar. Pratt Industries | Waste Management | Wastequip | Waste Industries it is good that artwork can have intellectual Then he entered a juried exhibit called On behalf of: accessibility, that it can be about something Trashformation. "The curator was a guy City of Fayetteville Environmental Services Department that is serious but it doesn't have to be heavy named Lloyd Herman. He was the founding and intense. You can have fun with it, This director of the Renwick Gallery at the is not over the top art that you can only Smithsonian, which is America's craft museum. He really liked the work. appreciate it if you have a graduate degree. It resonates with people." That was within the first 90 days of me trying something new," said Edgar. Transformation: Artful Recycling runs through Aug. 17, at Marcela Casals is a staple in the local arts scene and has contributed the Arts Council, at 301 Hay St. Find out about this and other significantly to the culture of the area. In fact, she worked on the exhibits, events and opportunities at STEPHANIE CRIDER, Editor. N.C. Veterans Park project making moldings of the hands of North www.theartscouncil.com or by calling COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomCarolina veterans. Her pieces in this exhibit include "Expansion" and ingweekly.com. 323-1776. TR A N WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM N TIO : ARTFUL AUGUST 7-13, 2013 UCW 13