Eco Trash Couture
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This video shows the process of creating the sculpture “Pacifica” for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon. It will be part of Portland Fashion Week. “Pacifica” will join 20 other new sculptures by Nancy Judd for a year long solo exhibition in the Atlanta International Airport in 2017/2018.
ReDress: Upcycled Style at the Stamford Museum
In September my traveling exhibition, ReDress: Upcycled Style, opened in the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Stamford, Connecticut. I visited the exhibition to give a presentation and workshop. I also had an unexpectedly empowering experience, but first, a bit about the trip. One of the neat things about the Stamford Museum is that in addition to the museum they have a huge farm with animals. I am excited to have my work there because their mission blends the arts, environmental stewardship and life-long learning.
Stamford Museum and Nature Center
I also found the history of the site to be quite interesting, it was built by a fashion magnate, Henri Bendel. Mr. Bendel made his mark by becoming the first retailer to brand himself. Having registered his own trademark in 1895, he created the now legendary brown and white striped shopping bag and hatbox. Bendel was the first luxury retailer with an upper Fifth Avenue address, and the first to stage a fashion show. This fact was particularly interesting to me since I began creating my sculptures for (recycled) fashion shows, so I feel indebted to his creation of this now ubiquitous event, a fashion show. He was also responsible for bringing Coco Chanel to the United States. He built the large 10,000 square-foot, neo-Tudor mansion as a summer home in 1929 and the Museum moved into the property in 1955. I really enjoyed exploring the house, grounds and beautiful marble sculptures shipped from Italy. I like to think that Henri would have enjoyed my exhibition of couture fashion with a twist!
Check out Justin’s awesome new shoelaces and Amy’s fall scarf!
After a well attended gallery tour and talk, the staff held a beautiful farm-to-table meal that was also a fundraiser for the Museum. Coincidentally, it was my Birthday and I was delighted to have over 50 people sing to me while I blew out the candle on the tallest cupcake I had ever seen! The next day I taught one of my favorite workshops, transforming old T-shirts into new objects. We began by making over 20 dog toys for a local animal shelter, and then the 15 participants created items ranging from shoe strings to scarves and reworked shirts with new style. I was excited that Amy and Justin from the Trashion Fashion Show joined us, they stage “trashion” shows on the East Coast using ballet dancers as models. I also met a wonderful woman who’s family-owned business is interested in sponsoring a new sculpture from me. Thank you to all the Museum staff for hosting me and my traveling exhibition.
Now, back to my unexpected experience: whenever I visit my exhibition at a new museum I always spend a little time with the sculptures making minor repairs, mostly gluing glass back on to the Glass Evening Gown! This time I also worked on the Eco-Flamenco dress which is covered with eco-pledges made by 5,000 people. The Museum invites visitors to take their own eco-pledges and so on a whim, I filled out a pledge card and shared it that night during my gallery talk: “I will ask all of the hotels that I stay in to turn down the temperature in the mini-refrigerators”. This is a pet-peeve of mine because I always find them set on high, and I know that these refrigerators are used a very small percentage of the time they are on. When you think about the millions of hotel rooms around the world with refrigerators, this wastes a tremendous amount of energy which adds carbon to the atmosphere, unnecessarily contributing to climate change. So the day before I checked out of the Holiday Express Inn and Suites in Stamford (notably on the night of the full lunar eclipse and blood moon) I wrote my request on a comment card. By the time I returned home I had honestly forgotten about it until I received a note from the hotel manager saying: “We have shared your comments and feedback with our team and have started implementing (your suggestion) in our guest rooms.”
This was an empowering moment for me, I experienced how truly one small action can make a difference and it confirmed why I encourage people to make these pledges. I have since written to the parent company, InterContinental Hotels Group, to ask them to follow the lead of their hotel in Stamford and make this a policy at all of their properties.
Hotel room refrigerators, unnecessary contributors to climate change
I also did a little sleuthing around on the internet to see if I could find any information on the impact of mini-fridges in hotel rooms, the only thing I found was on www.KeyGreen.com, an organization in Denmark that awards eco-labels to over 2,400 hotels and other sites worldwide. They have their application form posted on-line and I was impressed to see a question asking the applying hotel if they have a policy to TURN OFF refrigerators (and TVs) when rooms are not in use. Not turn down, but turn OFF!
So, the next time you travel you might want to use this site, www.bookdifferent.com, to find a hotel that has a smaller carbon footprint. And if you encounter a refrigerator in your room, turn it to low (or off if you want to be radical) and leave a comment card for the hotel. And if they respond, please let me know!
Schack Art Center in Everett, WA
I was recently honored by being asked to emcee and show work in three trash-fashion shows across the great Pacific Northwest! Last summer I moved from Santa Fe, NM (my home for the last 20 years) to Portland, OR, where I grew up. It is great to be back in the climate that my body feels most comfortable in, and it’s exciting to discover new opportunities for my work in Oregon and Washington. Both states are renowned for their progressive sustainability efforts, and there is a lot of creative re-use, trash fashion, and innovative environmental education taking place here. Quite honestly, I did not know if there was room for another kid in the sand box, but I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome I have received!
Upcycled Oregon in the State Capital
This spring started off with a bang at the Oregon State Capital in Salem where I emceed at a new event called Upcycle Oregon, created to raise awareness around resource use and waste reduction activities. The two day event began with a dynamic panel discussion featuring a diverse group of people that work with waste materials across Oregon. For example, Scott Hamlin is the co-founder/CEO of Loopworks which makes products and apparel out of industry scrap and waste materials such as old Southwest Airline seat covers. I really like this company because in addition to upcycling materials, they also design their products to be very durable and to be educational– as they state on their website: Only 1% of everything that’s purchased in the USA, is still in the USA after 6 months. That is an alarming statistic! Also on the panel was Mark Rumford with a company named Agilyx that is the first in the world to install commercial scale technology that turns waste plastics into refinery grade synthetic crude oil. That might not sound very exciting, but actually it’s a big deal because they can use the plastics that most recycling programs can’t take, which amounts to more than 75% of the plastics produced and usually landfilled. Their oil is recycled into plastic manufacturing feedstock or converted to transport fuels. I have grave concerns about the environmental and human health impacts of the huge amount of plastic we use and think we should focus on reducing our use of this material, especially single use items. However, like it or not our world is saturated with plastic and it is imperative to have a way to recycle it because not only does recycling keep it out of the landfills, but it also reduces the amount of oil we have to mine/refine.
This interesting panel was followed by an upcycled art exhibition, and then concluded with a trashion show the next day that showcased numerous new and seasoned designers. This was the first recycled fashion show that I have ever emceed in a state capital; it was a grand backdrop for the entire event and it felt significant to have our work honored in such an important historical and political location. I want to thank Carlee Wright from DIY Studio and and Jessica Ramey from Marion County who organized the upcycled art and fashion show, for inviting me to participate. DIY Studio is a neat organization that promotes creative, community and environmental awareness through teaching alternative approaches to creating art and diverting materials from the solid-waste stream.
Ruby Re-Usable with her fantastic models Lana, Lova and Lena Landfill.
Three weeks later I emceed a second trashion show at the Schack (pronounced shack!) Art Center in Everett, WA held in conjunction with an impressive exhibition titled Saving the Environment: Sustainable Art. This was a fun event for me because I met several experienced designers from Washington who have also been working with waste materials for many years. One of these, Ruby Re-Usable, is the colorful designer who organized the fashion show. Some of the other designers were Rebecca Maxim aka Alotta DeTritus, Jane Grafton aka Tinker’s Dam, and Kristie Maxim aka Elle Poubelle. I really enjoyed not only their creative names and impressive designs, but also the presentation and staging of their fashions. Susie Howell, an amazing photographer as well as designer of wearable upcycled fashions, hosted my spouse and me in her beautiful historic Marysville home!
One of the many high points of this experience was meeting artist Terra Holcomb. I recommend you take a moment to look at her work; she is very, very inspiring to me. Terra works exclusively with natural materials and makes ephemeral pieces that she wears for self portraits. In fact, the resulting piece of art is the photo because she leaves the garments to decompose back into nature. One of her few pieces that still exists, a magestic oceanic gown made from muscle shells, was one of the featured designs of the evening.
Washington State Recycling Association Conference
My Trashion Show Grand-Slam ended at the Washington State Recycling Association’s conference in Spokane, WA. Fashion show organizer, Abby Christensen invited me to join emcee Terra Heilman on stage at the elegant Davenport Hotel. I met yet another set of very talented designers and really enjoyed my time with the fun and dedicated group of Washington recyclers. As the previous executive director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition, I was right at home with them and happy to have found my peeps.
Though I usually don’t participate in many trashion shows anymore, I had a great time at these events. (Most of my work these days revolves around creating new sculptures for my installation in the Atlanta Airport in 2017, and giving presentations and workshops to universities and various audiences.) It was like a door opened and I felt so welcomed this spring to Oregon and Washington by my colleagues in the upcycled art/fashion and waste reduction community, I’m so excited to become a part of these dynamic and warm-hearted groups!
I’m in the process of dreaming up some exciting new projects for my upcoming Atlanta exhibition with a number of local west coast groups including some the folks that I met at these events, so stay tuned for more details.
POST SCRIPT: I am writing this blog post while sitting on a train traveling back to Portland from Spokane, enjoying an absolutely beautiful ride along the Columbia River. As the train travels from the high desert climate of eastern Washington where Spokane is located, my heart swells at the site of the emerald green forests of the west side of this region. I longed for this land during the almost 30 years I lived outside of the Northwest, and find that, even now, after a short time away in a dryer area, I yearn for the moist climate my body was born to.
![IMG_5750[1]](https://recyclerunway.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_57501-300x225.jpg)
Dawn over the Columbia River, from the train to Portland
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Emerald green views of the Pacific Northwest
Nancy Judd’s Recycle Runway Exhibition in the Atlanta Airport, 2012
In 2011-2012 I had an exhibition of 21 of my sculptures in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for 14 months. The ATL Airport has invited me back for a second show in 2016 because the first one was “one of our most popular exhibits”! The exhibition will open in the fall of 2019.
I’m so very honored that David Vogt and Katherine Dirga, the team behind the Atlanta Airport’s impressive Airport Art Program, have asked me to return– it is a great validation of the work that I have been doing for the last 15 years! I’m also excited because they want me to create a new body of work for the exhibit made with the airport community including airlines, concessionaires and contractors. Many of the sculptures will be made in interactive educational workshops with airport employees, passengers and other ATL community partners including school children. The educational opportunities and reach of this project are really thrilling to me!
In the coming months we will be reaching out to other organizations for collaborations and sponsorship. Please let me know if you are interested in being a part of this exciting exhibition… and stay tuned for updates as the project unfolds over the next three years.
Nancy@RecycleRunway.com
505-577-9712
Ortiz students test bulbs, make ‘trash fashion’ to learn about conserving
April 3, 2013
By Robert Nott
Read the article and see photos on line.
In an effort to draw attention to energy conservation efforts, Ortiz Middle School students engaged in a battle of the light bulbs in science class Wednesday, while building an “Energizer” superhero costume.
Their efforts were part of a collaboration between Santa Fe Public Schools, Recycle Runway artist Nancy Judd, Public Service Company of New Mexico and the Santa Fe Community College. The program, funded by a Toyota Together Green Grant and the National Audubon Society, was manpowered by about 125 sixth-graders at Ortiz.
The project is evenly divided between an experiment into how energy is created and conserved in Erika Sommer’s science class and an art-and-design “trash fashion” project in teacher Myoko Costello’s home-economics class.
Judd, an environmental activist and artist who runs Recycle Runway (creating “couture attire” from recycled items), said the project’s goal is to instill a sense of energy conservatism in the kids, with the hope that they will take what they learned home and incorporate their lessons into their home life. Lisa Randall, the school district’s energy conservation coordinator, said it provides “a home-school connection to energy conservation” that one doesn’t usually find in lesson plans.
Sommer’s class was engaged in an experiment to compare whether a 40-watt incandescent light bulb or a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) generates more light — and which one uses the most energy.
The students had to measure the amps, the lumens (a measure of the amount of light a bulb produces) and the watts of each bulb via a not-too-complicated setup involving a bulb board, a light meter and an interactive computer screen.
At one table in the class, several students, including Daryl Herrera, compared the effects of the two bulbs and came to the conclusion that the CFL bulb used less than half the energy of an incandescent bulb. (Most studies indicate that CFL bulbs use 75 percent less energy and last 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.) Herrera said he found the experiment useful, “So we know which bulbs we should use at home.”
Following the class, the kids were asked how many believed the project would make them want to conserve energy at home. Almost all raised their hands. Asked how many would suggest to their parents that the latter use CFL bulbs, almost all raised their hands again. And when asked how many of them have parents who actually listen to them — well, only about a third raised their hands.
Down the hallway, Judd organized the art students into teams to build the parts needed for the Energizer costume, which is due to be completed by the end of April. Afterward, the costume — currently sans a superhero to wear it — will tour the schools and perhaps other sites within the city.
To ensure it really is an energy-efficient costume, Judd utilized everything from HVAC duct vents (for the arms), a high-efficiency heater flue, PCP pipe, window insulation and discarded 2008 Obama campaign signs. Why Obama? “That’s mostly what can be found in Santa Fe,” Judd replied.
One of the art students, Rudi Martinez, busied herself making small solar panels to line the Energizer costume’s 60-inch by 45-inch cape. “We need to learn how to save energy rather than waste energy,” she said as she worked.
Ryan Baca, who was on hand to represent PNM, which provided all the kids with home energy kits (including CFL bulbs), seconded that thought. She said kids today have a greater awareness about environmental needs and conservation efforts and that this joint project gives them “a good, solid foundation in what energy conservation means to their community, their school and their home.”
Next week, Santa Fe school buildings will be placed in a “sleep mode” for spring break. Lights and computers will be shut off and heating kept to a minimum.
“Opal” by Nancy Judd
This spring of 2013 I was invited, along with 15 other Santa Fe artists, to create a new sculpture for a fundraiser for the Nature Conservancy and the Santa Fe Farmers Market. The event is called “Picnic for Earth” and is organized by the Patina Gallery next to the Santa Fe Plaza.
Each artist was given a beautiful oak picnic basket and encouraged to transform it in anyway that inspired us . The day I picked up my basket from the Patina Gallery, I took it home and buried it in the back yard! Having worked exclusively with trash for the last 15 years, the newness of the basket was blinding to me. It felt strange and pretty ironic to intentionally ruin the new basket but such are the dilemmas I face as an environmental artist! So, first I submersed it in my rain barrel, and then I buried it in the dirt. When I went to dig it up a month later, it was frozen in the ground and took me several weeks to finally unearth.
Opal Whitely
The inspiration for this piece I knew had to come from nature, but I was not clear exactly what that would be until, one morning, I awoke thinking about Opal Whiteley. As a teenager I had read “The Story of Opal”, the diary of a young girl living a hard life in logging camps amongst the forests of western Oregon. I remember being very inspired by her vision of, and conversations with, the spirits of the natural world. Creating a fairy that personified the spirit of the land seemed like a perfect fit for this project.
I had read Opal’s diary at Cascade Head Preserve, a Nature Conservancy site on the Oregon Coast. My parents had bought adjacent land in Cascade Head Ranch in the 1970s and had built a house overlooking the Salmon River Estuary. Starting when I was 7 years old, I had spent most weekends and summers at Cascade Head.
I am very grateful to the Nature Conservancy because it was on their land that I developed my appreciation for nature, which lead to my career in environmental education. It is a great honor to create this piece to benefit the Conservancy and the Santa Fe Farmers Market, which I visit religiously every week.
Nancy collecting materials at the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve
In addition to the picnic basket, I used a vintage dress given to me by a friend; plants that I collected at the Conservancy’s Santa Fe Canyon Preserve; and dried flowers from the Santa Fe Farmers Market. The branches are from different types of willows; the seeds on the wings are from a box elder; the necklace is made from juniper berries; the pods on the dress are clematis; the foliage around the neck is juniper mistletoe; and the petals on the picnic basket are dried peonies, marigolds and roses from the Santa Fe Farmers Market.
Detail of mistletoe and picnic basket on” Opal”
I did not know that the chartreuse foliage around the neckline was mistletoe until someone at the Nature Conservancy identified it for me. After a bit of research, I realized that it is a perfect fit for this garment. Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, deriving nutrients from its host. It is reported to have “a disproportionately pervasive influence over its community”. It can kill its host through invasion, but is also said to have a positive effect on biodiversity, providing high quality food and habitat for a broad range of animals in forests and woodlands worldwide.
As the spirits of nature create an image that we might recognize as human, what more perfect plant than mistletoe could they chose? Humans, like mistletoe, are often invasive and destructive, but our actions can also be beneficial, as seen by inspiring organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and the Santa Fe Farmers Market!
One morning while creating this dress, I awoke with the following poem in my head. It is the first time I have written a poem to accompany a garment and it felt like a perfect fit.
More and more, the spirits of the land
felt forgotten by humans,
and before they disappeared altogether
they decided to make themselves seen.
So branches, flowers and seeds
wove themselves together
and created a sprite to say:
As you pollute the air, the water, the soil,
as you cause plants and animals to die away
as you change the very earth itself
DON’T FORGET US.
While you live your lives–
dancing, working, singing, loving, praying–
remember our wildness in yourselves!
Nancy Judd, 2013
The opening for the “Picnic for Earth” is at the Patina Gallery on April 5, 2013 from 5:30pm-7:30pm. The show will be on display through April 26th. Patina Gallery is located at 131 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe.
If you live in or near Santa Fe, I hope you can come to the opening on the 5th to see “Opal” in person!
Also, watch this video created by the Nature Conservancy about creating Opal.
In November 2012 I gave my second TEDx talk at an event called TEDxAcequiaMadre in Santa Fe, NM. My first TEDx talk was in Albuquerque (TEDXABQ).
If you are not familiar with TED talks they are global conferences focused on “ideas worth spreading.” TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, the beginning of their inspiring mission reads: “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” It is a great honor to be part of this community! TED talks can be viewed for free at www.TED.com. In 2009 local, self-organized conferences called TEDx events began internationally. As of the end of 2012, more than 16,000 talks have been given at more than 5,000 TEDx events in 1,200 cities in 133 countries.
Having given one TEDx talk already I did feel more prepared, but it still took a tremendous amount of time to write, reflect and practice. Since it is required that you memorize your talk, NO reading or notes, I spent 100s of hours practicing. Giving a TED talk is a commitment and experience unlike any other I have had!
Crime Scene and the Caution Dress
in the Atlanta Airport Exhibition, 2012
In my presentation I focused on a garment I created in 2012 called “Crime Scene” for my exhibition in the Atlanta Airport. The dress is part of a mini-collection made from police tape– the other dress, the “Caution Dress”, I made to wear for TEDxABQ. For my talk in Santa Fe I wore a dress commissioned by Coca-Cola in 2006 called Pop Can Couture made from aluminum cans cut into flowers, leaves and petals and sewn to a dress made from canvas scraps.
I titled my TEDxAcequiaMadre talk: “Undressing the Crime Scene– Addressing how to Slow Climate Change”. I feel like it is the first time that I have addressed the climate crisis this directly in any of my presentations.
I used the dress, Crime Scene, to explore how we have poisoned both the body of Mother Earth and our own bodies. As I share in the talk, when researching this presentation I fell into an armageddon panic about what we have done to the planet and the myriad of overwhelming problems that humanity is facing as a result. However, after a couple of weeks I managed to find my way back to the essence of what my work is about: creating a positive way to address these serious issues that does not instill guilt nor fear but instead inspires hope and action.
I would love to hear your reflections on my talk in the comment box below!
I am thrilled to announce that this month my collection of recycled fashions will begin a tour of museums around the United States!
ReDress: Upcycled Style is the name of the traveling exhibition that features eighteen of my pieces. Each site will host the show for approximately three months. I hope this exhibition will be touring for at least the next five years. Following are the first three organizations that have signed-up to host the ReDress exhibition:
- January 2013 – Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida
- Spring 2013 – The Bascom Visual Arts and Education Center in Highlands, North Carolina
- Spring 2014 – Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin
I am very excited to work with each of these institutions and see how they choose to exhibit my garments and interpret the educational portion of my work.
My idea for this traveling exhibition began when I was introduced to Cynthia Graves by my friend Aurelia Gomez at the The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. Cynthia’s company, Guest Curator, is an independent traveling exhibitions service which means that she offers museum quality exhibits in art, history and popular culture to arts institutions. I showed her my work and asked if she thought that museums might be interested in what I do. Her response was very positive and she agreed to represent me. For the last two years we have worked closely to develop the ReDress: Upcycled Style traveling exhibition and are both thrilled with the enthusiastic response it has received from art institutions across the country.
Crate for the Jellyfish Dress
Museums require that the artworks they receive are professionally crated to assure that the work arrives in good condition. Crating my garments has been no small undertaking, just ask David Astilli. We first met when his company, Astilli Fine Art Services, was hired by the Smithsonian to crate my piece, “The Obamanos Coat”, which the Smithsonian accepted into their permanent collection in 2011. For my traveling exhibition, David and his wonderful crew custom built twealve crates that hold the eighteen garments.
Each piece is being sent on a mannequin so that when the museums receive the show, the garments are ready for installation. This is a thrill for me because it takes a VERY long to time to set them up. I spent at least two months putting the garments on their mannequins and getting them just right… I am so relieved that this was the last time.
Several of my pieces needed to be restored after they were damaged by light in the Atlanta Airport exhibition last year. I was fortunate to find a very talented conservator of textiles, Ilona Pachler, who redyed and painted three of the garments. The Youth Eco-Dress was one of the pieces that had faded significantly. We found a huge soup caldron tucked away at the Greer Garson Theater in Santa Fe that could hold the many yards of fabric. The new color is a much brighter green than the original. This initially made me nervous, but after I reattached the paper chains I decided that the new color actually enhances the piece quite a bit.
I was very excited the day the shipping company finally picked-up the garments to deliver them to the first exhibit in Florida. Six people, and three dollies loaded the twealve crates in the truck, they took up about half the big-rig! The first box, pictured below holding the Youth Eco Dress, is the largest– it’s almost 6 feet square.
Loading the crates for shipment
We also created an installation guide that gives museum staff exact directions on how to install each piece, including how to attach hats to the mannequins and place purses on special stands. Dan Radven, an Exhibition Preparator and Artifact Mount Maker for the New Mexico Museum and Monuments system, custom-made all the stands, mounts and mannequin bases for me.
It was a true team effort to prepare the ReDress exhibition for this tour and I’m so thankful to all the talented people who helped make it happen!
The museums also require that the exhibition be accompanied by a condition report binder which notates the condition of each garment and accessory. Our condition report binder was over 500 pages! The registrar at each institution fills out incoming and outgoing reports for each garment and accessory noting anything that might have happened to the work while in their care. This museum tour is kind of like going to Club Med for my garments; they have never been so pampered.
I also am creating additional materials for the museums to use that include: information for docents; recommended films related to waste reduction; for the museum shops, a list of artists who use recycled materials in their art; and eventually an educational guide for students of all ages.
The museums have invited me to give workshops and presentations in conjunction with the exhibitions. I’m very excited to visit each site, meet the staff and talk with people about my work and the critical environmental issues it raises.
I know that the preparations associated with this exhibition such as shipping, printing and my travel will create their share of green house gas (CO2) emissions. I will off-set the carbon footprint of this project by donating to renewable energy projects through carbonfund.org.
I feel so honored and lucky to have this experience and can’t wait to see where the ReDress tour takes us!
If you know of any museums that might be interested in my exhibition, please let me know. Below is a link to information for museum curators: ReDress: UpCycled Style.
Preparing the garments in my temporary workspace at Astillis
I am thrilled to be a part of six new events in Northern New Mexico this year. Usually Recycle Runway takes me out of the state, so it is a pleasure to be spending so much time in my beautiful community. Here are the highlights:
1. Exhibition in the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe
Nancy and Eco-Flamenco, Opening Night at the NM Museum of Art
I am excited to have my work on exhibit in the New Mexico Museum of Art through September 7, 2012. It is part of the Museum’s Alcove Shows that can be traced back to the 1917 founding of the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. The museum is continuing this tradition with a cycle of nine exhibitions that will include forty-five artists from across the state. Five artists are being exhibited for five weeks at a time. It is an honor to be part of this historic tradition and exhibit alongside some of New Mexico’s most inspiring contemporary artists!
2. Honor from the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
In the beginning of August I was privileged to be honored by the NMC NMWA at their Women and Creativity luncheon. The audience was full of museum directors and curators, gallery owners, artists and people that support the arts in various ways. I gave a 10 minute talk about my work and showed a couple of my recycled garments. I was really touched to be honored by such an influential group of women (and men) that support the arts!
3. The Next Big Idea Festival in Los Alamos
I have been helping the County of Los Alamos organize their first Trash Fashion Contest on September 15th. It is part of the Next Big Idea Festival, an event designed to inspire, illuminate and educate through science, technology and the arts. In preparation for the contest I will be giving two trash fashion workshops for both beginning and advanced students/artists during the weekend of August 25th. If you live in the region, please join us, it will be a lot of fun! Contact Tom Nagawiecki with Los Alamos County at 505-662-8383 to register.
4. Albuquerque Mini Maker Faire
Transformed T-shirt back
On September 23rd I’ll be giving workshops all day on transforming T-shirts into new styles and accessories at the first ever ABQ Mini Maker Faire.
If you are not familiar with Maker Faires, they are the World’s Largest Show (and Tell) festival—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, science clubs, students, authors, and commercial exhibitors. Also this event will be part of another VERY COOL event called the the International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness which explores art, technology and nature.
These are new audiences for me and I am really excited to be part of this local and international community exploring the connections between art and science!
5. TEDxAcequiaMadre in Santa Fe
On November 3rd I will be giving my second (!) TED talk at Santa Fe’s first TEDx event: TEDxAcequiaMadre. My talk is called: “Undressing the crime scene—addressing how to slow climate change”. In this talk I will describe how a dress can be an agent of change and will undress Crime Scene—my most provocative garment to-date, to reveal the personal and planetary violence it embodies. I will also issue a call to action, reflecting current thinking on addressing global warming. There will only be 100 seats available for this event so if you are in the area, buy your tickets soon.
6. New Recycle Runway Garment promoting Energy Efficiency
This summer I was awarded a fellowship from Toyota and the Audubon Society called TogetherGreen. Over the next year I will create and institute an energy efficiency curriculum for 6th grade students in Santa Fe. The project will culminate in a new Recycle Runway garment that documents the amount of CO2 avoided by the students during their assignment. I will share more details on this exciting project as it progresses.
I de-installed my Recycle Runway exhibition in the Atlanta International Airport last month and sent it home to Santa Fe– it was sad to say goodbye to such a great venue!
Giving a tour of the exhibition to passengers and airport employees
I first met with the Atlanta’s Airport Art Program staff, David Vogt and Katherine Dirga, over 5 years ago for 15 minutes in-between flights. They generously agreed to meet at my gate for a quick introduction and look at my portfolio. When they informed me a couple of weeks later that they would like to exhibit my work, I was thrilled because they have curated such a wonderful permanent collection and rotating exhibitions. Also, knowing that ALT is the busiest airport in the WORLD; I was humbled by such an incredible opportunity to reach so many people with my message of environmental stewardship.
We installed the exhibition in May of 2011 (you can read about our midnight adventures in my blog post from May 10, 2011) and we took it down in the second week of July, 2012. Nineteen garments were initially installed in nine cases and an additional three were added to a tenth case that the Airport Art Program installed in January of 2012 in the entrance to the terminal between the escalator and the information desk. The airport estimates that during this time over 15 million passengers passed through Concourse E!
The exhibition was advertised with a 30 second video on the CNN TV monitors located throughout the entire airport. It was seen several times each day that it was aired. Click here to view the video.
The exhibition was generously sponsored by Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Janome, and Novelis and my Green Partners: Earth911.com, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Georgia Recycling Coalition, Keep America Beautiful, Keep Georgia Beautiful, the Phoenix Airport Museum and the Turner Foundation.
I was overwhelmed by the number of print and electronic media outlets that covered the exhibition over the 14 months it was on display.
| Misc Press Outlets -USA Today Travel -CNN -Yahoo -NBC/ 11 Alive -Delta’s Sky Magazine -Clayton News Daily -Atlanta Day Book -Metromix Atlanta -Future News Network -Orbiz.com Blog Posts -Delta -Atlanta Airport -BlueGreen -Chimeras -Fashiongraphia -Stuck at the Airport -Talking with Tami FlickR -Atlanta International Airport -HaveIgotastory4u’ -FilipinoOnSkis |
Websites -TrendHunter -Chic Republiq -Examiner -Terminal U -Ecouterre -PolarTREC Magazines and Newsletters -Resource Recycling -Southern Seasons -New Mexico Recycling Coalition -Georgia Recycling Coalition -Glass Packaging Institute Pintrist -Click to view numerous “pins” of the exhibition. Other Social Media -FourSquare -Tumblr -Twitcsy -Twyla |
There were so many really heart-harming moments for me during this exhibition, here are a few samples:
- I received several notes from friends who I have not see for over 20 years that came across my exhibition in the Airport and sent photos of their kids in front of favorite garments.
- An Army Sergeant that flew through Concourse E numerous times while the exhibition was on display wrote to me often. The installation motivated him to contacted the airport to find out how he could help to improve their recycling program.
- A Grecian hair-dresser saw the exhibition and was inspired to start a trash fashion show in Drama City, Greece, outside the National Bank of Greece.
- One of the airport employees, Mr. Jones, who buffs the floor at night in Concourse E told me this: “I will be sad to see this exhibition go, I watched a lot of passengers taking photos of it. In fact I took a photo of one of the dresses and showed it to my son. He got inspired and did a recycling project for his middle school class!”
THANK YOU to everyone that helped to make this exhibition a success!
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What’s next for the Recycle Runway Collection? Last week it began a tour of museums starting with the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe. It is also scheduled to be exhibited in the The Bascom Visual Arts and Education Center in North Carolina and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. If you know of any museums or art centers in your region that might be interested in hosting the exhibition, please let me know!
