In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

WHEN ART GOES ECO

In Business, March-April, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 32

ECOSTYLE

Delia Montgomery

WHAT IS ECOART? Pictures of nature? No, it's more serious than that. A Kentucky example is painter and guilder Terrell Adams Atwood. She is a decorative artist who refines her unique style with nontoxic paints from earth's pigments on varied furnishings. Terrell loves BioShield paints, especially on her favorite utilitarian design, a floor chest made from recycled wood. Custom coordination is a specialty. Match the pattern on your kitchen chair seat with your window curtain print, for example. Most pieces attract clients who prefer natural materials, but she confesses many are not aware of the ecological aspects of her work.
Nina Farana of New Mexico creates art collages from instinct, passion and formal education. Her work is formulated from recycled magazines where shared sympathies emerge from vastly different elements. Her artistic flair is enhanced with a carefully selected frame. Nina's eclectic and unique style is feminine, but attractive to all genders.
Contemporary artist and teacher, Gena Neumann, is appreciated in both her home state of Kentucky and abroad. Recycling is the core of her business, named Gena Neumann's ARTaFX. She likes to utilize used plexiglass and acrylic to make window coverings and sculptures. Plated and sterling silver eating utensils are transformed into amusing and lovely pendants.
Recycled copper and steel is Susan Venable's thing. She creates sculptured art that can be shown in a public forum, often on a large scale. Yet Susan feels private spaces are enticing to design also. Susan works from her Venable Studio in California where she's also into jewelry. Her wearable collections are made from recycled bottles, television screens, car and aircraft aluminum parts.
Nita Mehnert of Copperhead Studio in Florida uses a variety of materials to create unique furniture, jewelry and sculptures. Especially important to her is the reuse of discarded materials to form beautiful items, where many portray a sense of humor. Her tabletop art brings a smile to all who see it.
Dacelle Peckler founded Equestrian Wireworks while a traveling veterinarian student. She started with tabletop art made from hay baling wire that was discarded from Kentucky horse farms. Now she offers bale wire equine jewelry and sculptured horse figures into every size range imaginable. Dacelle customizes for saddlebred, thoroughbred racing, or any other horse-related business.
Oklahoma is the home of Cimarron Alabaster, Inc., where unique pieces of artwork are made from earth's soft alabaster. Like all other forms of gypsum, it is developed from the evaporation of bedded deposits that are precipitated mainly from evaporating seawater. It is a perfect natural medium for statuary and decorative purposes.
Artisan Ray Smith of Natural Tree Furniture in Kansas specializes in elegant free-form stick and twig furnishings. His works of art are suitable for the home or garden. Ray's charming but unique home accessories are dandy in any room, indoors or out, and he offers furniture specifically for cats.
Sculpture and Mobiles by Bruce Gray in Los Angeles is a truly unique business. His sculptures are made primarily from found objects, pulled from dumpsters, or company trash donations. Bruce claims he takes more stuff out of the trash than he puts in. Woods in sculptures are acquired from sustainable growth trees, not rainforests. Bruce is a Rainforest Action Network activist who makes custom metal creations for businesses, architects, individuals, and the film industry. His works have been displayed in many museums and art galleries; printed in newspapers, books, and magazines; and shown in films and television.
Stewart Webb of ARTECO in Pennsylvania designs jewelry, sculptures, lamps, frames, clocks, limited editions, and commissioned works using recycled high-tech and electronic components. The parts originate from mainframe computers, supercomputers and aerospace components. Some pieces incorporate lab grown precious stones or antique bakelite.
Eco art is a foreign term to many people. The phrase may signal nothing more than a vision of nature. Recycled waste is the primary material, yet nature provides other intriguing forms of matter. These artists with vastly different backgrounds have a common bond as dedicated environmentalists. Much is yet to be discovered, enjoyed and qualified as eco art.

Delia Montgomery is an environmental design consultant and personal shopper for homes, bodies and gardens. Ecofashion questions or comments are welcome. She is based in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit www.ChicEco.com or e-mail Info@ChicEco.com.