Collaborative Environmental Art
From mid-April to early May, 2019, twenty-one high school artists across four class periods worked on a large environmental art project. The project can be considered environmental in at least two ways: 1) The piece itself is one large environment – about 90" x 60" x 24" in size – which was developed to display numerous mixed media creatures (animals and plants) previously created by several high school artists; and 2) the piece has been planned out to minimize the impact on our actual natural environment, especially considering its scale.
In order to minimize the potential impact on the environment, the artists used recyclable materials, especially cardboard for their media. The artists also repurposed several items, including fast food wrappers, straws, pizza savers, notebook wire, and bottle caps which had already been consumed and could not be recycled. Instead of disposing of these items in the trash, these artists developed ways to incorporate them into the larger environment or into the plants and other physical features placed into the environment.
If you scroll down, you can see the piece evolve over time.
April 18. The cardboard substructure begins to take shape. Each of the four structural pieces pictured above consists of two 10" x 10" pieces connected by three 16" tall legs. Using three legs keeps each section stable and strong; using cardboard keeps each section light in weight.
April 25. Several plant forms have been created by the high school artists, basic sketches of the environment have been drawn on the chalkboard, and the cardboard substructure continues to expand.
May 1. The plant forms continue to grow in number and in detail. The substructure also continues to grow in number and in detail. For ease of transportation, nine 10" x 10" sections are connected by smaller pieces of cardboard so that the environment consists of six 30" x 30" sections.
May 2. The sea floor part of the environment begins to take shape and underground details are added within parts of the substructure. Some of the creatures are set on top of the sea floor which is one of the 30" x 30" sections. The cardboard has been covered with fast food wrappers which have been colored and textured with tempera paint.
May 6. The sea floor expands, as do the land and underground sections. The textured side of the sea bed is made from brown packing paper colored and textured with tempera paint.
May 7. The environment grows close to its final size while more colors are added. The tops of four of the six sections are complete.
May 8. More progress. The top of a fifth section is complete.
May 9. The top of the sixth section is complete. Two sides of the piece are finished and a third is nearly done.
May 10. The two unfinished sides are getting closer to completion. Nearly all of the creatures and other features have been placed onto the environment to get a sense of what the final piece will look like.
May 15. The environmental art project is complete and on display at the Smith Center Art Show.