I was at an art show and overheard a visitor ask an artist “Is your art recyclable?” This question simply left me speechless. I wondered how I would have responded. Certainly, I would not have wanted my work to end up in the recycle bin. However, I also recognize that many of today’s art collectors are also sensitive to environmental concerns.
One of today’s hot environmental topics is “sustainability”. What is sustainability and why should artists be concerned with the concept? As artists, should we be concerned with trends and fads? In environment terms, sustainability is used to encompass strategies, practices and policies to meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability to meet society’s needs in the future.
There is another side to sustainability. Over the past 30 years, EPA, government, environmental groups and business have all been looking at ways to encourage environment sustainably. Today, there are waves of green businesses and green jobs being nurtured, funded and developed to hopefully be the next dot com wave of the future. Can you spell “opportunity”? How should artists respond to sustainability and environmental responsibility?
Recently, I visited the Scottsdale Artists’ Festival. The Festival featured a public art project made from thousands of colorful recycled plastic bags by Austin-based artist Virginia Fleck. There were large plastic-bag sculptured shapes that clung to walls, floated in fountains and lightly floated over lawns. Was this a sustainable artwork? Not in the true sense of the definition of sustainability. This installation of recycled plastic bags, however, did get the audience thinking about recycling and the environment.
Is the purpose of art to be pretty? Or, as artists, should we work to motive views to think and act? Art that provokes an audience may disturbing. It may not be “commercial” as or marketable as artwork that is aesthetically pleasing. An art collector may not want to pay your price to have it on the wall in their home. You have to ask yourself a question. What is more important to you? Do you want to help save the environment or earn a living? Maybe you can do both! A compelling environmental or sustainability story just may help you sell you next artwork.
Richard F. Farrell
