Los Alamos Artist Micki Taylor and one of her quilts made from recycled material. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
It is often said that one person’s trash is another’s treasure, and the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival proves this saying correct.
The festival, which kicks off 5-9 p.m. Friday, runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St.
According to its website, the art festival includes adult and student juried exhibits. The festival has run for 22 years and is the country’s oldest and largest recycled art market. It is dedicated to showcasing art created from discarded materials. In fact, all art must consist of a minimum of 75 percent recycled materials. These art pieces are created by more than 100 artists and this year, a few local faces will be spotted at the festival.
Los Alamos artists Maria Jonsson, Betsy Robin and Micki Taylor are showcasing their work at the fair.
All three are fiber artists and each utilize creative means to reuse materials for their art.
For instance, Taylor said she has collected used paid shirts for years to be made into quilts and she creates blankets out of old denim jeans. To get her materials, Taylor said she frequents thrift stores, takes her husband’s old shirts and receives old jeans from her colleagues. She added she used to go the Black Hole to pick up odds and ends to be made into jewelry.
Looking at items and figuring out what they can be turned into is part of fun, she said.
“It’s just kind of fun to think what it can become and it’s cheaper,” Taylor said. “I’m just trying to find a way to make things and sell them.”
Robin also utilizes worn denim as well as leather scraps, and upholstery samples to make tote bags, crossbody bags, shaving kits and aprons.
She said she finds her materials at second-hand stores as well as recycle facilities. Robin said she gets leather scraps from a leather artist.
“I think for our planet, it is interesting to take something that has expired and keep it out of the landfill … and make it into something beautiful and make it usable again,” Robin said.
Jonsson creates wall hangings, which she describes as “post-modern” rya rugs – a type of high pile shaggy rug. She makes them out of felt strips, which are leftover and unused from a company in Albuquerque that creates felt wallpaper.
Jonsson said she too finds a lot of joy is reusing items to make her art.
“Using recycled materials in fiber art usually costs less and offers an endless variety of materials which can then be manipulated into functional objects or fine art wall hangings using a variety of fiber techniques such as: weaving, knitting and crochet,” she said. “I have always been the type of artist who gets inspiration from hardware stores as well as the yarn shops. After weaving more traditional fiber art in art school and in Sweden, I began to use nontraditional materials to be able to create more texture and interest in my art. Recycling materials inspires me even more and challenges me to think outside the box. Also, …I am reusing material that could otherwise end up in a landfill.”
All three artists have been long-time recyclers for their art.
Taylor said she started making her own clothes back in junior high and is a member of the local quilting guild, the Los Alamos Piecemakers.
It isn’t just fabric Taylor recycles – it is everything from the plastic bread bags to soap boxes.
“I just have to look at everything I have and think how I can use it again,” she said.
Robin said she has been doing her art for eight years.
“I have always been interested in using recycled materials in my work,” Jonsson said. “It began when I was a fiber art student in Illinois in the 1980s when I started painting on aluminum and cutting it up to weave into a wire warp. I have always loved to shop at thrift stores for clothes and just about everything else. I began to buy second-hand blue jeans because I wanted to weave them into rag rugs. One thing about blue jeans, there are plenty out there.”
Additionally, all three said the festival is a great source of inspiration to continue to exercise reduce, reuse and recycle in their art.
“What is exciting about it (the festival) is the amount of people, the amount of crafters … it is amazing what people are doing … people are so creative and it is exciting to see the amount of people who are doing the same thing I am doing,” Robin said. “It is not the same art, not the same medium, but it is exciting to be around people who are taking something and making it new again.”
“I am very inspired by other people’s work … it does inspire me that they are being just as creative as I am and I feel very fortunate to be around such talented people,” she added.
“People are so creative. They have 90 vendors or more and the things people come up with are fascinating,” Taylor said. “It’s interesting to see what people can do with items that are just floating around out there. Particularly, everyone has their own ‘eye’ and it broadens yours a bit.”
“I discovered the Recycled Art Show in Santa Fe in the late 1990s,” Jonsson said. “The variety of work in the show is so inspiring. I decided to show and sell there this year because I took time during the last year to use mainly recycled materials in my fiber work. I would like to build a business selling my recycled artwork, and this show is a great way to showcase the work to a wide art loving audience.”
All three are veterans to the show. Robin and Taylor have attended once before and Jonsson said she participated, along with two friends, when the festival was at a smaller venue.
The event serves an important purpose, which is promoting recycling in art, Jonsson said.
“I think it is important to reuse materials in art because so much of what we throw away is reusable,” Jonsson said. “Landfills across the world are bursting at the seams. Some of our waste is even being shipped overseas to other countries. As a society we can learn to be more sustainable and reuse more and think of ways to repurpose these materials as well as recycle. Artists have an unending supply of raw material, which can be repurposed into beautiful things for all of us to enjoy. Recycled art is more popular than ever. It is great that we have such a great venue right here in Santa Fe. The Recycled Art Show encourages artists to recycle and reuse materials and gives them an opportunity to support themselves through their art while saving resources.”
Plus, a piece of recycled art could lead to anything, Taylor said. She noted that a lady had fashioned a dress out of an old banner from President Barak Obama’s campaign office in Santa Fe. Someone from his office noticed it and invited the woman to the president’s inaugural ball.
Robin’s advice to any artist interested in exercising reduce, reuse and recycle in their art is to just do it.
“For other artists out there – they know what inspires them so really my advice to them is to just start doing it,” she said. “They grow from everything they make and every experience and show that they do … (they need to) be true to their art.”
Creations by Los Alamos Artist Betsy Robin. Courtesy photo
A recycled felt wall hanging by Los Alamos Artist Maria Jonsson. Courtesy photo