Entry No. 1, 2/2/2021 #sustainability

For my art project, I am choosing to focus on a semester-long work, so that I am able to really focus in and refine the project I do. Last year, I did a service year through Americorps. The program, ArtistYear, places artists in Title 1 schools that have an arts education gap. I did my service year in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, where there is a large wealth disparity. I worked alongside my partner teacher at Basalt Middle School. Along with teaching art, we also taught Environmental Studies, and really focused on teaching students how to compost and recycle.

Before teaching there, I was environmentally conscious, but now I am even more so, and sustainability is something that is very important to me and the way I live. So, for this art project, I am going to focus on creating something beautiful out of recycled and used materials around my household. I also wanted to use objects that represent my everyday life, especially things that represent the way in which I decompress, such as taking a walk with my dog, drinking a cup of tea, or painting.

During my time working with students, my perspective changed drastically at how I view art education. Art has always been important to me, but I realized how many students it actually touches. Students who were shy or disinterested would become engaged with the project or excited to share the piece they made. I realized it was a lot more about making personal connections with my students than it was about making good art works.

Since that time, I have done more research into the environment and done things to make my life more sustainable. Similar to how I am passionate about the environment, I want to encourage students to pursue things that they are passionate about. Through my art piece, I am showing my passion for the environment by making it completely out of objects I already have, objects I find, or objects I have already used. The earth is a wonderfully beautiful and balanced place, and we have to work hard to treat it with kindness and respect. This quality is something I would like to pass on to students, not just about the environment, but also thinking about how their actions have bigger effects than they may think.

Today, I took my dog on a walk, and while on my walk I looked for a stick I could use for my art project. I wanted to find one that was already dead and that I did not have to harm a living tree to get. We walked along a creek, so there were plenty of trees, and there was eventually a wood pile that we walked by, and I found a nice dry piece of wood. This stick will be the foundation for my project.