Monday, August 18, 2008

Great Green Art in the Great White North

Check out this article by Dawnell Smith from the Anchorage Daily News (8/2/08) describing Unique Ways Studio, a "space dedicated to art through conservation and conservation through art. Here, artists Linda Warford and Jerelyn Miyashiro want to turn bags, boxes, paper, CD cases, scrap metal, electrical wire and all kinds of waste into objects of beauty and utility." Hey, they sound like my kinda folks! "Though its programming is still evolving, Unique Ways offers everything from collaborative studio hours to workshops on bookbinding with waste paper and making totes from plastic grocery bags, always stressing how the ethos and aesthetics of reusing materials entwine, Miyashiro said." Find out more at the Unique Ways Studio web site.

2 comments:

jtmiyash said...

Hello Joy,
Thanks for the nice comment in the guestbook and on your blog. As we are just getting started we never know how we are being received.
We hope to keep the momentum from the article going into the fall and its nice to know that others think what we are doing is worthwhile.
I hope that Reuse will open peoples eyes to reduce their consumption and lead to a conservationist midset versus the recycle end point of a consumer mindset.

I hope to promote art as just another thing people do; work, eat, make art and conserve, and that it replaces shopping as the quick fix for something to do. Its active, participatory and creative and we need that in the world today.

Email me if you would like to stop by the studio for a visit.

Art on the brain and conservation in the heart,
jerelyn

jtmiyash said...

Hello Joy,
Thank you for the positive comments on our guest book and a spot on your blog. As we are just getting started, I never really know how we are being receieved and its nice to get feedback from others that we are doing something worthwhile.

I have hopes that reuse activities in art will generate awareness to reduce consumption and affect a change of the consumerism mindset, that is focused on primarily on recycling.
We hope art becomes part of everday life, like working and eating and replaces shopping as something to do. Make art to conserve versus go shopping to consume. Its idyllic, but you gotta start with high hopes.

Art on the brain and conservation in the heart,
jerelyn