Art and Sustainability: Creating for Continuation
Why do humans create? To communicate with one another? To express an idea, image, or emotion? To externalize the internal? Creating is what makes us distinctly unique from other species, what makes the life of a human so vastly and richly different than that of a fruit fly. Yes, we may boast the advantage of a grasping hallux or an impressively large, wrinkled brain, but it is the act of creating, reframing, and synthesizing our experiences in a way that can be shared with the broader community that makes us unique. Art is not just for oneself; it is for humanity; it is for the world.
Throughout human history on earth, we have created images and symbols, etchings on cave walls, clay and stone sculptures, written characters, and developed languages. Our need to communicate is tenacious and surpasses all odds, and art allows us to communicate in surprising ways when traditional methods may fail, perhaps through foot or mouth painting when we lack the use of our hands or through singing when we lack sight. Art has been used as a medium to glorify the natural world from its earliest days and to tell the stories of humankind, stories that have been passed down from generation to generation – only to be smote from existence by our own ignorance and folly.
Indeed, as it stands, humans are using up resources at an astonishing rate, poisoning once fresh, pure waters and slaughtering lush, green forests. Industry and so-called “advancement” call us to do so, to construct the materials required for day-to-day life, convenience, leisure, and entertainment. And indeed, art-making is no exception to this destructive practice of ravaging our homes for the sake of production. Many art materials contain toxic chemicals, heavy metals, petroleum derivatives, and precious, nonrenewable resources that are disappearing at an alarming rate. Yet, it was not always this way.
Before art was the commercialized industry of today, many artists were themselves the chemists, miners, and producers. Michelangelo traveled to the mountain quarries of Carrara to select the perfect slabs of marble for his sculptures. Leonardo da Vinci experimented with many materials in perfecting paint mediums, failing miserably and losing priceless works more than once. Yet, the journey of producing a successful medium was a vital piece of the art-making process, and artists recognized the value of experimentation and complete immersion in the practice. Painters mixed their own pigments and binders, ground their own pigments, and created the brushes and, chisels and tools of creation. Art-making was a wholly immersive, all-consuming process. The artist was intimately acquainted with the process of creation, from the harvesting of raw material to the creation of the medium to the execution of the work. This was a dignifying process of communion with the natural world. Yet, now, to paint the Mona Lisa, we need only drive down the street and pick up a cheap set of oil paints, pre-stretched canvas, and a few plastic brushes, or, better yet, click that checkout button in the Amazon cart and wait 24 hours for the loot to arrive on our doorstep. The artist no longer knows how to create. Indeed, taking away online shopping and nearby stores would strip many of their ability to create and force them to return to the cave drawings of their predecessors. Is this what we want the creative process to be? Is this how we thank the earth, which provides us with the precious materials needed to create the grand works of humankind?
Art-making is innately a sustainable process. The very act sustains the artist, from the conception of the idea to the fervent creation, to the final piece, and then to the birth of the next work. We need not be so separate from the means of production, and indeed, many are not so far. Sustainability in art-making is a rising field as artists return to the natural roots of their ancestors, reframe the way we see and use the material items of today, and express environmental themes and messages in their works.
Many artists have taken on the means of production directly. For instance, Annie Hogg, an artist based in Tipperary, Ireland, grinds her own pigments from hand-collected rocks and minerals. She creates her own binders with harvested materials such as carrageen, a prevalent coastal seaweed, and focuses on mark-making in much of her work.
Images from a workshop with Annie Hogg
For the hobbyists and part-time artists, pigment collection and creation may not be in the stars. Thus, we are fortunate to have some foresighted, ambitious individuals creating sustainable art supply markets. One such company is Natural Earth Paint, a woman-founded and owned business based in Oregon. The mission of the company was conceived when founder Leah Fanning was expecting her first child and worried about her child’s health if exposed to potentially toxic conventional oil paints and solvents. Fanning was unwilling to surrender her career as an artist, however, so she began creating her own natural pigments and paints, going on to make this accessible to artists around the world. Natural Earth Paints sustainably acquires, produces, and markets high-quality natural pigments and binders. Yet, their most impressive feat of all may be creating a plant-based acrylic medium, the first of its kind. Conventional acrylics are petroleum-derived, meaning they are made from a non-renewable resource that is extracted in environmentally invasive ways. Acrylics are hard to pass up due to their relative abundance in the markets, economical pricing, and quick-drying properties. The creation of a plant-based alternative with the same properties is an exciting and pivotal advancement in the realm of sustainable art-making.
Beyond using traditional art materials and methods, other artists create works from upcycled materials, giving new life to things we would normally toss into the trash can without a second thought. In a statement regarding the impact of plastic pollution on the ocean ecosystem, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in partnership with the National Parks Service, made a life-sized blue whale installation from single-use plastic, a remarkable testament to the ability to transform waste into something beautiful and meaningful.
Monterey Bay Aquarium blue whale installation made from single-use plastic
So here is my advice to you, for there is an artist in each of us. Look at what surrounds you in a new way, seeing purpose and beauty in the supposed useless and ugly. Experiment with commonplace materials, reframing your surroundings to reflect a more beautiful existence. Give the earth, its resources, and yourself the dignity they deserve. Create for renewal to allow the stories and beauty of the human experience to flourish across generations.
Written by Margaret Ryan
Edited by Brooke Olson
Resources:
https://www.anniehoggstudio.com/
https://naturalearthpaint.com/
The Organic Artist, Nick Neddo