Campus school students decorate Green Expo with innovative green art

The Green Expo, April 2-4, not only explored the business side of the green movement, it also included a wonderful display of green art, created by the David Lipscomb Campus School and Belmont University art students.

 

From hard-hitting posters critical of ethanol, pollution and cloning (made by the Belmont students), to homemade pink paper flowers and green leaves for a tree (made by second-graders), the green art exhibit at the Expo captured the breadth of the environmental sustainability movement, adding some fresh creativity and vivid colors to the three-day event coordinated by the Lipscomb University Institute for Suatainable Practice.

 

“Art has the unique power to change our world, to make it a more beautiful, generous, rich and open place,” said Kathy Musick, David Lipscomb Middle School art teacher, who led her students in a study of contemporary artists that create sustainable art, such as Andy Goldsworthy and Deborah Butterfield. “We discussed different ways that we could create art that preserves our environment. We talked about recycling and reusing materials, and re-inventing our preconceived ideas of what art needs to be.”

 

David Lipscomb High school students created were tasked to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of art, a functional piece of art or an artistic statement piece, all out of either recycled materials or sustainable materials, said David Lipscomb High School art teacher Erin Rickelton.

 

The high schoolers tackled the task with gusto, with students creating a replica of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night out of recycled art supplies, a bird bath made from recycled materials, an abstract tree made from recycled trash and a tree limb and a dragonfly made from a golf club, forks, and other metallic objects, among many more.

 

While on display at the Expo, each piece of art had its own explanation of what the artist was trying to convey about environmental sustainability. Many referenced the amount of waste and pollution the human race creates each day, from chop sticks to art supplies to junk cars.

 

For example, one student created “Plastic Ocean,” using plastic bottles and scraps of paper. Her artist’s statement was, “There are 46,000 pieces of litter floating in every square mile of the ocean.”

 

“I’m so glad the students were able to combine their new knowledge of the destructive effects on our environment with their creative imaginations to now create pieces of art,” said Rickelton. “Hopefully in the future, they will put those same creative spirits to work to make a difference in the environment.”

 

David Lipscomb Elementary School students created collages in the shape of T-shirts from newspaper advertisements, such as ads for green products, said the elementary school art teacher Nancy Lochridge.

 

Lochridge also combined art with the science of nature by helping the elementary school students create paper from the pulp of a tree. The homemade paper became pink flowers and green leaves of a “second generation tree” displayed at the Expo.

 

“This was a great way to work a science project into an art creation.  The children loved it,” said Lochridge.

 

Other artworks from the students included a painting painted on an old door, a clock made out of an LP record, a stool made from a book and a mobile made from old CDs.

 

“(The Lipscomb students) became more aware of the waste we create and made fantastic art out of materials we had never dreamed of using before,” said Musick. “Students used fallen trees, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, waste paper, fiber from lambs, and many other recycled materials. I was very impressed with how far they took this project.”

 

Art created by the middle school and high school students was judged and awarded for creativity and use of the theme. Winners of the art contest will be announced soon.