Artists respond to green issues through art

REDLANDS - Artist and environmental conservationist Chelsea Dixon collected her trash and recycling for a month, then created art out of the discarded materials. The sculptures created were presented Tuesday at Dixon's art exhibit "Polyesterine," with fellow artist Meaghan McClandish, on the roof of Lewis Hall on the northeast side of the University of Redlands campus.

Dixon is a senior in the University of Redlands Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, and her art came out of the integration of her art major and environmental studies minor.

"I was really thinking about ways that I can be an activist through my talents, through my art, but not in an obstructive way," Dixon said.

According to Dixon, "Without any distinct end product in mind, the sculptures were born through pure experimentation and are pieces which inherently take on a new identity. It is this power of transformation that can be seen within the sculpture's bizarre compositions that tug at our ability to recognize and define the things we see."

The materials used include plastic bags, glass and plastic water bottles, Styrofoam, newspaper, tissue paper, packing peanuts, bronze wire, cardboard, recycled paper, installation foam and fabric.

"My current bodies of work are creative responses to world evils and tragedies that penetrate my own daily life," Dixon said. "I am responding to phenomena such as capitalism and globalization which perpetuate movements of apathy, homogenization of culture and ravaging consumerism. I then transform these concepts into creative elements and skills necessary to create physical and virtual compositions which can easily display a micro-climate of the macro issue."

McClandish presented installation pieces that she called "wind socks," created out of recycled grocery bags with the intention to create a "visual dialogue" between all of the elements.

The gusty pre-storm winds Tuesday helped the "dialogue" as the wind manipulated the socks.

McClandish said with the amount of energy that it would take to recycle the bags used, it would make just as much sense to throw them away, but is more effective is to make them into something new. Every piece of material McClandish used for the "wind socks" was something that she found in her house.

The exhibition involved various art mediums including sculpture, painting, music and costumed attendees.

Dixon said she has been exploring art exhibition and "the movement space," looking at all of the various art forms coming together to make something else.

"It lets people be art too," she said.

"I think its really important because they're utilizing a space on campus that cost a lot of money and having interactive art is really important," senior Johnston student Jesse Kahnweiler said.

For as long as Dixon can remember she has had a sketch book in hand.

"I have always been fascinated with how things manifest themselves on paper or in your head," she said.

And Dixon's mother and father, both jewelers, have always been supportive of her art.

"They've really encouraged me to pursue this passion," Dixon said.

"Polyesterine" was Dixon's third exhibition on campus while at the university. She and artist friend Kahnweiler plan to hold a senior art show as part of the Multicultural Festival, April 13, on campus. The show will also involve various forms of mixed media. Check the Daily Facts for more details as the event nears.