2 Projects; 7 Days and The Bottlecaps

First let me say thank you for all the lovely messages of condolence about Lucy.  It's been a great comfort to hear from you, especially you who remember her and you who have loved your animal companions.

Moving ahead, I want to invite you to the opening reception of my solo curating debut.  Make sure to mark your calendar IN INK for Sunday, March 12, at First Presbyterian Church, 12 West 12th Street, from noon til 4.

Here's all you need to know.

Art at First

at the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York

is pleased to present

7 Days: Artists View the Creation

In the Great Hall Gallery

12 West 12th Street at Fifth Avenue

March 1 thru April 23

Opening Reception Sunday, March 12, Noon until 4

Closing Reception Sunday, April 23, Noon until 4

On view Sundays 12-4

Or by appointment

Featuring work by

Fran Beallor, Lois Bender, Colleen Deery, Karen Fitzgerald, Irene Patricia Gilmore,

Bárbara HerMor, Lori Horowitz, Donna Levinstone, Malcolm Ritter, Rob Swanson,

 Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Elizabeth White-Pultz, Alice Zinnes 

Curated by Barbara Swanson Sherman

As we acknowledge the threats to our Earth’s very existence 

and seek ways to repair the damage we’ve done 

we look at one story of its beginnings as told in the book of Genesis. 

 I'll give you a preview next week. Yesterday I hung all the art--that is, my friends Barbara HerMor and Ryan Bauer-Walsh did most of the work while I--shall I say I supervised?  I am very grateful for all they did.

Now, about those Bottlecaps. Many of you have been contributing plastic bottle caps to this project at First Presbyterian Church, inspired by Duke Riley's exhibit at Brooklyn Museum last summer. He makes beautiful art our of yucky garbage. Learn about him here.  Duke Riley Video

So we thought we'd try it ourselves. Art at First and Earth Care Action Groups put out a call for bottle caps and everybody came through!

This is a mere fraction of what we collected.  Then we washed them.

and sorted them by color...

and made art.

Here's how Buffy Barton Davis, the driving force behind the project describes it.

"This is a collective art project intended to raise awareness of the impact of single use plastics and how we as individuals can make a difference when we work together.  We worked in cooperation with

Art at First

Earth Care

First Presbyterian Church Nursery School

First Presbyterian Church Sunday School

Stretched canvas was donated by Bonnie Woit, plastic bottle caps and lids collected by the community"

Looking at our vast collection it occurred to me that these are really beautiful colorful shiny things and we throw them away!  And they're indestructible!  Who thought this was a good idea? How did we make such a wrong-headed decision?  Because it's cheap?  One look at the ocean tells us it's not at all cheap.  plastic is everywhere! Have you tried to go a day without  plastic?  How did that work out?

I love packaging that I can re-use, and, looking around my house I see that I've collected quite a lot.

Like Bonne Maman jelly jars with their checkered tops--here they are in the pantry.

And my ink jars--when they're empty I wash them and they make very nice bud vases.

As do Arthur's shaving lotion bottles. 

And these yogurt cups--I ate a lot of this yogurt just to get the cups.  Because they're wider at the bottom than the top they make perfect water jars for my drawing table and they hold all sorts of little things like erasers.

And these great mustard jugs for pens, brushes, pencils and whatever. And Dundee marmalade, but they don't use that jar any more. 

These are all so much nicer than plastic and they aren't filling the landfill.  

How do we stop the madness? How do we persuade manufacturers to go back to the old ways of being proud of the whole product?  There have been attempts to pass laws that make producers responsible for the whole life of the package but they have a hard time getting passed. 

There's got to be a better way.  I will say, working together for any purpose is a great way to make friends, and if we ever solve the problems we face it will be together.