written May 18th, 2009 · 0 comments

I have noticed lately that many sellers on Etsy.com are emphasizing their use of recycled materials in their work (be it scrap sterling silver, metals or paper). There are also many calling their designs green. Not to criticize the artists that call their designs green, but how much of their designs are green and aren’t we all just jumping on the band wagon here?

What is green? How can one truly know and trust that all our materials (unless completey handmade) are green? What materials are we left with, if we as artists, want to be green? It is great that we are all aware of our greenness and how our lives can be more ecologically friendly, but where will it end?

I just read a review of Folkert de Jong’s solo show at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT, written by Benjamin Genocchio for the New York Times. He mentions at the end of the article how despite the conceptual depth and creativity of the piece in the show “The Shooting…At Watou”, he has issues with de Jong’s choice of material (petroleum-based foam). He writes that it is not enough to say that the use of environmentally wrong materials is a comment itself on environmental consciousness. He writes, “Mr. de Jong is obviously capitalizing on the materials’ contradictory nature — so light, yet so indestructible; so widely used, yet so environmentally incorrect.”

This is apparently a new way to see and understand art, an extra dimension of analysis. As we understand more and more how we as artists can be green, this will only become more normal. We have to be intelligent. We have to be aware and have reasons for what we do…good ones. We have entered into a new era. We cannot go back.