Art · Eco-Chick

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Heart of Recycled Glass: Ellen Blakeley Studio Reuses Waste to Create Mosaic Art

Best In Show, Mosaic Art NOW, “Meredith” by Ellen Blakeley
(shattered safety glass and various surface treatments on Live Oak tree bark)

Ellen Blakeley is the creator of stunning handmade recycled glass mosaic tiles. Blakeley’s mosaic artistry, expressed in both her decorative tiles and fine arts projects, was recently recognized with the Best in Show prize in the international Mosaic Art Now competition juried by Dr. Scott Shields of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.

Blossom, Core Collection

Her Santa Rosa, CA studio is committed to sustainability and utilizes glass recycled from the waste of commercial glass companies in Northern California. The broken glass is then treated in a mosaic tile process using only low VOC pigments, sanded water based grout, and a two-part epoxy resin.

Spring Leaf, Organic, Spotlight Collection

Blakeley’s mosaic tiles evoke the light, color, and texture of the earth’s varied elements and geographies. Here is a glance at how her mesmerizing designs traverse the realms of precious metals, plants, natural landscapes, luminous crystals and skies, and even the glint of a wet city street at night.

New Yorker, Core Collection

art, Home, mosaic glass, recycled

Copenhagen’s (COP15) Amazing Green Art

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by Starre Vartan · 12/16/09

No successful movement works without important art. Where would the hippies have been without their unique (ehm, hallucinogenic) posters, 2nd wave feminism without all those novels and creative nonfiction writings, the Vietnam protests without the music, or Civil Rights without heart-wrenching photography? Not only did these pieces of art change opinions and inflame feelings at the time, all of these movements (and artistic statements) still resonate and influence today.

The plethora of art being displayed in and around the Copenhagen climate change negotiations is notable for both its volume and variety, and indicates that the movement to ensure a healthy future for the planet and it’s inhabitants is more than just a job for policymakers.

The Solar Peace Sculpture by Fred George

The people affected most by climate change are also the world’s poorest. For anyone who hopes for world peace, nothing could be more dividing (and enraging) than the world’s wealthiest continuing to pollute with greenhouse gases at the expense of those who already have so little.

Artist Fred George created this 9-foot sculpture for Copenhagen (it is a traveling model of the original 50-foot version) from used oil barrels and solar panels, which can feed into a city’s electrical grid in places where it is a permanent installation. “What a great opportunity to have a global conversation about preserving the environment and promoting alternative energy. We want people left with the vision of peace: peace with nature, peace within, peace worldwide,” says George.

art, climate change, Global Warming, holiday, sculpture

Green Spaces NY Launch: A Place for Ecopreneurs

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by Alicia Lubowski-Jahn · 11/18/09

Roberto Rhett, Partner, Green Spaces NY with Sentinel Lights (wire hangers and cardboard) by Susan Benarcik.

Green Spaces New York has just launched its Manhattan clubhouse to grow a community of green entrepreneurs. The NYC initiative joins Denver’s Green Spaces Colorado in designing a green workspace and in founding a dynamic forum for eco businesses. The bright NYC 5,300-square-foot loft provides a green standard for office and conference spaces as well as gallery, lounge, kitchen, and party venues.

Green Spaces NY’s Marissa Feinberg and Jennie Nevin pictured between Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger, and Wendy Brawer of GreenMaps.

The sustainable-style recreational, culinary, and office spaces within an expansive Tribeca loft can be rented for a broad range of eco company events. The loft space is also home to Green Spaces NY’s own internship program as well as to its ongoing green programs and events available through ‘EcoPreneurs’ membership (contact roberto@greenspacesny.com for clubhouse membership details).

art, eco events, party

Behind the Scenes of the Project Green Search Model Competition Finals

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by Starre Vartan · 11/17/09

Project Green Search, the first-ever green model competition, has a winner! Rachel Avalon hails from Los Angeles, California, and beat out over 130 other serious contenders for her new title as Green It Girl (read more about Rachel and her plans here). But before the winner was chosen, there were activities, photo shoots and some very good times.

The Ten Gorgeous (and Green to the Core!) Finalists Photo by Courtney Dailey.

Judging Project Green Search was lots of fun; I got a chance to go to most of the activities with the finalists and got to know them; what an impressive group of young women! From an Indy racecar driver to a natural nutritional counselor, to a college activist and an environmental educator, this was a talented and driven group of contenders. And as you can see, all of them were gorgeous too! The judging crew and I (see below) had our work cut out for us.

The judges! From left to right: Michael Zaliski, CEO of Omniquest Media, Anna Griffin, editor-in-chief of Coco Eco Magazine, Starre Vartan, author and publisher of Eco-Chick.com (I’m wearing an organic cotton dress by Doie), Remy Chevalier, Co-founder of Project Green Search, Deborah Lindquist, ecofashion designer, Josie Maran, former model and force behind Josie Maran Cosmetics, and Darren Moore, host of AlterEco and founder of Ecovations.

Day One: I got a chance to meet all the girls at a breakfast at our hotel, The Standard on Sunset Boulevard. Everyone was so excited to be there, and Taryn from EcoDivasTV started filming right away, and off we went!

Vanessa Meier even looks gorgeous in curlers! At Shades salon in LA. Image by Remy Chevalier for Lu Magazine.

art, bamboo, cashmere, community, contest, cosmetics, cotton, denim, design, designer, dress, Eco-Chick, ecofashion, electric, environment, farm, Fashion, fur, Furniture, garden, green model, greens, Hair, hemp, Home, interview, it girl, Josie Maran, Los Angeles, magazine, media, model, natural, nontoxic, Organic, organic cotton, pictures, skin, Starre Vartan, tv, video

Eco Artist Claire Morgan: Ecological Order and Disorder

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by Alicia Lubowski-Jahn · 10/14/09

Fantastic Mr Fox, 2008.
Torn black polythene bags, taxidermied fox, nylon, acrylic, rabbit meat
2.4m (h) x 2.4m (d) x 2m (w) Exhibited at the James Hockey Gallery, UCA, Farnham, UK
Photo courtesy of Claire Morgan

Visual artist Claire Morgan, who hails from Belfast and now lives in London, stages through her sculptural installations dramatic contests between natural forces. Adventure Ecology, which named Morgan resident artist in 2008, has recognized Morgan’s art for her provocative built environments, which are expressive of both ecological order and disorder.

The armatures of a mechanistic universe are highlighted by Morgan’s materials and construction patterns that address gravity, time, and animal instincts as well as the building blocks of matter, our everyday surroundings, and elemental survival. Indeed, her taxidermied animals, her meticulously pinned botanical and zoological specimens, and her use of blood stem from an almost Victorian language of science. Still there is nothing antiquated to her modern ecosystems that seem to defy the very physical and chemical laws they highlight. Her physical constructions point to unexpected outcomes and ineffable realms, such as those of beauty, spirit, death, and mystery.

Fluid, 2009. Fresh strawberries, nylon, acrylic. variable (h) x 1.5m (d) x 1.5m (w)
Exhibited in Building With Colour at Gallery North, Newcastle, UK,
and Consumer at Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Photo credit: Kris Heath

EC: The relationship between movement and stillness is so compelling in your installations. Not only do you integrate living and inanimate materials (each with their individual velocities of action), but the compositional patterns themselves have a rhythmic musical force. Could you please comment on the temporal aspect of your artwork and on your own methodical artistic process?

art, eco art, ecology, sculpture