365 Day Art Challenge: Week 13, AKA This is no April Fool's Post

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate the day.  

This is April and every year in April, I like to share ideas about how to rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, re-invent, redesign, re-craft, recover, restore, rebuild, revamp, reclaim, or repurpose something in order to save it from the trash, and ultimately to save our planet.  Which of course, leads to respect: respect for our planet, respect for trash as art, and respect for what you and I as artists can achieve.   This all leads up to Earth Day on April 22, or as I prefer to call it, bEARTHday.

I realize I normally share my 365 Something art on Monday, but this week I am sharing them on Sunday so it doesn't conflict with our monthly *Second on the 2nd link up party. 

Here are my collages for Week 13.  This 365 something project was created in part and hosted by Hanna at i Hanna.  This entire month I will be using nothing but scraps from one of my scrap piles I have collected.  I segregated them by color, and this month you will probably might possibly get tired of seeing so many of the same bits and pieces I have cut to make these collages.

In case you missed them, here are Week 12's cards.  All of my collages are 4" X 4" (10,16 cm X 10,16 cm).

On a silver platter

Running in circles

That layered look

Kickapoo and Tyler, too

A touch of paradise

3 of a kind

Written from the heart

Thank you so much for joining me today.  If you are playing in Hanna's 365 Something project, please let me know and I will be by to see what you are making.  Please let me know if you like any of these.  As always, I am very grateful for your continued support of my art.  

This is Day 1 of 22 and I created seven small collages using scraps of paper that are too small to be used for anything else.


*Second on the 2nd is a post that you have published in the past and want to show a second time.  We share these every second day of every month, so please feel free to join us with your own second look back at a previously published post.

And because today is Easter, I'm going to rant again about how much waste we put in our landfill due to Easter.  Some of you have seen this before, but those new to my blog will see why this is one of the worst holidays of the year.  I call it Why Easter is NOT Green.

At the risk of repeating myself, I've said this before: for being so green, Easter isn't really green at all.  So, please put up with my antics while I share my thoughts with you.

What do I mean by Easter not being green?  Easter celebrates a rebirth, time for renewal, time for spring. It often occurs around the time we celebrate Earth Day, too. So why is it, you ask, that it’s one of the most UN-green holidays ever? Plastic, plastic, plastic.

Plastic wrapped in plastic stuffed in a cardboard gift basket

Same baskets, expanded view.

In case you’ve never celebrated an Earth Day, or have never heard of, or thought about recycling, plastic is a petroleum product. It lives simply forever in the landfill. On a larger scale, it’s the material that wars have been fought over, especially those in my lifetime.
 

Although the bag is canvas, there is a ton of plastic in the bag.          

Plastic has taken over the Easter industry. There’s probably more plastic sold, then disposed of at Easter than at Christmastime, although I have no statistics to support that. Granted, even though I don’t have kids, I can see what is being sold in the stores: plastic baskets wrapped in cellophane or plastic, loaded with plastic eggs, along with individual chocolate bunnies wrapped in hard plastic shells, sitting atop plastic grass in various colors.

Plastic holding candy wrapped in plastic.

Even Peeps, those disgusting marshmallow confectioneries sold in the United States and Canada, shaped like chickens and bunnies, come wrapped in plastic.

I give this one credit.  Although the plastic gifts are wrapped in plastic, at least the "grass" doesn't look plastic and the "basket" is cardboard.

Am I a cynic? No. I love Easter. It even lands on my birthday on occasion. But parents need to indulge their children in a very different way using only recycled or eco-friendly materials to celebrate this holiday.  It will also provide a great teaching moment.

Possibly the worst offender of all the baskets I found at Sam's a few weeks ago.

Let’s look at some of the worse plastic Easter offenders and some possible alternatives.

1. Plastic Easter baskets. Alternative: buy natural fiber baskets at the thrift store, or dig out one you’ve had for years like I do.

2. Cellophane or plastic wrapped Easter gift baskets. Alternative: consider wrapping your Easter basket using tissue or other eco-friendly materials, such as old dress patterns. Or, leave it unwrapped if it doesn't have far to travel to reach the recipient.

3. Candy goodies wrapped in plastic to go in the plastic baskets. Alternative: dye real eggs using natural dyes with your kids and hide them in the baskets or outdoors early on Easter morning. Instead of buying the pre-made chocolate bunnies, why not buy a bar or two of your (or your kids) favorite chocolate and cover with various bunny stickers or rubber stamped images.

4. Plastic grass. Alternative: Use your paper shredder to make recyclable grass. When Easter is over, put the shredded paper in your compost pile or around the base of your plants. Don't leave it in your basket, because it might attract varmints or critters. If you have plastic grass, be sure to either dispose of it quickly and responsibly so pets (like curious cats, dogs, or birds) don't get into it and accidentally digest it, or do as I do, wrap your basket filled with the grass (probably purchased in the 80s) in a large kitchen trash bag that you keep from year to year.  Never dispose of it so birds can get it. They will be attracted to it to use in their nests.

5. Hard plastic or hard shell wrapped chocolate bunnies:  Alternative: Instead of a chocolate bunny, find the softest, cuddliest stuffed bunny rabbit to add to a child's Easter basket.

6. Plastic eggs.  Alternative: Here's a look at some I've covered with napkins in previous years.  
Note too, this is the same basket and same green plastic grass I use every year.

At the risk of repeating myself, I really appreciate your visit on this Easter Sunday.  And please don't forget to check out Alison/Craftytrog, our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is recycle and collage.