Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
Across Vermont, artists are scrounging natural and discarded material to create sustainable art that reflects concerns about the environmental impact of overconsumption.
Those practices help define the state’s art landscape, which remains a major contributor to Vermont’s economy.
In 2022, arts and culture was a $1.2 billion industry, making it one of the state’s largest economic sectors, along with retail, utilities and construction, according to the Vermont Arts Council. On a smaller scale, it looks like shops, galleries, workshops and events that attract tourists.
Artists across disciplines see their approaches as ways to rethink how materials are sourced, processed and consumed within that economy.
“Materials that are locally available in your artwork impart qualities that might not be found anywhere else,” said Bradley Grimard, a ceramics artist in Burlington. “By using these local resources, you’re not as reliant on manufacturers or distributors.”
Unlike new manufactured supplies, natural and recycled elements can hold irregular textures and colors that give pieces distinct characteristics.
The materials also prompt ethical questions around sustainability and lifecycle. Environmental artist Nancy Winship Milliken of Charlotte asks, “What is it made of? Where did it come from? How will it be installed and, ultimately, disposed of or reclaimed?”
Artists like her use what’s available: wood ash from pizza ovens, post-consumer plastics, soil and natural fibers such as sheep’s wool from farms.
“The materials hold history in them,” Winship Milliken said. “They can talk about the natural and cultural histories of the place.”
Once collected, the resources must be prepared for use.
Grimard washes wood ash to remove caustic soluble alkalis — which are corrosive compounds that can cause glazes to thicken and seize up — repeating the process until the water runs clear. Then he dries and sieves the ash for glazing.
Grimard digs up clay himself rather than buying it from the store. He dries it, crushes it into small pieces, mixes those with water to form a slurry and strains out debris.
Rebecca Schwarz, an artist and educator who works for Burlington City Arts, transforms post-consumer plastics into sculptural works that reflect the patterns of roots, plants and leaves.
The textures and physical properties of waste and natural materials vary by the season, source or weather making them more time consuming to work with.
Often, sustainable art is impermanent, and pieces change over time. It’s another reflection of the materials and their cycles of use and reuse.
By reimagining discarded materials, artists say they can challenge viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world around them.
“The arts can get people thinking in different ways and talking to each other about things they might not talk about otherwise,” Schwarz said.
The materials are part of the message.
“I felt like I should use my art skills to change the system through pressuring politics and legislation,” Schwarz said. “So then I was like, ‘Forget quiet, contemplative pieces. I want to make a giant art petition.’”
Schwarz, who teaches at Champlain College and coordinates the Art from the Heart program at the University of Vermont Medical Center, encourages community participation with the arts and invites others to engage with art in sustainable ways.
“Things should be sustainable on a personal level,” Schwarz said.