Arts

A Sustainable Endeavor:

Consumer Trash meets El Nido Art Studio

by Mae Lee Sun

oilet paper. How many rolls do you think the average American uses in a lifetime? And what about all those plastic water bottles we’ve become accustomed to buying because drinking from the tap is well, pretty gross and no longer an option for most of us? Throw in the ‘paper’ or ‘plastic’ shopping bags you’ve chosen to cart your groceries home in week after week, year after year over decades of living on the planet and you can only imagine that the average family probably produces enough household trash to fill a landfill even if they consider themselves conscientious recyclers.

Since the average recycling rate is only nine percent in Tucson, compared to twenty-eight percent for all U.S. cities, it’s gotta go somewhere doesn’t it? And interestingly enough, stuff like toilet paper rolls, aluminum foil, magazines and soda cans are not only used, dumped or recycled into more of the same, it often ends up on the front porch of artist/educator Heather McMorrow. From there, it’s not put out to the curb for Waste Management to deal with. Instead, McMorrow hauls it back into the community where kids turn trash into multicultural art projects through her non-profit art education organization, El Nido (‘the nest’) Art Studio-the newest addition to the Lucky Street Studios downtown.

“El Nido is about art, creativity and expressing. But more importantly, it’s about making meaningful connections with ourselves, our community and the environment. The outreach I do is mainly with youth and teachers to teach them respect for the earth and different cultures in a way that fosters meaningful connection between artistic expression and environmental awareness.”

While that may sound like a truck full as much as an altruistic endeavor, the notion of sustainable arts meets public education has had positive effects on the Tucson community on many levels through McMorrow’s efforts. Through the Global Art Project, she has worked with Somali Bantu refugee children to make collages of hearts out of random junk, plastic bags and vegetable netting sent to Romania as a sharing of the groups’ vision of global unity.

Mondi Nakhai was only 14 years old when she participated in an after-school project with McMorrow that was funded through the Urban League. The goal was to make a welcome center outside the Dunbar Spring Community Garden. With the directive of picking up found objects and trash around the neighborhood, in addition to using discarded items such as bottle caps, broken dishes and rescued junk from home, Nakhai and several other young people met after school to create two mosaic columns and painted trash cans inspired by the concept of environmental stewardship they had read from the Dr. Seuss book, “The Lorax.”

“At first the kids weren’t sure if they liked it because kids don’t do things in groups anymore. But after awhile, we started to think about what we were collectively doing to the environment. And even though the project was during the school year, we made the time for it because it was worth it. The Lorax story helped us make the connections between how our actions and everything in our environment is related and Heather made it fun.”

Supporting consciousness as much as community in the way that Nakhai speaks of is also what inspired Matthew Nelson, director of the Fenster School summer camp, to hire McMorrow for the third year in a row to bring her recycled art program to kids ages five through twelve. “I know a lot of people in the art community with a genuine love of art and creativity. Heather however has that as well as having her heart in keeping things such as Styrofoam peanuts, mylar and aluminum foil out of the waste stream by creating beautiful things.”

David Aguirre, ceramics artist and property manager of the Lucky Street and 6th Street studios views El Nido as an asset to BICAS, Tucson Puppet Works and the mix of metal artists, painters and photographers presently there. “There’s no other place like El Nido, so when Heather called me looking for a place to rent, I jumped on the opportunity. It’s such a great idea to link found object art to recycling because it all depends on what is available at any given time and young artists respond really well to that.”

And enthusiastic responses from young artists to this form is more than McMorrow could hope for, although a major part of continuing to support them is finding volunteers and financial support from organizations and individuals who understand the essence of her mission. According to Nelson, Aguirre and many of the young people and parents who have benefited from the programs offered, once the community at large has interaction with El Nido and McMorrow, Tucsonans will realize it is a vital part of both the art and sustainable living scene in our environmentally-challenged city and will no doubt be eager to support it.

Heather McMorrow / El Nido Art Studio can be contacted at 520.620.6436.