art for earth’s sake
My art practice stems from a need to create beauty from that which has been discarded.
Striving to lessen plastic pollution and overconsumption drives my creativity. Zero waste is the ultimate goal for my practice.
Most of my materials come from daily life. I collect single-use plastic food packaging in my home, or clean up trash on my walks and bring it to my studio to transform it. Stitching, collaging and transforming these repurposed materials provides an additional level of uniqueness.
Humans are instinctively drawn to beauty, thus I must entice viewers to look at something which they would otherwise avoid or not notice.
Creating public art installations is an important part of my practice.
I believe part of my job is to inspire people to take ownership of this planet and hopefully, to do what they can to help in our global fight to manage the climate crisis. Each installation endeavors to make the trash littering our forests, waterways and beaches visible, contributing to an awareness that drives change.
refuse
reduce
reuse
repurpose
my inspiration draws from...
...ruminations on healing...
...mending as paint strokes...
...collected detritus...
and the Anthropocene…
I’m NATALYA
repurposed media Artist in new york
When transforming found materials, I also carefully consider what I will use to hold the art together.
I strive to use unwanted thread when possible, and limit the use of glue and wire.
The consideration extends to the substrate as well, I have been slowly phasing out stretched canvas and cradled boards and transitioning to used plastic mailers, old shopping bags and of course vintage linens have always been a staple.
My use of paint is minimal, and old acrylic paint works very well with plastic, as essentially it is one and the same. It took me a long time to allow myself to start using artist resin as it is another plastic, another fossil fuel based material.
I embraced it because of the way the resin transforms the plastic. It is not supposed to adhere to plastic, but when the plastic is encased in it, it reacts and becomes more transparent if it is already translucent and the color intensifies. Because it is transformed into something more beautiful than expected, it has become important to me to use it in order to make the invisible trash visible.
Extravagant flowers, flowing brooks, fantastical birds, glittering jewels all entice the viewer into a space which seems as if from another realm. After the eyes adjust, the viewer sees that what seems magical is actually trash. Hopefully, this realization will spark meaningful and productive conversations about our role in the environment.
