TrashArt

I am the founder and coordinator of “The Trash Show: Hawai’i Island Recycles” which has been going on for the past 40 years on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island Hawai’i. I began using “trash” and recycled items for my art early in my career in New York. I was teaching art at children’s camps and programs than had no budget – so I improvised! I went to the garment district in New York City and dumpster dived.  

 

Inspired by what I found, I began using castaways to construct props and costumes for my other life as a performance artist. One dance piece changed everything. I choreographed a dance called “Trashface” in which little pieces of paper and garbage evolved from a mound of trash into a beautiful woman. This evolved into a line of wearable art, “The TrashFaceCollection” which was sold in high-end boutiques across the United States.

 

Then in 1987 after moving to the Big Island of Hawaii, I founded “The Trash Show: Hawai’i Artists Recycle”, a exhibition that challenges local artists to create art out of trash and recycled materials while raising awareness. This annual show has been going for almost 40 years in galleries on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu. In fact the Honolulu Advertising called me the “Father of Recycled Art in Hawai’i” in 2015. The mission of these shows is to “educate and increase the understanding of the island’s socioeconomic landscape and ecosystem, to encourage artists and viewers to re-think the shop and drop mentality, and to stimulate our brains and hearts to find ways in which we may lower the carbon footprint for our islands”

 

And “trash” remains a big part of my creative process. I consciously use recycled items in my current artwork which includes mixed media ceramic masks and sculptures and three dimensional collages.