Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Soul of the Refrigerator


So, when my artist-friend Rosana told me she was redesigning refrigerators to enter into an art exhibit, my first question was, "What the heck for?" Then, she told me this was to be an entry in a "recycled" art exhibition, and I thought, why not.

Her latest creation, entitled Hearts and Minds and done in collaboration with the teaching staff of Creative Adventures, the non-profit arts education program in elementary schools that my friend created, is the proof of the pudding. Hearts and Minds inspired students at Creative Adventures' summer camp to "tread lightly on the earth" and reclaim natural beauty out of manufactured stuff. This refrigerator door was rescued from the snack bar of a suburban swimming pool and was transformed using brown paper packing from a mail-order delivery, bottle caps, telephone wire and cast-off materials from several junk drawers.

To see details on the coming exhibition on recycled refrigerators and energy savings as an art form at Washington, D.C.'s, National Building Museum in the dog days of August and early September, visit this cool spot for a breath of fresh air.