By Mario Montalvo/ne news editor
The NE Student Environment Awareness club held an environmental art show located in the NSTU Galley.
The exhibit featured works made of recycled or repurposed materials created by students and faculty. Students Rose Abraham, Charles Coldewey, Preston Newberry, art teacher Martha Gordon’s Design I class and associate professor of geology Meena Balakrishnan participated in the show.
Balakrishnan titled her piece “Mohs 5.0” because she used discarded glass plates from the geology lab to make it.
“In the Mohs scale of hardness, we use glass plates to test the hardness of different objects,” Balakrishnan said. “When they get too scratched, we discard them.”
She then cut the glass using a glass cutter and used her kiln at home to fuse the different pieces of glass together.
Newberry made his piece using a piece of driftwood he found in a parking lot on his way home one day and turned it into what looks like a human leg.
“I immediately thought that it looked like a human leg,” he said. “So I carried it home with me and proceeded to shape it into a more refined leg and bought some accessories for half-price at a thrift store and bada bing bada boom.”
Newberry had another sculpture on display that resembled a human hand. He made the pieces as part of his sculpture class, but before that, he had never really sculpted before, he said.
“I made a really awesome snowman last year, but I don’t have too much experience with sculpting,” he said.
Newberry does have some experience with whittling. It was a hobby of his grandfather’s, and he was exposed to the craft through him, he said.
Club president Chrissa Hartle said she was pleased with the outcome of the show.
“The purpose was to get people to think outside the box and reuse things that you use every day and try to reuse them versus throwing them away,” she said. “And it worked out well.”
For more information or to join SEA, contact Hartle at chrissa.hartle@my.tccd.edu or visit the club’s Web page in CampusCruiser under the Campus Life tab.
