Junk Art installation date nears at REAL Deal – Lifestyle – By Stacey Roy Smiths Falls Local Community News

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Stacey Roy, Smiths Falls EMC

Val Hudson attempts to secure a piece of glass to her latest junk art panel last week. When complete the panel will have a man trying to get out of a toilet where garbage is falling down toward a sign that reads ‘Besieged’. An industrial plant tops off the panel above. This and several other panels will soon be installed on the exterior wall of the REAL Deal.

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Stacey Roy, Smiths Falls EMC

(See hard copy for photo.)

Click to Enlarge

Stacey Roy, Smiths Falls EMC

(See hard copy for photo.)

Click to Enlarge

Stacey Roy, Smiths Falls EMC

(See hard copy for photo.)

EMC Lifestyle – The REAL Deal store on William Street will be enlisting the help of a piano player, cat and other permanent volunteers in sending the message of recycle and reuse to Smiths Falls and area residents.

These characters form part of the soon-to-be installed junk art pieces that will hang on the exterior of the REAL Deal store.

“The panels should be up by Sept. 30, we’re hoping,” said Val Hudson, local artist and creator of the seven panels.

Each panel is weather proofed, bolted and glued on for security and features their own unique theme such as: Cat on a hot tin roof, the piano man, the garden, pond, waste and the queen. What makes these colourful images so spectacular is that they are constructed out of items from around the house and industrial plants.

“Everything on here is from something else that was going to be thrown away,” Hudson said.

She hopes the panels will spark discussion about our throw away society particularly in a time when the largest population is aging and looking to downsize.

“There’s going to be a tremendous amount of junk,” Hudson suspects.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are many ways to use unwanted items if we just get our creative hats on. That was the challenge before Hudson these past four months when she worked on the gathering and development of each panel.

My biggest asset has been Bruce (McLeod),” Hudson added of her partner who has worked to secure each item to the hollow door canvas. “It’s wonderful to have Bruce work with me.”

The easiest panel for Hudson to create was the Cat on the Hot Tin Roof that involves two panels with a flower pot complete with a potato masher turned flower.

“What an amazing process,” Hudson said of the project’s development. “You go and try to find a way to make your imagination and the object come alive.”

Some items had a touching life of their own before being integrated into the exterior art panels. Hudson gently touched one of the wooden ducks that is perched on the reeds in her pond piece. These pieces were made by her partner’s father who has since passed away.

NAME THAT JUNK

The panels are made up of a multitude of items that have found a new home in Hudson’s art work. To launch the fantastic art project, a public contest will be held called Name That Junk. From Sept. 30 – Oct. 22, 2011 visitors will be encouraged to head down to the REAL Deal and guess what each panel is made of. The person with the most correct guesses will win a prize! Seeing some new faces at the store will be the ultimate prize for REAL members.

“We’re hoping that the art work will bring much more people in to discover the REAL Deal,” said Karen Schecter, REAL board secretary, in a previous interview.

All the panels will be weighed by REAL to go towards the amount of waste they have been able to divert from the landfill.

The art project came to life this spring when an anonymous benefactor donated $5,000 for this purpose.

I was thinking this morning about gardening. I can see some of my lawn now that the snow is melting away and this time of year always gets me antsy for planting time.

Next I remembered when I lived in Peterborough and there was a program where you paid an amount of money (very reasonable!) and got fresh local fruits and veggies delivered to you. I cannot remember if it was weekly all of the time, but it definitely was during the summer in peak fruit and veggie time!

Does Ottawa have this program too? I wondered. So I took a look and it appears that they do!

A box is delivered once a month on the third Wednesday of the month. There are various sizes of boxes too. As I read through the FAQ, it looks like the boxes are not always “local” per say, as we all know there’s not too much going on in the growing department during an Ottawa winter, but the boxes are filled with the “staples” like potatoes, bananas, etc. The Local growing season boxes are available during the summer.

I like these kind of things. I know that when I go to the grocery store I have a hard time picking out which fruits and vegetables I want to eat that week, what I will make out of them, you all know how it is I am sure. Something that I like about these Good Food Boxes is that you don’t have to choose, you must use what you are sent! It gives you an opportunity to create new meals with things that you have in the house.

If you are interested in the Good Food Box program, check it out here.

Are there other programs like this that you know about or would like to share? Let me know in the comments!!

When our host on the FullCircles Blog, Sara Danbrook, read Brian and Jordan’s wedding experiment story, she took the initiative  to invite them to our group.  Members of FCO have already successfully freecycled weddings and Sara was sure that we as a group would be able to help.

We are pleased to let you know that they accepted.  We have corresponded with Jordan and she has agreed to take a table at our “Ottawa’s Really Really Free Market” on June 4th.  We expect this will lend a lot of excitement to the day with all the positive energy it will create.

As a group we anticipate that we will be able to help with a lot of the decorating and items that set the tone for their Big  Day.  However, this bright young couple has been able to receive “donations” in other areas.

If you would like to follow Brian and Jordan’s experiment you can follow the Project Priceless blog and on their Facebook page.

Welcome Brian and Jordan and the Project Priceless Wedding Experiment!

Team Full Circles Ottawa
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A family in Kanata went Plastic Free for 3 whole months. If you think about how much plastic you use in one day, one week… one year (!!) that’s a lot of wasted plastic. Even if you recycle there is a lot of packaging involved with your day to day life.

Read the story here! Would YOU be able to do this? Why not give it a try?

photo courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen

I have a pretty big obsession with homes. I have a big obsession with a lot of things, but #1 is homes and #2 is what goes into them.

On the topic of Obsession #1, I have come across some very interesting “offbeat” homes lately. Ones that look like a hill. Ones that look like they’re from Hobbiton. See what I mean:

Low Impact Woodland Home:

Built in Wales, this house was built into a hillside and looks very much like a Hobbit house. Materials include found wood, lime plaster, straw, and a wood burning oven.

I cannot imagine how it feels to wake up in a house like this every day! Well, maybe I can imagine it, because I think it would be absolutely AMAZING.  Take a look at the website to learn more about the story, and what these people are working on now! Perhaps it will inspire you!

Earthbag Dome:

Want to build your own dome? Here are some instructions! I can just picture people with a dome in their backyard (now, I’m talking EVERYone) instead of those little sheds you buy at Home Depot. Wouldn’t that be cool? If you made one big enough and sturdy enough you could put in a bed and make it the In Law Suite I think, using these principles, you could make your own little house or cottage out in the woods. Wouldn’t that be peaceful? I think so!

Check it out here.

Shevy’s Earth Home:

A cool little place covered with earth on most sides. How adorable is this?? There are so many benefits to using earth to cover your house; it keeps cool in summer and warm in winter. I want to live here!! Check out the building process.

Patrick Dougherty

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen!! Houses made from living trees. They are grown like this. A.MAZ.ING.

You NEED to go look at the rest of them. Right now.

Peter Vetsch:

OK so now I am going to let you drool over these houses. They are not really like the ones above… but I just love them so much I wanted to share Check out the Estate! Holy cow. Yeah yeah yeah these are crazy architectural houses that you and I could never afford… but hey. A girl’s gotta dream See more Earth Houses by Peter here.

I really like the idea of these. You can build a house out of natural materials, use natural processes to moderate your temperature and solar power to get some electricity. It is totally doable! I especially like the use of renewable resources (straw as a building material? Heck yes!) and low-impact building techniques.

Have you seen any cool eco/earth homes you’d like to share? Link to them in the comments, let’s see how cool they are! (Literally… earth homes will keep you cool!)

Here, my friends, is a great idea! Our very own Maria Feldman put together a video of Sarah Cooper, who used items she received from FullCircles to put together her wedding.  I myself used a few things in mine and I can tell you that everyone was blown away. Imagine what a WHOLE freecycled wedding would be like? Totally unique and amazing!

Watch the video for more!

true love!