Colorado Art RanchPhoto: David Peterson
 

 

Roberta Smith

Artist
Salida, CO

www.robertasmithart.com

About the DIA Project
TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE
Mining the waste stream to create works of art that raise awareness of the environmental and social side effects of a consumptive lifestyle.

I collect venerable discards and incorporate them into objects of curiosity, contemplation and amusement in the hope that new and unusual ways of looking at “trash” will invite new attitudes toward our wasteful habits.  Americans generate enough garbage each year to fill a convoy of 10-ton trucks long enough to wrap around the earth six times.  And much of this “waste” is perfectly viable stuff.   Following a Colorado Art Ranch residency I made a commitment to make all of my artwork from post consumer materials, thereby lowering my personal impact on air quality, land use, and the depletion of water and other resources.  My work contains literary, mathematical, historical and scientific references that allude to the ways in which our collective knowledge could either save us or could become lost should we fail to react to the current climate crisis in a timely and responsible manner.  Our first priority should be to create less waste and to reduce resource consumption up front.  One of the toughest challenges to a sustainable global future is creating a dialog about our current excesses and the damage they cause.  Given that in one year Americans use enough kraft paper for a single person to take a brown bag lunch to work every day for 64 million years, my efforts to reuse rejected and neglected items are miniscule.  However, by working together we can affect real change toward sustainability.  As John Cage said, “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas.  I’m frightened of the old ones.”



  

33 IDEAS!, an exhibit of art, writing and ideas
March 15-June 15, 2010

Denver International Airport

DIA PostcardThis exhibit showcases visual and literary artists associated with Colorado Art Ranch as presenters, artists in residence, or Nomads at one or more Artposia. The artists were selected because they use their passion, skills, knowledge, and talent to ask questions and react to the world around them. The work, in turn, inspires us to ask questions and view the world from different perspectives.

33 IDEAS! is on display at the Ansbacher Hall: The Art of Colorado, on the walkway between the terminal and A Gates before the security screening. The hall is accessible for everyone’s enjoyment.

For more information contact DIA Art Program at
(303) 342-2521 or visit www.flydenver.com/art

 

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