Alongside my own creative journey, I am lucky to have been in the passenger seat for hundreds of others. I’ve entered my 25th year of teaching and although I’ve taught French, English as a Second Language, and computer science, my favorite subject to teach is visual art. For the past several years, I have been teaching a course called Fabrication Lab. There, I have truly shifted from teacher to facilitator. I may plot out the project road maps and amass materials, tools, and equipment, but I encourage the maximum amount of student agency in the work.
My students develop skills including sewing, stitching, designing, prototyping, soldering, 3D printing, woodworking, jewelry making, and laser cutting. One of my classes is currently reinforcing and reviving the school's oldest set of raised garden beds — the ones that house the perennial herbs grown for our students and families via our in-house food pantry. Another class is assembling their own individual solar-powered USB chargers. The students learn circuitry and soldering with the end product being a functioning device to power other devices with renewable energy. In the past, several have proudly shipped them back to their home countries to family without a reliable source of electricity. Being in a position to create the conditions for these meaningful projects to happen is a huge privilege. I am grateful. Another privilege is sharing an art gallery space with my students — our environmentally conscious artwork hanging side-by-side.
The main theme of my Fab Lab class is zero waste. We learn about the environmental impact of our actions and creations. So, we throw next to nothing away. My favorite example of this is their self portrait project where we take donated fabric and press upon it a mosaic-style self portrait from scrap pieces of vinyl left over from the t-shirt design process. Personal vinyl cutters and heat presses have become ubiquitous. Although it is wonderful that more can gain access to this vehicle of self-expression, modern t-shirt production generates an enormous amount of waste in the form of vinyl which contributes to the micro plastic pollution problem. The student artwork currently hanging in the gallery diverted this vinyl from the waste stream, and consequently our oceans and waterways. Students chose a photo of themselves to use as a guide upon which to lay out tiny pieces of scrap vinyl. Then they fuse the plastic mosaic onto a square of fabric, sewed a sleeve at the top, and slipped in a wooden dowel to hang it on a wall. The art is on display this month at the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston (793 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02118). It’s a shared show between Boston Public Schools seniors and staff. I have three pieces in the show, one of which can be seen here in a recent Instagram post. Some student work can be seen in the following IG post.
What material can/do you creatively repurpose to reduce the amount of micro plastics entering the environment?
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Until next time,
joç
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