Opening soon…Gallery in the garden?

I love art, any art, even the art I dislike. Art is very personal and we all interpret it in our own way. From the masters to the classics and contemporary. This isn’t an article about art but more about preserving it…for future generations.

And by preserving it, I mean saving it from landfill.

We should should all take a trip out to see a dump. It should be part of school excursions. I had never seen landfill for myself until I moved to Canberra, the Australian Capital. I paid a visit to what everyone called the Junk Shop. They are actually now called the The Green Shed, they are warehouse that is linked to the local rubbish tip where trailer loads are dropped off everyday. It was a sight! Mountains of rubbish and from the line up of cars waiting to dump more I was just overwhelmed, I was really quite lost for words. The Green Shed does its best to salvage what is can and resell with most proceeds going to local charities.

Canberra has been quoted as being the nation’s best recyclers, but we shouldn’t be complacent. The equivalent of approximately 350,000 kerbside bins goes to landfill each week, including bulk domestic waste. The sad fact is that at least half of this waste could be recycled or re-used.

And as the population of the city grows the volume of Canberra’s landfill is increasing, despite the efforts of the waste management services trying to reduce, re-use and recycle. Still over 200,000 tonnes of waste from domestic, commercial and industrial sources are currently going into landfill each year.

Those with a conscious and aware of their environment and footprint will for items that have some value makes efforts to resell or donate to one of the many charity shops reselling used goods to benefit charity. It makes you feel good, doesn’t it? because its the little bit we can do for our community and the environment in an ever increasing disposable world.

There is a greater awareness with footage of land fill reaching its limits, stock piles of unwanted goods, the problem is worldwide and there is an ever increasing awareness of how much we all throw out. The world cant sustain this and what doesn’t end up in land fill is ending up in our oceans and waterways. We have all seen the pictures! Its quite devastating to see. We must change and it is not just governments responsibility, its industry and the consumers who make make a real difference. We must all try and make a change for future generations. At home we have made some changes to composting and limiting how much plastic packaged items we buy.. in doing so we have actually saved money. But that stories for another time.

During one of my many visits to the Green Shed I came across piles of art collecting dust. I rummaged through them and yes, there were a few that I thought..really? Someone owned this! but then I stumbled across some paintings, originals that someone painted in 1921 and 1937. I felt sad, someone would have been so proud of their paintings and now it was left as junk. It is not the sort of art I would hang in my home but I felt that it needed a place to be displayed. So I bought them for next to nothing and took them home.

This is how I chose to display them. I know over time they will fade and decompose and end up as nothing but at least they are still being appreciated and brighten up the garden and my day.

This is my garden’s art.