The Sequim Museum and Arts Center takes the sentiment, “reduce, reuse, recycle,” to a new level, as it opens the monthlong “Recycled Art Show” on Tuesday.
The show is open to everyone and is not juried, although work does have to meet certain criteria.
A group of art students who met at the home studio of Mary Franchini in Dungeness recently worked on their prospective show pieces and talked about the art form.
Mary Marsh was creating what she called “symbollages,” using a variety of recycled and found objects.
Clearly visible in the creations called “The Joker” and “Rose” are two faces, made from computer parts, clock parts, jewelry, colorful CDs and more.
“The Joker” sports a joker playing card, while “Rose” has a rose brooch.
The faces are mounted on aluminum pizza pans.
“Recycling is important,” Franchini said. “If you can make something from nothing, that’s wonderful.”
Marsh said she works mostly in abstracts and does everything but realism.
Saundra Cutsinger normally works in realism, creating lifelike works in watercolors.
She was taking a stab at this new medium.
“I’m really having fun learning this. It frees me because I usually paint such tight pictures.”
Pam Kauffman was working on a small collage on a scrap of mat board, featuring a coffee cup cut out of a paper cup sleeve, above a piece of Styrofoam wrapper off an Asian pear, and a coffee stirrer.
“I’m one of those coffee people,” she said.
Kathey Ervin was working on what would be her first two-dimensional piece of art, featuring a variety of soft materials in muted colors.
She is well-known locally for her pottery, woven baskets and jewelry.
Syd Dupree was creating a small work that incorporated fake plastic snow, netting, a furniture backing material, rice paper and acrylic paint.
Franchini has completed an array of recycled works, including “The Last Ferry,” done on a large piece of Styrofoam overlaid with napkins and recycled house paint.
The close-up image of gears was taken on an old ferry now out of service.
Her work called “City History” features cubes of cardboard packing material, “pickled” in an acrylic medium to keep it from disintegrating, along with washers and a few spare parts from her husband’s airplane hangar.
The piece won an award from the Northwest Collage Society in a show last year.
Show curator Linda Stadtmiller said the show coincides with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and events going on in Sequim.
There’s still time to submit up to three works to the show. Work will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday.
The show is open to all artists age 18 and older.
All work must include recycled materials such as papers, metals, old artwork, fabric scraps, wood or any object that is not being used for its original purpose or has been altered artistically.
It may also include art media such as watercolor, oils, pastels, acrylics, collage, assemblage, fibers and three dimensional works.
Stadtmiller said although the show is not juried, the curators reserve the right to turn down pieces that don’t fit the museum and arts center exhibit policy.
Entry fee is $5 for up to three pieces for members of the museum and arts center and $10 for up to three pieces for nonmembers.
The arts center will charge a 25 percent commission on any pieces sold during the show.
The show runs from Tuesday through May 1.
There will be a reception for the artists during First Friday Artwalk, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 2.