On January 7th, artist Eileen Ferrara of the Hutchins Gallery led workshops on making art from found objects, successfully kicking off Sustainuary. With clear-cut enthusiasm, Ferrara started each workshop with a quick yet in-depth tour of her exhibition where she welcomed Lawrentians into her artistic dimension. Ferrara explained that many of her pieces centralize around the idea that “there are variations and similarities in nature which repeats itself” such as the close resemblance between the branching of lungs and roots. In order to capture these patterns, Ferrara finds joy in using “mystery items” in her artworks and is extremely observant of how man-made objects like plastic mesh could represent natural characteristics, that is, the wings of an insect. In fact, on a particular stand in the exhibition, Lawrenceville seems to have made its own permanent mark on Ferrara’s collection, featuring a piece of string found in the parking lot next to Tsai Commons.
For the bulk of the afternoon, Lawrentians were given the opportunity to create art with a wide array of found objects including assorted glass beads, seed pods (from the tree in front of GCAD!), scrap pieces of wood, monochromatic prints for European structures, neon-colored paper to name a few, all of which have been recycled. After hearing Ferrara’s concept of using found objects, everyone in the workshop, including a few teachers, was ready to take on the challenge. While it was difficult to come up with a topic and make the first few marks, many said the theme of their art pieces gradually came to life as they went on to make bold creative choices, surprisingly finding their way back to sustainability one way or the other. Anais Valdez ’27 claimed “it was a fun and eye-opening afternoon” that made her appreciate how much value small objects in her life can hold and she is inspired to do more with what she has in her house.
