Transparency

Goal to creating Eco-conscious Art

Hi friends! While you’re here I would like to share one of my goals for Meraki Art, a goal that I call creating eco-conscious art.

To give some context, while in college I took a Cultural Anthropology class, and one conversation we had struck me. Cultural Anthropology looks into diverse areas of what creates culture as a whole; these are our beliefs, values, practices, social structure, and cultural change/adaptation. But the topic that stood out to me the most, under social structure, was the overview on material culture. One of my favorite examples that my professor used to simplify this was by talking about a can of coke. She asked us, what do you see when you look at a can of coke? To the naked eye, the first thing we might notice is the color, the material it comes with—metal/bottle/plastic, and the ingredients—water, sugar, etc. She then asked us to look further than what we saw, and I began to ask, why did they choose the color red? Where does the material come from? Who was responsible for the production and how are their lives? I learned a little more about coke that day, and I didn’t like what I saw.

After this conversation I looked at products differently. Through an anthropological lense, I saw where we moving as a society; the products made to help us on a daily basis moved in a way that was focused on quantity as the population grew. What I observed in my reality were products made that stopped caring about functionality, longevity, and most importantly they stopped designing with Earth in mind.

When I reflected back to my childhood and growing up in the Philippines, one of the things that stood out to me was the trash. They were everywhere, and this was common to see. I didn’t understand at the time that this wasn’t just about the people and bad habits to recycling, or not learning to value their belongings more, or loitering; although these bad habits do not help either. The bigger issue lied within how things are designed/created for us; the need for accountability to how we are trained as a society to consume. I learned that this was all part of a bigger system, that the problem was in the system where the consumption of products or products made does not keep in mind the environmental impact it has or the people it affects. It’s a cycle where we—the consumers—are desensitized to the point that we consume at a pace where we do not think about or ask how a product in front of us came to be, and products are produced at a pace where quantity is more important than quality.

I am not here by any means to shame any body for wanting something new or buying into products that are convenient or within reach. I am also a consumer who also buys what is new and what’s convenient, but having this knowledge and understanding of the bigger system surrounding the environmental impact of the things we buy, we can learn to be someone who stops to ask how a product came to be before buying them—if its made out of products that can be reused, or if it will deteriorate back to earth naturally. Our footprint may be smaller compared to these big corporations, but we can also choose to not participate in a system that does not value people or the environment. Becoming more aware, I have truly appreciated products made that use materials that are created with a plan even at the end of its life, because there is nothing more important than the planet we live in, Earth. 

So coming back to my goal for Meraki Art, I’m aiming to create art that is “eco-conscious”—creating things that keep in mind sustainability for both earth and as a handmade artist. I want to work towards producing art that keeps in mind the environmental impact of the materials I use (including the wire, the beads, chains/hooks, and the packaging it comes with). To the best of my ability, I want to find alternatives that are sustainable. By no means do I claim any of my products to be completely eco-friendly, but I will continue to learn so that I choose to use materials that are biodegradable/recycable.

I started off with this initiative with packaging when I first launched Meraki Art. I created origami lotus flowers to package and I chose to use Lokta paper. This is a paper derived from the bush of a Daphne Papyrus or Lokta Shrub, used early on for documents found sacred to Nepalese folks. I chose this (1) because this plant grows very quickly, (2) it is durable and could last longer, and (3) it uses eco-friendly method of fiber processing and pulping. Although this practice can be labor intensive, and so if interested, the best we can do as consumers is to find people/businesses that are Nepalese base so that it helps their community. The origami serves as a container/display, but is also made with products that can be recycled even when thrown away.

With my wires, I’am currently using copper based metals because I found that it is one of few metal options that is environmentally friendly due to its high recyclability, meaning it can be reused repeatedly without losing its properties, significantly reducing the need for new mining operations and lowering the environmental impact of copper production making it a sustainable material. I’m hoping to add more metal options later on.

I have so many plans in the future to produce art that is eco-conscious such as making my own beads with metal/air dry clay, choosing recycled items–in particular, restoring gold/silver chains/pendants because these are materials with high environmental impacts because of the mining process. As well as reusing boxes to package.

I am far from where I would like to be with my goal, but I am working towards creating eco-conscious art just by simply being aware and wanting to learn. I hope that you can learn with me in the process of rethinking materials, methods and practices, so that we can collectively work towards a more sustainable future in the art community. Our impact may be small but it is important, and maybe by sharing it can be a bigger impact.

Love,

Meraki Art