Art and the Environment – Where Do You Stand? 1

Nowadays we hear a  lot about conservation.  But how many artists that have their work printed and framed actually know if their prints are part of a conservation project or part of the mass throwaway society responsible for the climate changes and loss of wildlife?

The market is flooded with inferior products from areas that are felled and not regrown properly.  Cheaper yes, but for every tree felled there is another loss to oxygen and wildlife.  Loss of trees is one of the biggest sources of the carbon dioxide warming the atmosphere, accounting for 18% of annual emissions.  We dont need only trees to make paper, hemp for instance makes a great canvas! It is easier to grow too and could be a sustainable alternative to tree pulp.

Consider also the use of the fossil fuels involved in transporting products over such large distances, not to mention the handling time. This is of great concern when you learn that many of our wood and paper is actually imported from other countries rather than using locally grown sources.

So what SHOULD the artist and photographer be looking for?

We need to start demanding from our printers and framers that they use locally, well tended forest trees for their materials.  If enough people demanded this then more trees would be grown and the price would come down.  Less fuel costs and less transport charges would apply so the difference in costs may not be as bad as you think.

Hemp is easily grown and could replace the fields that farmers are told to keep empty by the government. Again, locally grown hemp could then be widely available for canvas, clothes, paper and much more.

My personal opinion is that compainies like RedBubble in Australia and Imagekind in America, to name just two, would benefit by looking at the larger picture now and starting to take control over their businesses to incorporate more and more local produce and not just go for the cheap option.

This conversation is continued in our Talk Art Forum that has FREE membership. Come and join in as we explore what it takes to be an Environmentally Friendly Artist

Or read all the posts so far in this section HERE

Tags: art, conservation, EFA, environment, framing, paper, trees

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 17:38 and is filed under An Artist's Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.