Fish made of plastic bags? Purses crocheted from grocery bags? Bugs crafted from shampoo bottles? Wait — a torrent of water bottles tumbling off the plateau and morphing into fish? And how about a Sewanee angel decked out in plastic finery?
These and more form the current exhibit at Stirling's Coffee House, which follows this year's Earth Day theme: Planet vs Plastics.
On the "Planet" side of things, students at Sewanee Children's Center and kindergarteners at Sewanee Elementary School have drawn colorful flowers and an array of bee pollinators.
But dangling from the ceiling, threatening to overwhelm these natural beauties, are goggle-eyed fish and other sea life created from plastic bags by SES fourth graders under art teacher Penny Payne's direction. Peering from the walls are fantastical creatures and conceptual designs all made from throw-away plastic by St. Andrews Sewanee art instructor Rachel Malde's students.
Herbarium nature journalers have constructed a cascade of disposable water bottles that plunge from the campus down the plateau, all overseen by a Sewanee angel attired head to foot in plastic. Displayed here and there are handbags and a large tote bag, all crocheted from single-use grocery bags.
College students Kendall Buck, Nneko Okola, and Leyden Schelke, along with Herbarium nature journalers, coordinated and hung the show, which will be on display through the middle of May.
BRING YOUR REUSABLE CUP and hop over to Stirling's for refreshments and ...adorable reflections on whimsical ecological destruction?
