August Artist: Edina ToKodi

Eco-minded street artist Edina Tokodi is putting a new spin on green guerilla tactics in the trendy art enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tokodi’s site-specific moss installations of prancing animal figures and camouflage outgrowths are the talk of a local urban neighborhood typically accustomed to gallery hype and commercial real estate take-overs. Unlike the market-driven art featured in sterile, white box galleries, the work of Tokodi is meant to be touched, felt, and in turn touch you in the playful ways that her animated installations call to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence.

Description and photos from: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/10/24/urban-moss-graffiti-by-edina-tokodi/

August Resource: ReMida



Remida promotes the idea that waste materials can be resources. The center collects, exhibits, and offers alternative and reclaimed materials, obtained from unsold stock and rejects or discard materials from industrial and handicraft production, with the aim to reinvent their use and meaning. Remida is a cultural project that represents a new, optimistic, and proactive way of approaching environmentalism and building change through giving value to reject materials, imperfect products, and otherwise worthless objects, to foster new opportunities for communication and creativity in a perspective of respect for objects, the environment, and human beings.

Remida is a joint project of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and AGAC (the gas, water, and garbage collection utility) and is managed by the Friends of Reggio Children Association. The center distributes materials (paper, cardboard, ceramic, paints, cord, leather, rubber, wood, and so on) to teachers of infant-toddler centers and preschools, elementary, middle, and secondary schools, as well as to educational and cultural associations, senior citizens' centers, sheltered workshops for the disabled, recreation centers, and so on. Remida also promotes and organizes workshops and training courses, seminars, exhibits, and conferences.

Description and photos from: http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/remida.htm

April Artist: Shelley Smith + Art to Wear

Art to Wear is a collaborative show between NC State’s College of Textiles and College of Design students. Art to Wear's past Art and Design Faculty Advisor, Vita Plume, along with a couple of Anni Albers Scholars initiated the show in 2001. It was held in 'the pit' at the College of Design with merely a hundred spectators. Art to Wear now resides in Reynold's Coliseum playing host to over 1000 attendants annually. This eclectic show has always emphasized a fusion of art and fashion, making it anything but your typical fashion show.

Featured artist for April is Shelley Smith, an NC State textile and art + design student that created her pieces for the show with reclaimed fabrics.  Watch an interview here, see images of her work and read an AP article about the event.

The show is similar to Richmond's own tradition, Wearable Art, put on by 1708 gallery.