Escondido gallery creates art from recycling

By: JOEL D. AMOS - For the North County Times | Wednesday, April 12, 2006 11:02 AM PDT ∞

Employing the adage everything old becomes new again, the Escondido Municipal Gallery presents its new exhibit, "Director's Cut: Recycle, Reuse, Redux ---- It's My Bag" through May 7.

Victoria Huckins, executive director of the gallery, hopes the juried exhibit of art created from recycling will make people think twice at the world around them.

"I have always had an interest in working on a project involving art with recycled materials, but it was my thinking that this should not just be about using recycled materials. I needed to figure out what I was trying to say," Huckins said. "What would happen if out of the landfills grew these creative art pieces?"

"I've always wanted to do an installation piece, so I put a call to artists in San Diego to bring in pieces of work that artists made using recycled materials."

Huckins was worried the call would fall on deaf ears.

"Not only is it two ideas that are coinciding with each other, but people aren't used to doing recycled art. I wasn't sure they would be into it at all."

The other mitigating factor is the nature of installation art itself, the gallery's first foray into that artistic realm. Artists must create knowing their product has to be part of a much larger idea. The concept plays out in a fantasy forest made of paper and other trash.

"It is like the art is growing out of the recycled trees ---- even the mulch is made out of used paper," Huckins said.

The director's passion for this issue grew from her own messages she instills in her children.

"My thing is the Earth has limited resources and we should really try to use these resources to their full extent," Huckins said. "We shouldn't just throw everything away that gets used once. There are multiple uses for everything."

Art can make people think, but Huckins sought to create an exhibit that would produce a call to action.

"I tend to be shy about being more of an activist, but we try to be self-conscious of the cars we drive and what I teach my kids," Huckins said.

The gallery's hard work culminated when the artists gathered to produce their collective statement.

"It was truly special," Huckins said.

The experience proved especially sweet for a curator who wasn't sure that she could successfully translate her vision into a graspable concept for the artists.

"That was a challenge in itself. Everyone was so great."

To witness what she envisioned come to life was an experience Huckins would like to repeat. She is considering venturing into public art.

"I want to do something on an even bigger scale," Huckins said.

She said museum executives constantly strive to create exhibits that are equal parts creative, resourceful, educational and environmentally sound.

"I don't want to be didactic about it," Huckins said. "I just want to have people look at trash in a different light."