A 7-foot-tall dinosaur, hand-crafted from laundry detergent bottles and coca-cola carriers, greeted guests at the second annual Recycled Art Festival. Once inside, they were met by a constructed aluminum-can robot, complete with scenery of floral recycled cans.
More than 65 artists and vendors created art for the Amarillo Museum of Art Alliance Recycled Art Festival. The event drew crowds from throughout the Panhandle on Friday evening with a showing of art made mostly of recycled materials.
“All materials have to be at least 75 percent recyclable, things that would be thrown away if they would not have been used,” says Kay Kennedy, Amarillo Museum of Art director of development.
The AMoA Alliance hopes the festival, originally inspired by a recycled art festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico, can put the idea of recycling in the minds of Amarillo visitors and natives in a fun way, Kennedy says.
Some of the works shown include a shelf-like piece with collected bottles, tea cups, spoons and every day objects painted white, a lamp crafted from ordinary kitchen objects and a creature made out of hair-curlers. Some of the other materials used by participants were egg beaters, tin foil, musical instruments, shows, cameras and keys.
“When they said recycled, I wasn’t sure what I expected,” Eloise Haynes, a visitor to the exhibit says. “It’s definitely an experiment in creativity.”
The festival will continue throughout Saturday at the museum with a day full of free activities, including vendors, a youth art festival and a “Make and Take” workshop for children.