A fellow blogger recently sent me a news paper article featuring an artist making environmental installations. I was very excited to learn about his work.
Now it's your chance to learn about this fabulous Houston TX, artist.
Nicola Parente is primarily a painter, but he also creates art installations that have environmental messages. Parente designed a beehive out of lunch size brown paper bags.
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This particular piece is meant to draw attention to the decrease in bee populations world wide. Bees play an important role in agriculture. Fewer bees to pollinate plants will lead to less produce being grown.
Parente also made an installation piece a few years ago that got the attention of Houston city officials.
Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
At the time, Houston was lacking a responsible recycling program. Parente drew attention to the problem by making large mushrooms out of wire and moss.
Mushrooms are one of nature's best recyclers. The mushroom exhibition got people talking and the city responded by make improvements to their recycling program.
To learn more about Nicola Parente, and his beehive, follow this link.
April 19 is the opening night for The Art of Recycling Show at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building.
For this show I made a Wetland out of cardboard, a brown paper bag, magazine pages and newspaper. Like Parente, I had an environmental issue on my mind.
Living here in Butler County it's hard not to notice the natural gas fracking happening across the landscape. When the area near my home was being scouted for possible gas pipeline routs, I spoke with a gas company rep.
Wetland protection laws were not making his job easy.
We need to protect our wetlands. Wetlands are swamps, marshes and bogs. They are natural filters and store water. Wetlands also provide habitat for plants, animals, insects and reptiles. They are high functioning ecosystems that we need to protect.
If you are not sure you agree with saving wetlands over land development, I encourage you to visit a wetland.
You will be amazed at what you see and hear. I have a wetland near my house, at night the noise coming from that area is better than any symphony played at Heinz Hall.
