Well, Earth Day has come and passed. The event was very well attended, I got a very nice spot in the main lobby for the exhibit, and there were a lot of people checking out the artwork. I got a lot of positive feedback about it. Here is a picture just before the event began.
It was hard to fit so much artwork into a relatively small space, so I had to be creative. Most of the art received was laminated in 81/2 X 11 inch sheets with labels indicating the artist and state/country. These were bound together with binder clips and placed on two display stands that I made myself. This created what were essentially two 'rolodexes of art'. You can see them on the far left side of the table. The downside of this setup was that not everyone's art was visible at the same time. However, most people flipped trough to see quite a bit of the art, and a good number of people looked at all of it.
Some artwork was too textured to laminate. These pieces were put on clips and hung from a rope. The rope was suspended from a Cal/EPA banner. The 3-D pieces from Susan Wendlant's class were put out on the table (middle) and the 3-D boxes from Mia Half were in a container on one of the rolodexes.
On the right side of the table was a poster about particulate matter that had actual samples from different parts of the state along with filters that you could touch and samples that you could smell.
In this picture you can also see the table to the right which had paper and art supplies for kids to make their own art. This was very popular. Kids were encouraged to make art with themes related to particulate matter, and could either take their art home or have it hung on the wall to add to the show. Most kids opted to take it home. One kid made a very nice drawing of a steamshovel, added it to the show, and then decided she had to have it after the event was over, so I had to dig through my boxes to find it to give it back to her. Kids are funny like that. The beautiful lady in the yellow dress (which she made herself) is my wife, and the little girl with the ponytails is my daughter. They were very nice to come help me hold down the fort.
This is a picture taken at the end of the day. Note the children's art that was added to the show on the rope to the left of the table. I'm the dorky looking guy on the right who didn't realize his picture was being taken. This is where I stood most of the day, accosting passersby with details about the art and particulate matter in general. I regret not having taken any 'action shots' of people checking out the exhibit. Sorry about that. Most of the day there were 6-10 people at a time checking the booth out and I was too busy talking to them to take pictures. Some EPA employees took pictures during the event, and I will post those here as soon as I get them.
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to make art for the show, to the fine people at the Cal EPA building who organized Earth Day, to my family for helping out, to my boss for letting me escape the lab briefly to do this, and last, but not least, to the CHP officer in the booth next to mine whose chairs I stole before he showed up (sorry you had to stand all day, but the kids needed a place to sit and there was a chair shortage. I stood all day too if it's any consolation).
The next stop for the art will probably be the Nevada County Fair this summer, I will let you know if/when that is going to happen.
