Visual Journey;
Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose, … Repeat
Eco-Art of Anne Cummings
Visual Memior #1, Sown, Sewn, Boomer Born, Midwest Bred (Infancy, Childhood), Anne Cummings 2019
Folley Hall Gallery
January 20th, 2021 - April 9th, 2021
Anne Cummings is a Vermont “Eco Artist” creating work from recycled, reused, and repurposed materials, with the intent of making art that minimizes its impact on the environment and educates the viewer about environmental issues. Anne creates from her conviction to use ECO-ART FOR CHANGE.
The work collected for this exhibition includes pieces from a variety of series, which were created over a span of the last 5-6 years to the present. There are two essential connecting threads throughout this collection. All works incorporate recycled, reused, or repurposed materials to the greatest extent possible, and the visual imagery is intended to convey Anne's commentary on contemporary environmental or social justice issues.
They are presented in a generally chronological format - from the Local Food series pieces which utilize food packaging to create images of the food they held; the Plastic World series, which grapples with our dependence on and discarding of tons of plastic into our environment; the Carbon Footprint Portraits and Visual Memoir piece, which use the items cast off by an individual that represent their consumption and personal history; all the way to recent pieces in the Creative Quarantine Collage series, which document visually the struggles and changes of our tumultuous and politically fraught past year.
Through the use of recycled, reused, and repurposed materials as her artistic media, Anne hopes to hold up a mirror for viewers that shows the color, fabric, imagery, and concepts that make up all our contemporary lives, through the lens of her unique personal vision of the world.
Selections from the Exhibition
Artist Bio: Anne’s involvement in the arts has been a lifelong pursuit, from art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art as a child to creating and teaching art in many venues throughout her art career. Anne pursued a joint Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art and art history from Ohio University and later did graduate work in history and art history at the University of Toledo and Ohio State University. She completed a Master’s degree at Saint Michael’s College in Creative Arts in Education. Her current goal is to use her eco-art to raise awareness and support environmental causes.
Anne has worked professionally in the arts in many capacities. She has been a business owner, exhibition coordinator and designer, museum store manager, artists’ representative, graphic artist, grants writer, member of a fiber artists’ cooperative, and art consultant. She recently completed a 21 year career as a high school art educator and is now focusing full time on her studio art practice, environmental issues, and community art and culture work.