Boys and Girls Club

This week we ventured to the Boys and Girls Club at the Bear River Charter School in Logan. Kate led the students in some awesome and environmental art projects! Everyone wrote down and drew pictures of things that they could do to help the air stay clearer during inversions. There were some awesome ideas!

Next, the children made paper models of particulates. They put Vaseline on these and will hang them outside. Over the course of the next week the design will capture air pollution and the kids will be able to have a visual of what the bad air looks like. 

Thank you to the Boys and Girls Club for letting us come today, and thank you for your great participation! The earth will be in good hands. 

Finito!

I present to you the finished project! Colored by many helping hands. Thank you to everyone who participated! The final coloring was done on Wednesday, January 29. It only took 7 days to fill in 64 square feet of paper. I believe it would have been faster, but by the end of it, people were having a hard time accessing the very top and bottom of the color by numbers - to reach the top required very long arms or a chair to stand on, and coloring the very low portions presented difficult coloring angles. I am so grateful for all the people who helped make this a success. It's true that if everyone does a little bit, a lot can be accomplished. Let's keep it fresh and clear the air!

Also in air news check out what went down in SLC - a group of 4,000 protesters met at the state capitol for a clean air rally. They pushed for legislation to make changes so that the government will take an active role in reducing air pollution. These people mean action. Check it out here.

The Making Of- and other FAQs

I first designed the color by numbers using Adobe Illustrator. This took a long time. A really long time. A lot longer than I ever imagined it taking! I'm guessing I spent about 18-20 hours working on the design alone. I started out with a crude structure and refined it as I went along. On a separate layer, I blocked out the main areas in basic colors.

I chose 17 of the 24 colors found in the Crayola 24 Pack and assigned them each a number. I then worked block by block, breaking up the space with lines and adding the numbers.
Once we had finished our design we had it printed by Kinkos in the FedEx Store. The design needed to be 8 ft x 8 ft, however 3 ft is the widest they can go on prints. Andy separated the project file into three sections and it was printed off that way.

Next we cut a few blank margins off the paper with exacto knives and used spray adhesive to mount the paper onto Particle Board from the Home Depot. 

When we finished, we laid the particle boards on top of a cart and rolled them over to the library.

We set it up! The next day we brought over the crayons and color keys and watched the project unfold.

Ta-Da!

Day 3 Update - Lungs, Professional Colorists, and Every Little Bit Helps

Wow! I've been so stoked over the last three days to see this project take shape! There has been a great involvement from everyone in random acts of coloring. Thanks to every passerby, the piece is almost completely filled in. You are probably starting to see the design taking shape - and yes - it is a pair of lungs! Those black and gray shapes floating around inside them represent the harmful PM 2.5 particles that are polluting our air in Cache Valley. These particles are dangerous because they are so small and able to move right into our lungs, and stay. This can have all kinds of side effects like coughing and wheezing to developing lung cancer. Read more here. These are exactly the kinds of issues we'll be talking about and looking into with the Art For Air project.

The poor air quality is especially dangerous for young children - a lot of kids don't get to go outside for recess anymore! (Especially considering that last week we had the worst air in the NATION-woof). So to really get things done, on Friday, we brought in the professionals - a second grade glass from Edith Bowen Elementary. Not only are they learning to be environmentally conscious and to do their part- they are professionals when it comes to coloring. The school is located right on campus, and this brave class came over to help- some of them even brought their own crayons. Since the boards were so tall, we tipped them on their sides. 4-6 kids lined each board and they went for it!

Never underestimate the coloring skills of children, its pretty amazing. They got a LOT done!

Every little bit helps in filling in this color by numbers. If I tried to do the whole thing myself, it would take way, way to long. Most people are busy, and in life it's hard to stop- but I have loved watching people walk by, double take, grab a crayon, fill in a number, and keep moving. In the end, every single shape that was colored will have made a difference. I think its like that with air quality. If I tried to solve the problem myself, I wouldn't make much of a difference, but if everybody did one small thing every week, that could make a difference. If all of us tried to carpool one day, or take the bus one day, or consolidated our errand-running...that could equate into one big breath of fresh air.

More links about PM 2.5 particles
EPA
AIRNow

Color By Numbers!

People! People! Our first project is up! This morning, January 23, 2014, was the great unveiling. As part of Arts Week, we joined in the great wave of installations that are spotting the campus. Find us in the hallway that connect the main entrance of the USU Library to the Quadside Cafe. There you will find the biggest color by numbers you have ever seen. You will also find crayons and an invitation for you to color. Color all you want. Bring friends, lovers, or foreign exchange students. Coloring is therapeutic, and always a good time! The image may be entirely unrecognizable now, but with your help, it will become clear.


17 different colors. This is what lies before us:

What is this all about?

In December, Andy Bayles (my husband), Kate Gourley, Paige Gardner, and I were the excited recipients of $1,400 grant from the Sustainability Council at Utah State University. Here in Logan, Utah, we have some of the worst air in the nation during the winter months. This is mainly due to cold temperatures creating inversions and trapping hazardous particles in the air. The grant is an opportunity for students to gain funds to work on projects to find solutions. The four of us who applied for the grant are art majors or minors and firmly believe in the powers of art to inform, motivate, and create change- and so we proposed to do a series of public and interactive artwork around the USU Campus about the air quality issues in Cache Valley. I was delighted when I found out that our project received funding. We hope to bring attention to the issues at hand and inform and encourage others to take action. There are many simple things we could each to do to make the air a little better, and a lot of little betters could make a big difference. Much more to come! I can't wait to show you what we have up our sleeves (and since Andy has such long arms, you can only imagine the amount of great stuff we have planned). Art, ideas, interesting facts, ways to contribute...stay with us!