When last I spoke to you, a full six weeks ago, Nard and I had just returned from a trip back East to bike tour with daughter Lauren and her partner Mollie. Since then, Joe Biden has won the Presidential election and Covid cases have exploded across our country.
During the election week madness, Nard and I escaped reality with a 13 day off-the-grid camper van trip to the West. I made another Polar Steps journal to share with you the 1,800+ mile loop we took through Utah, including nine National Parks and Monuments!
Here we are at Natural Bridges National Monument, November 2020.
In the interim, the Millennials in our life both had job changes. Lauren (she, her, hers) moved from part time to full time Marketing Director for a new product called “Loftie.” Mollie (they, them, theirs) became Resonance Companies' Director of Human Capital, a 21st Century re-labeling reference to HR Director. The idea being that human beings are an asset, rather than an expendable, exploitable resource. I like it.
And what I like even more is the serendipitous fact that my child-in-law Mollie is now working for a company that seeks to re-direct the future of our massive clothing industry toward sustainability, just as I embark on creating a body of artwork (“The Clothes We Wear”) seeking to highlight the ills of fast-fashion.
Clothing. We all need it. And then there is the wanting of it. Wanting so much of it that by some estimates, it is now the world's second largest polluter of our earth, just after the oil industry. Only 15% of our used clothing is recycled, the rest goes directly to the landfill or is incinerated. It's estimated that the fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20% of wastewater.
And we've all been hearing the alarming news reports about micro-plastics that live in our bodies. Every time we wash a synthetic garment, nearly 2,000 individual microfibers are released into the water, making their way into our oceans, where aquatic organisms ingest those microfibers, which in turn are then eaten by small fish which are later eaten by bigger fish, which are then eaten by us.
I could go on and on with the scary statistics, but you get the point. For now, I just wanted to share the joy I am feeling after learning that a 20-something in my family got hired to try to right a great wrongness that our fashion-conscious society has created. Just as I was immersed in directing my art-making to call attention to the necessity for each of us to re-evaluate the choices we make about the clothes we wear.
And who knows, perhaps a possibility exists for a future collaboration between my art activism efforts and Mollie's involvement with Resonance Companies. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a 5 min walk through of my studio, showing work in progress for the Dec 2021 Kreuser Gallery exhibtion.
My key approach is Charity Shop shopping, but I'm looking for others. My friend, Liz Kettle, did the 100 Day Challenge, in which she wore the same dress for 100 days. Wow. Do you have some feedback for me on your efforts to create clothing sustainability on an individual level?