Changing
the World, One Work of Art at a Time:
So here we are again, after waiting a
year, the gift-giving season is nearly upon us.
I’m all for giving gifts, our Camellia Aqua Pastels is in the gift
giving guide in this month’s The Artists’ Magazine. However,
really, how much do we really need a plasma television, a new iPod or
a DVD it would be easier to rent than to find space for on the shelf?
Rampant American consumerism has been blamed for many ills. It does seem
true that we are drowning in pointless plastic commodities that are more
about diversion than need. We spend a tremendous amount of our resources
on things small and large and as we enter the gift-giving season, we will
purchase a significant amount of inexpensive toys, DVDs, video games as
well as mass-produced decorative items.
The negative consequences of our obsession with acquiring an endless supply
of inexpensive consumer goods result in the following:
Article Continues
• Being complicit
in child labor, as some factories in third world countries do use children
in manufacturing.
• An ongoing balance of trade disaster
• Continued depletion of natural resources including rain forest
resources and petrochemicals.
• Water spoliation in many parts of the world.
• The use of fuel to ship all of this around the world and with
the result of releasing quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
For my birthday this year, I received two lovely and original oil paintings.
I received these because I admire them and they will find a place of honor
in our house.
These were not made in a factory and do not represent one of thousands
of identical objects. They are unique and personal gifts.
Give the gift of original art this holiday season.
For the price of a plasma screen television a portrait in oils can be
commissioned.
For the price of a new iPod, a lovely watercolor work can be bought.
For the price of a DVD or video game a child can receive a series of art
or music lessons.
We can help support the professional artists in our communities. We can
move away from patterns of consumption that have negative consequences
for the environment and for communities and workers overseas.
Let’s change the world, one art work at a time.
Brought to us by Camlin North America,
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Read our October Issue: Primitive
Art is Not Art
Read our August Essay: Shadow as Metaphor
in Art
Read our June Essay: PBS' How Art Made the World
Read our May Essay: What College Art Teachers
Expect from High School Students
Read our April essay: Technological Innovations
in Art Educations
Read our March essay: Does Handwriting have
a Future?
Read our February essay: Copyright and trademark
for the art educator
Read our January essay: Counseling your students
on choices for Higher Education
Read our December essay: Why Teaching Visual
Art is now a Necessity
Read our November essay: Teaching Collage as Social
Critic
Read our October essay: The Place of the
Body in Education
Read our September essay: The Ways Artists
Support Themselves
Read our August essay: Why students should copy
the great works
Read our July essay: Hidden Clues in Works of
Art
Read our June essay: The Mathematics of Art
Read our May essay: The Importance of School
Art Competitions
Read our January essay : Art History
and the Internet
Read our March essay: Ink Jet Printers
and the Color Wheel:
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