Waste Transformed

The St. Vincent de Paul Artists in Residence program (AIR) produces art from society’s throwaways. The AIR program provides qualified artists working in a variety of media with the use of a studio and unlimited access to waste materials in our Alameda County warehouse facility. In return, the artists create art from reclaimed waste, develop product lines, talk to tour groups, and develop products for replication.

In 2009, we added a Fashion Artist in Residence (FAIR) slot, offering designers an opportunity to create fabulous fashions from discarded textiles. The FAIR designer also conducts workshops with high school students who assemble their own creations, learn about textiles and design, and help save the planet one outfit at a time.

We have modeled the SVdP AIR program after successful programs that provide unique education programs and inspire people to conserve natural resources. These innovative programs benefit both the environment and the arts. The SVdP AIR and FAIR program’s outreach activities target the general public and youth in schools throughout the East Bay community.

Featured Artists

2010 Artist in Residence - Jamie Vaida

As an artist, inventor, and builder, Jamie seeks to take advantage of the waste available from the endless stream of discarded goods by building functional useful items that are more appealing to the consumer than mass produced items. Jamie believes that connecting a consumer with an item born from discarded items helps create more value in that item but also sparks the understanding that we waste too much in our society. Crafting an object in a beautiful way will evoke those feelings more deeply in consumers.

2010 Fashion Artist in Residence - Jude Gabbard

Jude's artistic goal as our first Fashion Artist in Residence was to create a fashion collection that is not self-consciously recycled. The collection eliminates the stigma of used objects by redefining them into vital raw materials with their own intrinsic value and unique qualities. Much of Jude's prior work has explored the fashions of indigenous and folkloric cultures and the intersection of antique and modern. Unlike indigenous people who wear and repair garments until they are ruined, Americans discard nearly new items with little thought to value. Using embroidery, couture techniques and other embellishment Jude treated second hand goods as a vital creative material, moving us beyond the idea that recycling is a novelty or trend.

2009 Artist in Residence - Ryan Duke

The objects that we place in our lives (from furniture and fashion, to technology and telephones) are a collage of very small, very personal, artistic expressions. Communicating in seeming silence, these objects telegraph information about us: who we are, where we've been, and who we want to be. They are relics of our lives, artifacts of hoped-for dreams, testimonials to our beliefs. Ryan's work can be described as an effort to align the object with the belief. Ryan designs and fabricates functional objects of art that focus on socially and environmentally responsible goals.

2008 Artist in Residence - Francesca Borgatta

Francesca makes puppets to explore the psychological and emotional aspects of character. Playing with the conjunction of human and animal forms and identifying the mythological and symbolic aspects of her figures, she searches for unusual cast-off materials to combine with her construction techniques. Francesca views making art from recycled materials as a rehabilitative process filled with excitement in finding new perspectives for old materials.

2007 Artist in Residence - Ed Clapp

Ed's work strives to challenge the viewer's values through the use of low-status materials in art making, pushing people to see these materials in a new, unexpected context. Ed invites the viewer to think hard about their assumptions of art, the material world, and how they personally affect the world through what they choose to buy, use and dispose of in their lives.

2006 Artists in Residence - Sandy Drobny and Daphne Ruff

Sandy will attempt to weave or sew using almost anything; found objects and discarded scrap materials are at the top of her list. Sandy loves to work with plastic, especially brightly-colored plastic shopping bags. Ordinary items, such as shower curtains, rubber gloves, kitchen sponges, and hair curlers are used as ingredients for construction.

A recurrent theme Daphne's work is fashion and its excesses. She creates wearable sculptures from recycled materials, incorporating them into installations, performances, and videos.

Collaborations
East Bay Mini Maker Faire
SFMOMA
RPS Collective
ProArts

More Information
Chris Rummell: (510) 636-4263