Published: April 19, 2007 06:30 pm         

Learn how to make art with plastics

TERRE HAUTE — A Plastiquarium Workshop, making art with recycled plastics, is slated for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 2 in the Swope Art Museum.

The program is intended for ages 10 and up. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Nationally recognized recycled plastics artist David Edgar will conduct the hands-on workshop.

There is a 20-student limit and the cost for the workshop is $65 for Swope members and $75 for non-members. Six of Edgar’s Plastiquarium pieces were a popular part of last year’s North American Exhibition of Paper and Plastic Art at the Swope.

“Recyclable plastics are a new indigenous urban material with huge potential as a contemporary craft media” says Edgar, who has exhibited his “Creatures from the Plastiquarium” in more than 30 juried exhibitions in 15 states since 2004.

Working with recyclable plastics results in lightweight and colorful, uniquely crafted artworks that embrace a festive aesthetic as it comments on our fragile ecology. All participants need to bring are clean plastic bottles and a selection of ordinary household hand tools. Edgar will facilitate an orientation of materials and equipment and demonstrate fundamental techniques for both large and small assembly projects. Call the Swope curator at (812) 238-1676 or e-mail michna@swope.org for more details.

Edgar of Charlotte, N.C., will be in Terre Haute to judge the 63rd Annual Wabash Valley Juried Exhibition. Previously a production artist on the EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland projects for Walt Disney World in Florida, he is associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

While earning his master’s of fine arts in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Edgar worked in the conservation department of the Henry Ford Museum. He also earned a bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

In keeping with his studio work in a wide range of materials, his exhibition history reflects over 25 years of consistent activity and his artwork is represented nationally in corporate, institutional and private collections.