Used pop cans.
Discarded TV
dinner cartons.
Old hub caps.

Contents of a typical garbage can? Not to artist Rik Nelson (MA '78). To him these are ideal materials to create a contemporary work of art with a message.

Nelson, who has shown his works from Spokane to Chicago, from Lewiston, Idaho to Salina, Kansas, has created a stir in the art community for his recyclable art, and was on hand at Spokane's Riverfront Park on Earth Day (April 22) to create a work of art with a "creative team" of EWU Creative Writing Program graduate students.

The result was an eight-by-twelve foot Earth Day 2001 poem/sculpture, which passers-by could watch being created before their eyes!

"Throughout the day," says Nelson, "the MFA poets interacted with festival-goers to talk about their local-global-personal environmental concerns and dreams, then each of them created a one-of-a-kind poem from the words of the public. As the poem developed, I shaped letters and words from recyclable materials (plastic, aluminum, tin, paper) to fabricate the poem into a visual work of art."

Nelson is not new to this form of art. He has currently been using recyclables to create the "trophies" for winners of last year's BEST Program environmental awards in Spokane. Winners in energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, and efficient transportation will be recognized at the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce "Good Morning Spokane" breakfast meeting November 10.

BEST Partners are: Avista Utilities, City of Spokane (Spokane Regional Solid Waste System), Journal of Business, Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, Spokane County, Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, Spokane Transit, Transportation Choices Coali- tion, and Washington State Department of Ecology.

Nelson also recently received notification from the Washington State Arts Commission that he has been selected to be in their Artists Resource Bank (ARB). The ARB is a working tool for the Art in Public Places Program, which will conduct art acquisition activities with 1/2 of 1% funds added to construction allocations in the state's Capital.

"As far as I know," says Nelson, "the sort of thing we did in Riverfront Park has never been done before. But that alone didn't make it a significant event. What made it important was that it demonstrated a stimulating, useful, positive way that students in one of the university's centers of excellence are putting their artistic/communication skills to work in the community."

Nelson says he genuinely finds "inspiration from the university's programs and how the vitality of those programs can be used to invigorate the community at large."

As an example of that invigoration, the Spokane Arts Commission and Spokane Regional Solid Waste Systems pledged materiele support for the project and will find a place to display the final art work after Earth Day.

"The civic-university connection is important too, I think," says Nelson.

The visually rich work of art was a popular attraction at the park that day, not only were the vivid colors of the huge poem visible from far across the rolling grass hills, but the grad students interacting with children, parents and other festival-goers caused a continual crowd around the project area.

Nelson firmly believes that art should be a community experience and has formed an organization called Arts and Community Enrichment Services (ACES) which is designed to meld art, education, business and community resources to create works of art for permanent public display. This partnership, says Nelson, nurtures community spirit.

"People of all ages and interests are invited to participate," he adds. "The result of their cooperative endeavor is a beautiful, long-lasting piece of art created by the community, for the community."

Nelson has an internet web site for his ACES Program and his own works of art for sale.

You can find it at: http://www.artsenrich.com