ST. MARTIN PARISH — Exploring the intersection between creativity and sustainability has been a long time goal of artist Rena Edery.
She says that “Trash is treasure, there’s no such thing as waste”
That philosophy lead her across the globe as she studied environmental engineering in Maryland before traveling to Turkey and Greece where she created various art pieces with environmental preservation at the forefront of her designs.
But now, she’s found herself in St. Martin Parish at the art gallery and educational organization Nunu's Arts and Culture Collective, where she’s chosen to share her vision of sustainable art with other creatives in a workshop she calls the “Bamboo Project.”
Edery says she owes the project to local artist Kathleen Whitehurst, who reached out to her and encouraged her to come to Louisiana.
“She gets on the phone with me and tells me, just show up, so I did and I’ve been showing up ever since and now we’re here. What brought me here and kept me here was her dream," Edery says.
Both Edery and Whitehurst dream of utilizing bamboo to help protect our land.
It’s Edery’s hope that by encouraging and teaching artists unique ways to incorporate recyclable items such as bamboo into their works, it will have a positive impact on the environment and help “make ourselves the most resilient that we can to climate change and the entire history of extraction.”
