EPISODE FOUR "Haste Management"
August-October 2008 Visual artists, filmmakers, and performers/musicians, all come together to present their unique experiences and new insights in November 2008 at Visage Gallery in downtown Portland.

Screening times/locations to be announced!

PRE-PROJECT STATEMENTS
LNPB-MAINE - First Satellite Exhibit!- Waterville, Maine
LNPB-Maine has 12 folks who have agreed to do take on this project. We set Oct. 3rd to Dec 12th as our 1st episode. Becca, Meg, Ken and I (Beth) are the core. Becca has set up Facebook; Meg, MySpace; I've started a blog . We're trying to get everyone in our group to write a pre-project statement. Ken's statement starts, "I'm not an artist but I'm a human being on this planet..."

Taylor Cass-Stevenson - Returning - Portland, Oregon
Most of my artwork uses reused plastic, so saving it is a habit that I have already developed. I am a purist with materials and prefer to use just one type of plastic or trash in my work to emphasize the material as an effective artistic medium, rather than just an environmental statement. I appreciate work that is 100% reused. I am driven by collaboration, especially international, and am fascinated by discards from abroad.

Vicky DeKrey- Returning - Portland, Oregon
This will be my fourth episode of LNPB. As a mother, I believe strongly in educating people about the detrimental effects of plastic on our lives and our planet so there can still be a planet for our children. We need to work together to change the way plastics are used in our society, especially single-use and "throw away" plastics. My biggest challenge will be time issues - time to devote to awareness raising activities as well as to making my art project. However, my attempts at personal plastic reduction and my plastic saving are ongoing and so is my art. I'm going to continue experimenting with sewing the materials together and make a quilt-like piece meant to be viewed from both sides.

Devon Damonte - New - Olympia, Washington -
Hi my name is Devon and I'm a plastaholic. My primary medium is film, a plastic base onto which I often directly apply several more layers of plastic: tape, bags, self-adhesive rolls of semi-transparent patterns, etc. I've been lucky to screen my work and teach workshops at such hallowed halls as NY Film Fest, Pacific Film Archives, Harvard, Hollywood's Egyptian Theater, RISD, McMurdo Station
Antarctica and locally at mighty 40frames among others. My beachcombing studies became more serious when I discovered world-renowned Seattle flotsamist/ oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, and his work with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Since then, much of my work has related (with varying degrees of abstraction) to tides and gyres and flotsam and plastic.

Since beginning this round with LNPB, I am staggered and humbled by how naive I really am about the quantity of single-use plastics that flow through my hands every day outside my consciousness. How easily fooled I am by tricks like making plastic look like foil. I've also become instantly aware how going without plastic can't help but spread to others around me, as I ask the pie lady to please put my strawberry-rhubarb in a paper wrapper. Another pioneer of Garbage Patch awareness Capt. Charles Moore pointed out that we are choosing to use the very most longest lasting substance ever created for purposes often taking only a fraction of a second. I hope to directly re-animate those lost fragments of infinite seconds through graphic motion-picture performance and probably some wall stuff too. I look forward to this three month adventure in life beyond plastic.

Alicia Escott - Returning - San Francisco, California
With the rise in the cost of a barrel of oil the price of plastic has risen. Since the material is more valuable now than before recycling it has become a more cost effective process to recycle it. In San Francisco, where I live, more plastics are accepted than ever before for recycling. This is good news. But even in areas where recycling rates are highest, carbon footprints are not receding.
For this episode of LNPB I am focused not just on my personal accumulation of plastic products but on my consumption levels and the concept of disposability itself. In addition to not purchasing single use plastics for this period and for accumulating all the plastic I do acquire, I am also keeping a log of all my purchases and everything I throw away. Mostly I am asking myself the question
“What does it mean when green becomes a selling point?” .

Daniella Hy Dennenberg - New - Portland, Oregon
Daniella was the first student in the U.S. to graduate with a M.Ed. in Humane Education and was the founder and director of Seeds for Change, which offered programs on the connections between environmental, human rights, animal cruelty and media/consumerism/advertising issues to schools, universities and community leaders for over 8 years in San Diego, CA. She has spoken about humane education at a variety of conferences, including the First Congress on Humanitarian Education in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the annual UnitarianUniversalist Association Conference, the National Organization of Women (NOW)California Regional Conference, and the Educators for Non-Violence Conference.

For this exhibit Daniella wanted to continue bringing attention to issues of sustainability but in a way that brings more of myself to the work. Her biggest challenge will be keeping her plethora of ideas at bay and finding the most creative ways to bring individuality to her piece(s)! She hopes to bring something new, different and powerful to the Portland community.

Kasey Goltra - Returning - Portland, Oregon
This would be my second time living without plastic as part of LNPB. I was a participant in Episode 2. My awareness of single use plastic and the steps I take to avoid it have increased measurably as a result. I try to devise creative alternatives to plastic and have an appreciation for planning and for those around me that too question the cult of convenience. At the end of August I will be moving into a new house. I want document the transition and thoughtfully craft a space to live and create without plastic.

Cheryl Lohrmann - Returning - Portland, Oregon
The plastic-free lifestyle is now inseparable from my everyday routines, and I've become a constant observer of the collective city crannies. There are observations I hope to communicate through film and video along with at least one other filmmaker participating in Episode Four, maybe two. It's exciting that this is turning into a multi-media endeavor - I believe it is a testament to the strong truths this project reveals.

Jessica Lyness - Returning - Portland, Oregon
Now is the time for the plastic movement! Well, it has been coming on for some time. This is my fourth episode and I am what you call a "lifer" in the group Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB). I avoid plastic as much as possible because I don't want to throw it away. I have seen too many videos, pictures or witnessed first hand the damaging effects of plastic in oceans, rivers, beaches, animals and even people! Plastic is just too great of a responsibility. For "Haste Management", I want to show visual representations of convenience-coffee lids, to-go containers, dip cups, and anything else that can be avoided with some pre-planning.

Rich Mackin - New - Portland, Oregon
Rich Mackin actually went to art school. After years of painting, cartooning and xeographic collage, he got a degree in two dimensional fine art, only to spend much of his adult life as a writer. For over a decade, he spent most of his time haranging various corporations by mail and sharing his exchanges as a form of literature and performance act. Somewhere in the mix he got wrapped up in a number of non-profits and bands. Now, as an older, calmer, happier and slightly less caffeinated man, he seeks to start creating physical art more often, fueled by a somewhat Zen sense of finding a use for everything.

As this project began, Rich had no idea of what his artwork would be, only that trying to be disposable free on a cross-country honeymoon trip seemed too intriguing a dare to pass up. Truth be told, he was more focused on his upcoming nuptials than how the effect of being plastic-free would drive him and his new wife to places not on the trip itenerary…

Ed Minas - New - Kirkland, Washington
I have been a certified Master Composter/Recycler for five years and an artist for 35 years. Historically my pieces are made using 60% recycled glass. Creating art with waste plastic will be a treat. I only wish there was far less material available to work with. My challenge during this exercise will be to reduce my consumption of single-use plastics and to create a collage which conveys why I chose to do so.

Ellen Miffitt - New - Olympia, Washington
In today’s era of heightened environmental awareness, artists are increasingly turning to junk stores, trash bins and surplus outlets to satisfy their urge to create. I am appalled at how much plastic covers everything we purchase and it really bothers me to fill a trash bag with plastic. [Actually I do not buy trash bags and rarely use food storage bags or saran wrap.] Every time I go to place something into my trash bag, I take a second look and ask myself how can I use that creatively in a collage? What most people would casually toss, I select for potential inclusion. It can be anything from jar lids, coffee filters, onion skin, onion bags, broken toys, split open tubes of dried paint, paper doilies, broken costume jewelry... The challenge for me is taking things that are destined for the landfill and integrating them into my art.

Creative recycling into artwork shows my green side and my effort in caring for the planet. I reuse my sumi-e practice papers by staining them or turn scrap paper into “new” handmade paper; save bits and pieces of miscellaneous junk; and the resulting collages reflect the Zen concepts of harmony and balance that I strive to exemplify.

The Rural House - New - Portland, Oregon
Within the walls of the Rural House live 3 average Portlanders: Jalene, Molly, and Justin. Along with our swank NE PDX counterpart, Vallie, the Rural House synergy is born. Consisting of young, vibrant citizens, The Rural House actively seeks to reduce plastic consumption and waste – but this is no easy feat! We are composters, gardeners, recyclers, re-users, and reducers, but alas… we are plastic consumers. Through haste plastic consumption, each of us personally renders a global impact. We joined the Leave No Plastic Behind campaign to challenge ourselves to take a second look at the plastic we have come to depend on. The Rural House’s expression of “Haste Management” will showcase our interdependent and complacent need for plastic at both a global and local level - in the form of photography.

Rick Tyner - New - Bend, Oregon
I am a musician/ record label owner based out of Maui, HI and now Bend, OR. Together with my business partner, band mate, Micah Wolf, we’ve made it part of our promotional campaign to raise awareness to the harmful effects of plastic in our environment. The work of Captain Charles Moore and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation inspired us to write the song “One By One” which deals directly with the “Garbage Patch” of plastic collecting in the North Pacific gyre. With the help of Algalita we’ve also created an awareness building music video for the song. To coincide the promotion of our next album we’ve created the One By One Initiative to continue raising awareness wherever possible using music as our platform. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do for the upcoming event with the plastic I’m collecting, but am excited to be a part of this.

Jessica Wansart - Old Friend/New Artist- Portland, Oregon
Although this is my first time contributing artwork, I have been an LNPB enthusiast for some time now which means that the "plastic challenge" is an ongoing part of my daily life. There is truly no turning back once you've opened your eyes to the overwhelming proliferation of disposable (and avoidable) plastic "goods". My closets are filled with boxes and bags of such plastic scraps and treasures and it is time I give them a second life.

As far as what I hope to create goes, I am torn between the desire to force this unlikely medium into something aesthetically pleasing and the hope that it can be remade into something handy or functional. I think both ends have their merits and I'm not sure which direction the plastic will lead me.

Stiv Wilson - New - Portland, Oregon
I am an editor of an outdoor adventure/sustainable design magazine. And I'm a surfer. Every time I surf I am intruded upon by needless plastic waste. I will, and can change that.