Paintings by Joseph “JD” Green from Recology.
In the fall of 2022, Creativity Explored artists were hard at work turning trash into treasure as part of a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the Recology Artist-in-Residence Program. To kick off our 40th anniversary, these masterpieces were unveiled in CE’s first exhibition of the year: RELOVE.
CE artists often work with recycled materials, but the Recology partnership enabled them to create on a grander scale. Culled from the most unlikely of places, discarded objects (plastic jewelry, broken doors, styrofoam packing, punching bags) quickly became works of art in their skilled hands.
Join us as we dive deeper into a discussion of the creative process of artists who choose to use found objects as the basis for their work or utilize it as a reference point to address environmental justice through traditional media and performance.
Artists Ana Teresa Fernandez, Matt Gonzalez, and Joseph “JD” Green will be joined by Deborah Munk, Manager of the Recology Artist in Residence Program for a roundtable exploration of how chance and accident come into play when using discarded materials – and how this practice of ‘reloving’ can innovate social change.
Panelists
Joseph “JD” Green's work demonstrates an eye for detail combined with a penchant for quick handwork. His process involves creating preliminary sketches from source imagery found online or from his imagination. His chosen disciplines are printmaking, drawing, painting, and ceramics. For Green, art-making is an opportunity to relax, explore his own imagination, and engage others in conversation about what he is creating.
Through time-based actions and social gestures, Ana Teresa Fernández creates paintings, installations, and videos that explore 21st-century feminism, postcolonial landscapes, and the psychological barriers to empathy. Born in Tampico and based in San Francisco, she earned an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute; her work is held in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, and Kadist Art Foundation, among other organizations.
Matt Gonzalez is an attorney in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and collage artist exhibiting with Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco. A native of McAllen, Texas, he holds a BA from Columbia University and JD from Stanford Law School. He has published art criticism in Juxtapoz Magazine, San Francisco Arts Quarterly, Squarecylinder, and the San Francisco Examiner.
Deborah Munk is Manager of the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence and Educational Tour Programs. The Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is an art and education initiative that awards Bay Area artists access to discarded materials, an unrestricted stipend, and an individual studio space. These resources, along with comprehensive support, are provided to artists while they create a body of work and host studio visits during their four-month residency.