Nancy Martini Eco Artist - Miami

The Arts at St. Johns' Divine Debris and Glorious Trash was a hugh success!

I was happy to be involved in an eco art exhibit and to be with other artists who care about the environment by expressing themselves with reclaimed materials. I had a great time and was really impressed by all the people that showed up to the event. The Arts at St Johns has a small budget to market and promote their events, so I watched in amazement how they did it.

The Arts at St. Johns did most of their marketing through Facebook. They made Facebook Note Pages for every artist which was treated like a short bio and then talked about each artist on Facebook leading up to the event. At the event the same note page was printed out and hung up next to the artist's work.

They also maximized their email lists and made it easy for the artists to send an email blasts as well. I was happy to find a pdf of a poster in my email to send to everyone on my list a few days before the event. In addition to the social networking and getting other websites and bloggers to promoted their event, they were able to get a lot of press out to the event as well.

Carol Hoffman-Guzman, curator and arts administrator at Arts at St. Johns, and friend at the welcome table. They handed out ballets asking everyone to vote for their favorite art. It was a great way to collect information on who attended the event and then add them to their email list for their next event.

Paula Turk, co-curator/artist, and friend in front of her metal work.

Dan Walker being interviewed by a journalist. I was amazed to see how many people were there to document the event. Chanel 2 was there as well interviewing all the artists. It was very loud in the gallery, Chanel 2 had a small digital camera and a battery microphone to interview everyone. I am anxious to see how that turned out. We should be able to see it next week sometime.

Stefan Von Fonts with his interesting use of cans poured with resin surrounded with metal pipes. He also created the piece below with Scott Hickey. He created the piece onsite using the plastic water bottles that people brought to the event.

Art by Scott Hickey and Stefan Von Fouts

"The Wish List: A Plastic Bag-Free City" by Nancy Martini

Here is one of the pieces I exhibited at the event. The theme of the event was Miami Beach, so I wanted to created a piece that had an eco message and also said Miami Beach. The background is made from fused plastic bag and the borders are coat hangers wrapped with soda cans. The attached pieces are aluminum pieces and bottle tops and plastic water bottles.

My wish for all Miami Dade is to become plastic bag free. It is such a simple thing to do and would make a hugh difference.