ARTISTS the zero waste specialists!
I grew up with resourceful parents. They were and are amazing people, with extreme and inventive talents that supported the family when times were tough. My parents knew need. They shared that important knowledge with their children. Things were not wasted, they were used and reused until nothing was left. Water heaters made out old tanks, floors built out of reclaimed lumber, that my father taught my best friend and I to harvest. It is funny, as I can remember the weekend we pulled hardwood out of an old house waiting to be demolished, like it was yesterday. I can feel the heat of the day, the smell of the coal laden house, that lived along the coal dust road. My knees have tattoos from that coal. The industry that fed us and the people of my home town. I can see my girlfriend Tracy, with her long copper hair, like a crown on her head, pulling the crowbar and laughing in the sheer fun and life of hard work. It is not surprising she now is a certified carpenter and construction company owner. I love the picture of the two teenagers, build of a different stock, talking of being a Stewardess and a model, but embracing the work of reclaiming construction supplies. That wood graces the floor of the family cabin, back home on the shore of Grave Lake. A reminder of the roots of the children of the people who lived zero waste. Zero Waste was not a fad or a response to the wastefulness of generations. It was the culture. My father used to take us to the dump and teach us to create out of nothing. He was a true artist my father. My mother a true artist in the works she taught me to create, from the day she let me cut up her wedding dress. I am an artist from my roots to the the routes of the work I have been blessed to do for communities. Artists live zero waste, they deconstruct to reconstruct. They use old doors and old windows, remelt glass, make art out of debris. We are the true junk collectors. Imagine if every city dump hired artists to make art of of debris..to sell and to share…I imagine the landfill a much smaller need. 
ARTIST MICHELLE LOUGHERY 