Andrea Henkels Heidinger
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The Crunchy Towel Collective
illustrated musings meant to inspire hope and action in our changing world.

​After my post from October 24, 2021 I realized what a great metaphor an air-dried crunchy towel is for the minor discomforts we need to embrace now to prepare us for bigger behavioral changes and larger inconveniences and discomforts going forward. The sooner we do, the better for all of us, meaning all living things throughout the world.
I hope you find these musings helpful, somewhat humorous and ideally motivating. Please share your responses going forward, I am a student of life and love learning from others' experiences. and perspectives 

Catalyst Magazine Exhibition

6/30/2017

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With the help of Catalyst Magazine, I am making one more “ask” to get people's post-consumer artifacts to put in artworks for the Shared Artifacts Exhibit coming up at Marmalade Library in August. The Catalyst will have an article about the project as well as be a drop-off point for artifacts. Marmalade Library will also be a drop-off point.
Please challenge and inspire me with your contribution!!!


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Inspiration to Work Through the Fear

6/30/2017

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Making art with intention takes courage.
School got out the last week in May. As usual, I was exhausted, but this year, I was also very heartened by my students creative courage. “Create with purpose” has been a theme in my classroom for quite a while and this year it really seemed to resonate in the work I saw my students make. For my introductory students, I was especially impressed to see them pursue their challenging ideas despite being new to the studio environment (one that has so many eyes seeing your work) and being new to the medium. Questions inevitably turned over in their mind, like, “What if it doesn’t turn out after I have spent so much time on it? Is it worth it?” Yet they persisted with wonderful results!
 
My advanced students also exhibited courage by sharing a part of their individual stories in the visual form. Their innovative and bold art and the statements at their final presentations were truly admirable… Inspiring actually.
 
Don’t second-guess your vision — GO FOR IT!
A week later, with these reflections in my mind, I was lucky enough to go to Hawaii with my husband’s family on vacation. Hawaii was truly relaxing. We visited with one another, hiked, swam, snorkeled, and bird watched, among other things. I didn’t sketch as much as I usually do on vacation, but I think that is alright. Below are a few sketches I managed to do and some pictures from the island landscape, which I found dramatic and lovely!  
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One night, we went on an Art Walk at a local shopping center, Kukui’ula Village. It was a fun exploration with a variety of galleries, all of which had something interesting to us. One of my favorite galleries was Gallery 103 which, of course, was contemporary! While there, I was struck but  Deyana Mileke’s work. That evening, she had paintings that were made in a limited palette of blues. She was there and I was able to speak with her about a painting with albatross in it. In it, one bird was soaring above the other, both large and taking up most of the page.  She spoke of her personal experiences with albatross and her need to make this work (the second of its kind) and how the experiences dictated what the painting needed to be. Contemplating the conversation later, I felt like to was reaffirmation to make the work I need to make without worrying about “failure.” Not making the work envisioned in your mind would be the true failure.
On the plane ride back to the states I watched the movie The Last Word with Shirley MacLaine. In the movie, the older woman shares with the younger one, “I never made mistakes, mistakes made me.” As I embark on this new project, Shared Artifacts, where people have an physical investment in it, I have to remember these reflections: be fearless, follow through with your vision, and see the experiences, mistakes or otherwise as assets/insights. Here I go!
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Local Resources

6/3/2017

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Last week, I had the honor of sitting on a panel of professionals from organizations that really move the needle in a positive direction when it comes to waste reduction here in the Salt Lake Valley. We were presenting in front of the current Master Recycler class, which is a great program run by the Waste and Recycling Division, Department of Sustainability, Salt Lake City Corporation. As a panelist, I talked a bit about my history as a post-consumer artifactist artist and my current project of making artwork from other people’s “artifacts” as well as my own for my upcoming exhibit Shared Artifacts at Salt Lake City’s Marmalade Library. The rest of the panel talk about their different organizations’ efforts to reduce waste in Utah.
Here’s are some of the highlights of what I learned:
  • Wasatch Resource Recovery is getting a food digester that will change food waste from a number of businesses into usable compost and energy. Did you know that 30% of our landfill is composed of organic waste?  So, it was great to learn that that some of this staggering amount can now be diverted from the landfill.  
  • Utah Recycling Alliance, who I have mentioned before, has some great resources and events for those wanting to cut down on waste. Two of my favorites are their CHaRM events which help people figure what to do with their hard to recycle items and their Fix-it Clinics where people can come and learn how to fix their broken items to get more life out of them, particularly small appliances, clothing, and bikes.
  • Reuse People of America- Materials Resource- This organization carefully dismantles homes or parts of homes and donates the building materials and appliances for reuse elsewhere, hence diverting them from the landfill, giving the owners a sizable tax write-off, and helping out people with less-resources get affordable building materials for their homes.
  • Finally, there was the Restore. This store takes reusable building material donations (some from Reuse People above) and sells them to the public for much less and the money they earn is then used for Habitat for Humanity projects. This is a winning formula for all those who are involved!

It was a truly enlightening experience meeting all these people and learning about these organizations. I definitely feel hopeful for our community with them on the scene!
 
 

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  • Home
  • Artwork
    • Illustrations
    • Shared Artifacts Exhibit
    • Artifactist
    • Ceramic
    • Commissions
  • About the Artifactist
    • Artist Bio
    • Statement
    • Manifesto
    • Curriculum Vita
  • Blog: The Crunchy Towel Collective
  • New Page