Art and Creativity: Eco-Friendly Art and Art Shipping for a New World?

In the course of some 18 years running two different art galleries, "shipping art" was always a big deal.

Former home of the Red Dragonfly Gallery, Port Townsend, WA

In a typical year, some 35-40% of our sales were not to local people, meaning that whatever we'd sold needed to be shipped somewhere. Most often, the "format" was someone visiting town, seeing a piece of art they loved, buying it and asking us to ship it to them.

Art shipment is a notoriously resource intensive endeavor.

With a pair of shoes, you can just toss them in a box and you're done; with a piece of art you have to go through the process of extensive wrapping and packaging and protection against damage. This, in turn, leads to a lot of oversized shipments which are expensive and resource-consuming, in a different way.

Not exactly "green" or "eco-friendly."

"Winter forest near a lake," Sigvard Hansen (Danish) 1913; own collection

Then there's the art, itself. Many painters use an assortment of chemicals and paints and varnishes of assorted toxicity. Much of that is simply the result of habit and not taking the time to research the materials being used.

Which is not to say that the re-use and upcycle movement hasn't made inroads on the art world. But to many have been taught — or led to believe — that when you are preparing work of a gallery show, you need to "start with a nice clean canvas."

Says who, exactly?

I am no "environmental crusader," but at the same time I am highly aware that some aspects of the art business is incredibly wasteful!

Skies over Sedona, AZ

Just a few years back, I requested the return of some unsold items from the world famous Sotheby's auction house.

In due course, a huge crate arrived, containing just two smallish pieces of antique ceramics. The reources used to build a wooden crate, line it with styrofoam panels, then cut gray acoustic foam to shape, and fill with styrofoam peanuts were truly staggering!

And yet?

Our shipping operation at both galleries also consumed a fair number of reources, although we always reused the shipping materials we received. The neighboring gallery? Not so much... Eric would donate all his received packing materials to the local "U-Mail It" store, and then buy new shipping materials to send art out.

I could never get that to make sense!

Dandelions and Shadows

I suppose we could argue that the more art becomes digital, the more it becomes eco-friendly... and there's certainly something to that! On the other hand, I think tangible physical art is likely to be around for a long time... and perhaps we can do better and be more mindful in the ways we both create that art, as well as in how we transport it.

Thanks for stopping by, and do please leave a comment if you feel inspired to do so!

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All images are our own, unless otherwise attributed