Women turns litter into ecofriendly art

Melissa Amiouni

A graduate student at the University of Windsor is inspiring people to become more ecofriendly.

At an art show Oct. 19, Patricia Coates described her project and why she created it. While a graduate student obtaining her masters in visual art at the University of Windsor, a former student told her about a project she had worked on for over 20 years, where she began planting oaks on a farm and restoring it into a habitat. This made Coates want to do more and she said the idea of creating life would be appropriate today in a consumer society. She began walking around Essex County and collected 2 thousand acorns from oak trees.

“In our ecology, we seem to separate ourselves and dominate the ecology as opposed to living more sympathetically with it, so I collected the acorns then collected the cups off the street, off fast food dumpsters and planted them in it,” Coates said.

Coates participated in the w.a.v.e.s. Festival on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, she said the outcome was so successful it made her want to show more of her work.

“It is something that took a lot of time and I recently shared it with the public, with the people of Windsor in the w.a.v.e.s. festival and to my surprise so many people responded, kids responded, teenagers responded, they got the whole cup idea, it does have that impact,” Coates said.

Coates then displayed her art on Oct. 10 at the LeBelle Building for Visual Arts which didn’t cost her anything since she was a graduate from there. She displayed around 900 oaks for everyone to see. Many said her art was inspiring. Ron Dufault, a friend of Coates, said it is important for people to be more aware by their surroundings.

“I don’t think people take the time to think about where they live or how they live and by planting each individual tree it really makes you stop and think about the difference you can make,” Dufault said.

Coates said her art is ongoing and will continue to be.

“(My work), this is a living work and this will exist beyond my life time,” Coates said.