Arts center presents Cothren's 'MAILBLOCK'
COURTESY PHOTO
Sara Cothren illustrates
an excess of junk mail.
By MARVIN READ THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Olney Springs artist Sara Cothren will present an artistic lesson on how junk mail affects our lives at 11 a.m. Saturday. The “Mail Block” exhibit will be in the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center's Regional Gallery. The interactive, environmentally aimed art project will underscore these statistics provided by www.globaljunkmailcrisis.org and relayed by Cothren: More than 100 million trees worth of junk mail arrive in American mailboxes each year. More than $320 million local tax dollars and 28 billion gallons of water are used for the production and disposal of junk mail. If one family cut its bulk mail for five years, it would conserve 1.7 trees, 700 gallons of water and prevent 460 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air. Said Cothren, 36, a native of Oregon: "This project is a team effort with the arts center to educate our community and beyond that we have the power to stop waste before it starts.” “This sculpture offers one small but significant answer: Stop junk mail. Come and see how it stacks up. Feel its weight in the world. We can save water, fuel and trees in a monumental way." Her artistic medium of choice is acrylic on canvas, supplemented with various textures and drawing tools such as sticks and knives. She reuses materials such as magazines, newspapers and clothing. Admission to the arts center costs $4 for adults and $3 for children.