Installation in the Loft Gallery of the Visual Art Centre of Clarington


suffered from an overdose of salt. Leftover wallboard plaster compounds might be another alternative, especially if local contractors have leftovers. Sawdust from your wood shop can also be mixed with glue or leftover acrylic latex paints. Many local households will be happy to donate leftovers of paint, but greater care needs to be applied to its use. I have had to decline some donated paints that were alkyd- or oil-based, and suggested that they be taken to a toxic waste facility.


Repurposing acrylic paint Over the years, I have tried to control the mess and the waste of acrylic paints and to keep the paint from being dumped down the sink. One way was to keep unwanted sketches and artworks from previous years, especially those on manila paper. Senior students and Art Club members were asked to use these sheets as palettes for acrylic paint, spreading the leftovers as thinly as possible so that they could dry and be re-used several times. We have been able to employ these sheets to make creative mask designs. Others were over- printed with fall leaves, cut out, and sold to raise money for cancer research. In order to re-fresh the colours of these re-used palettes, a thin layer of commercial-grade latex can be applied. The re-painted palette sheets do accumulate, and some get heavily laden and unpleasantly “plasticky,” unfortunately falling prey to the garbage can. However, with effective leadership and words of persuasion, the used palette sheets can be assets, while representing a model example of environmental practice.


Being able to paint, draw, exhibit, rescue materials, and


clean a place in the natural world — there’s the luck of my life. The Mayday Project has enabled me to reconnect with a natural space that first introduced me to the “ordinary magic” of nature when I was a child. This magic rejuvenates me now. At the same time, it is frightening to see the degradation of our planet through the careless and greed-driven aspects of our society. Such are the chains we wear in 2019. For the time being, there are lots of folks who share my hopes of making the chains lighter, of feeling at home, and of improving our chances here on Planet Earth. It is necessary to keep asking questions about our ways of making things. As I’ve come to find, there are many students and young artists who would welcome the chance to join in the joy of making meaningful things out of someone else’s trash.


Gerald Banting is a retired art teacher and artist living in Brighton, Ontario. Throughout his teaching career, he has exhibited his art in various galleries in the region. His major solo shows were mounted in 2001 (Roughcuts and Wind- falls: Art from the Maple Mine at the Belleville Public Library Gallery) and in 2018 (If You Go Down to the Woods Today at the Visual Art Centre of Clarington.) Gerald enjoys the company of other retired teachers who are also tree-herders and wood-hoarders. He and his wife Ruth, an outstanding teacher of junior grades, are slowly rehabilitating an old farm house and hoping their grandchildren can come for a visit.


Green Teacher 119 Page 11


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