Beautiful, Thought Provoking Student Art Exhibit

Recently, I took the scenic route home to stop by Meek Hall's Gallery 130 for an exhibit entitled, "Spin Cycled," by UM's own Ashley Hardy. The premise of Hardy's designs is the recycling of older clothes by resewing and redesigning them. Her use of vibrant colors and bold prints brightened my day, and, although the exhibit is a fun one, it also proved to be a thought provoking one for me.

I'm sure most people are familiar with term "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Side note: If you're not, there's a great Jack Johnson song about it. Anyway, in recent years, a lot of emphasis has been put on the last of those three steps, when, in fact, that's the last one for a reason. Now, don't stop recycling because of this; I'm just pointing out that the slogan is a sort of hierarchy of waste management. First, you reduce what you're using, i.e. buy a 2 liter bottle of Coke instead of lots of 20 ounce Cokes. Then, you reuse what you can. For instance, reuse that 2 liter bottle of Coke as a vase or a rocket, unless you have too many vases or rockets. That's when you recycle. Maybe the Coke bottle was a poor choice of examples, but I'm sure you understand where I'm going with this.

Anyway, the Spin Cycle exhibit really made me think about reusing things. It'd be awesome if everyone had the artistic abilities of Ashley Hardy to turn two old dresses into fabulous new skirt/ shirt combo, but, as sad as it is to admit, I am not artistically inclined in the slightest. However, I can reuse the plastic cups from Newk's or Oby's, and I can stop buying bottled water in favor of a reusable (and durable!) water bottle from Ole Miss Outdoors.

So, my new promise to you and to Mama Earth is that I will start reducing and reusing as much as possible, while maintaining my recycling habits. I hope you'll join me in this.

--Elizabeth Seratt, GSIP Intern, freshman international studies and German major

Ashley Hardy's BFA Thesis Exhibition "Spin Cycled" will be on display in Gallery 130 at Meek Hall until Friday, November 20