Loveland artists Heather Fortin Rubald and Kathryn Vinson, with help from community members who donated their recyclables, have created an underwater world out of post-consumer waste in an empty storefront. They hope the art project — on display through April 17 — will delight people, but also make them think.
They want people to think about the thousands of bags and water bottles, the packaging that routinely ends up in either landfills or the recycling stream. They aspire to inspire people to think about packaging before they shop, to not use that disposable straw, to leverage their consumer dollars to bring about change.
“If we create something beautiful, it draws in you in,” said Fortin Rubald. “They look at it and say, ‘Oh trash. That’s a lot of trash.’ If you give them something beautiful, they stay long enough to start thinking of what they can do.”
With a community grant from the Loveland Visual Arts Commission, the artists have been working on the Fourth Street Aquarium Project for months. They have collected recyclables from community members, including more than 2,000 water bottles gathered by the Loveland High School Honor Society.