Katie De La Cruz - 2024

Artist's Statement

Over the span of this course, we have talked about the effects that we as humans have had on the earth. There are thousands of ways that our existence and choices have impacted the regular progression of the earth. At the beginning of this semester, someone asked, “What can I as an individual do?” Professor Davies responded with, “Be less of an individual.” The more time that passed the more that conversation stuck with me throughout this whole semester. I concentrated my efforts on changing my lifestyle to become less of an individual and start to better the world within and with my own community.

I went to the landfill and recycling center in Cache Valley to get a real grasp on the problem at hand on a personal level. It was eye-opening to see all of it out there. I started looking for and eventually found some opportunities in the community to eliminate waste and recycle materials. Every week for the past three months, I have been going to the Cache Valley Humanitarian Center to make sleeping mats for homeless people from used grocery bags. We would flatten the bags and then cut them into squares. We would tie them together in long chains. Afterward, we would weave them together creating a comfortable mat.

One day as I was weaving a mat together, I thought about the story of each component of the mat; what it represented, its use, what it is, and what it could have been or ended up as. I remembered how at the landfill, there were many grocery bags among many pieces of garbage scattered along the hill. I thought of how this mat not only eliminated waste but positively impacted the life of another human being. I found a community there of service and recycling with my fellow neighbors here in Cache Valley.

At times, I would think of how insignificant and small my efforts were comparatively to the things I wish I could do or things that would make drastic changes in our society. I noticed the symbolism of how I could relate to the grocery bags woven into the mats. I may just be doing something that is pursumingly small but I still make a difference in the end result. When I look at those mats, I think “What can I as an individual do? Be less of an individual.”