xhibitions
Environmentally friendly artist Melina Hubbard (interview)
Melina Hubbard’s art not only captures people’s imaginations — it is also environmentally friendly. The 30-year-old from Exeter creates her sculptures from recycled objects and willow, a biodegradable material.
She said: “Willow is a natural material. I do pieces out in the countryside, but they rot back into the ground and people generally don’t mind. I use all sorts of different objects found in scrap yards, anything put in to be recycled, odds and ends that get thrown out.”
These “odds and ends” have included milking apparatus, mannequins, driftwood from beaches, ropes, bits of twig found in woods, and tin cans from recycling yards and skips that Melina cuts up and joins together with rivets. She also uses off-cuts of materials from factories and leather off-cuts from leather shops.
Melina, who previously worked in reflexology and massage, decided to combine her creativity and concern for the environment and become a willow sculptor three years ago.
She said: “I have a strong passion for the environment. I live pretty basically myself and like to recycle and all the rest of it. I think not enough people are doing it, although it is a growing trend.”
As well as being made from eco-friendly material, some of Melina’s work also has an environmental message, including a 6ft hooded wraith she created at Bicton College, to symbolise habitat destruction.
Melina said: “I put a slice of wood on the bottom as a base and built it up with willow. I got a lot of netting that had been thrown away and covered it with that. Then I went to a scrap yard and got adhesive paint and caked the willow and netting with adhesive so it was black, wrinkly, crinkled, oily and messy.”
The sculpture includes a soundtrack. Melina said: “It has speakers buried inside it, with a very monotonous beat and the sounds of cash registers and guns. It is quite a sinister piece.”
But perhaps its most striking feature is a mirror, which viewers can peer into and see their own faces. The mirror forces people to look at themselves and think about their own behaviour. Melina said: “A lot of the time people complain and grumble and are not happy with the way the world is going. We need to look at ourselves to start with, rather than focusing on everything outside.”
Melina works from her motor home, which she uses to travel to projects all over Devon and Cornwall. But she loves to work outside. She said: “I do a lot of on-site work. I get inspired by my surroundings, but that can be positive or negative. If I see something I don’t like, that inspires me almost as much as beautiful scenery.”
One of her commissions is a six-month project with Penwith Council in Cornwall, creating a children’s play area from natural materials. The theme of the play area is the solar system and Melina is creating a cave from Randearth tyres and a wooden roof, to symbolise part of a black hole, and a representation of the Milky Way running through the middle.
Melina also holds workshops, teaching children the art of making fairy wings and other creations from willow and recycled materials. She said: “We use recycled materials and willow and the children generally always ask where it comes from.
“I hope to inspire, especially children and young people, back to a more natural world. We have come so far from that kids are not noticing it. If we treat it with respect, we will get a lot more enjoyment from it.”
KATY MANNING
