Reusing at Whitman is not purely based on the “green” ethics that seems to circulate around the student body. Megan Oost, a senior art major, uses found objects to create her sculpture masterpieces.

“I looked at an old reclining lawn chair’s seat that mimicked the gestures I was using in clay,” said Oost, describing her first realization that found objects may fit into her artwork well.

For Oost, used objects are a unique and influential source of inspiration for her work. The choice of reusing things was a way to enhance herself as an artist, but unexpected values came from this type of art as well.

“It was mostly an aesthetic choice that I made this jump, but I like the ethics of it too,” said Oost.

Oost finds much of her inspiration at Stubblefield, a salvage and recycling yard in Walla Walla.

“It’s kind of depressing every time I go to Stubblefield and there is just so much stuff, and I just can’t bear to buy something new and use it,” said Oost.

With a boost from her newfound environmental ethics, Oost still focuses on the aesthetic values she found originally in the liberating art of using found objects. This jump from using purely clay to reusing materials provides a more interesting artistic viewpoint and gives character to a piece.

For instance, Oost visited a gallery in New York where an artist used a side panel of an RV that left the dirt on the side of the material. What some may call a flaw, Oost points out is “surprisingly meaningful.”

“There’s a lot of untapped content there too, because [the objects] have their own kind of connotations and references that can be emotive in ways that things that you make yourself can’t.”