Do you remember "back in the day"…

…when you used to stand in front of your stereo speaker with your cassette recorder in hand and ask everyone in the room to be quiet? (shhhhhhh!)  This is because you were about to press down on the “record” button and record all your favorite records, or  Casey Kasem’s latest Top 40 Countdown, onto your 60 minute cassette tape.

THEN you would excitedly push your newly created song collection into your in-dash car stereo only to have the player eat the tape when you had to flip it over… Aaaarrrggghhh!

Well, if Nancy Judd was around, she would have taken that tape and made this:

WOW! Is this amazing or what?

I would so totally lay on the dirty asphalt and allow you to trace a chalk line around me – if it meant that Nancy Judd would create one of these:

Unbelievable!

Nancy Judd is an environmental educator and public artist. She started Recycle Runway to help raise the environmental consciousness of the public in a fun and positive way.  Nancy creates couture recycled fashion designs out of trash – something she is a bit of an expert in – as she was the Recycling Coordinator for the City of Santa Fe and the Executive Director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition.

I was actually quite familiar with Nancy’s work, as I had seen her Reclaimed Fashion exhibition many times in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport while waiting to catch a next flight. This exhibition is now traveling around the country from museum to museum.  She also has a piece of her work in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian!

The Environmental Steward-ess  (Made from worn-out Delta airplane leather seat covers, Sky Magazines, safety cards and pretzel wrappers.)

Nancy has collaborated with numerous corporations helping to address their pertinent environmental issues. She’s even the co-founder of Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival which will be held in the Santa Fe Community Convention Center this November 15 -17.  The festival always kicks it off with their famous wild & crazy Trash Fashion & Costume Contest. A MUST attend!

Nancy lives and breathes reclaimed fashion.  When I met with her, she was supporting her cause by wearing a necklace from Kristin Diener and a sweater from Diana Lopez – both artists will participate in this year’s Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival.  She also always gives props to WESST who has assisted her along the way.

So the next time you schlep the world’s heaviest, most over-flowing trash can to the edge of your curb, you might want to ask yourself “What would Nancy do?”

Nancy Judd – helping to save our planet- one FABULOUS outfit at a time!