My Business is Folding and I'm Going Green
No, it’s not a country music song title, although … hmm maybe. I’ll work on it and get back to you. In the meantime, I am not certain where the content of this will be seen, so let me briefly introduce what I do. I am an interactive entertainer working special events, and the like, with origami art and juggling. I had the opportunity to entertain at the Columbus Zoo for their spring kickoff/Easter weekend, “Eggs, Claws,& Paws;”. A fun experience in itself. I had responsive crowds and I briefly saw some really cool animals, especially in the Asian area where I was appearing.
I mention this gig for a couple of reasons. First, I had a brief email conversation with Bob Durante of ZAP Entertainment, one of the agencies that books my act around the North and Central Ohio areas. He had mentioned that a lot of his clients are going with a “going green” theme for events and programs this year. And then, when I booked the gig at the Columbus Zoo, Jonathan, the coordinator asked if I ever use recycled paper and also offered to give me blue prints of the Zoo which they no longer needed. He wanted to know if I could make the old blueprints into the origami art that I gave to my audiences; which I did (much to the delight of the zoo guests!). Later in the season, I came back to the Columbus Zoo, during their NBC4 Shred-it Day at the Zoo, under the sponsorship of AT&T, to fold obsolete phone book pages into origami art.
As I mentioned to him I have always used recycled paper before the fact. In other words, I don’t wait until it goes through the recycle process at a recycle plant. That sort of recycled paper has fibers which have been broken down even further than the first time around. Thus, the paper does not hold up well to the folding stress of origami; especially the more complex designs. And besides, it still costs energy and resources to re-manufacture the paper. So, I rescue paper from my own junk mail and the recycle bins at my day job. I have saved old Rand McNally road atlases from my days of world traveling. I work next to an architecture firm and get obsolete blueprints from them. All of these papers I crop into squares, as well as, other miscellaneous discarded papers that I run across. Then, at virtually all of my Cirque du Papier gigs (origami-as-entertainment), all of these humble papers are featured as cool 3D art, transformed by the simple act of folding. For details of my work you can visit my site www.MichaelRoysFold.com.
And this is not a new practice for me. It is just something I have always done with my origami. I suspect it comes from the influences of my upbringing back home in Eastern Kentucky. For example, my mother would make pajamas and shirts for me and my brothers and sister out of the gunny sacks after the grain, beans, etc. were used up. I know I am dating myself, but we never heard of “recycling” until years later. My parents avoided the wasting of resources by simply “repurposing” the things they already owned.
It is not a radical, new idea, this “going green”. People have been doing it for centuries. And, if it is done with some sense of the aesthetic, it can, not only help you reach that goal of taking your carbon footprint from a Sasquatch down to a petit, but actually enrich your life and the lives of those around you.
So before you are so quick to toss, think creatively. Think outside the box. What can you do with the box? If you don’t need it, find others who may need a particular resource you own. And before you decide to acquire a new resource think about what you already own or stuff that is available that could work for your current needs. Let us all take personal responsibility for our own behavior and the overall impact to the environment both in “greenness” and making our little slice of the neighborhood a pleasant and surprising place to stay.
My dad is attempting to create a Tumblr.
