Isabelle Guillard is an artist, art teacher and doctoral candidate in Art Education. She completed her master from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Her research interest focuses on the integration of ecological art and environmental education in the school curriculum. She also considers her own artistic practice as a field of research-creation. Her paintings depict natural spaces on the fringes of urban areas, revealing the tangled contradictions inherent in the relation between humans and the environment. Her works are part of public and private collections.
Blog post
Artistic and Sustainable Practices in Education
Isabelle Guillard, Courtyard (2004), 48 X 72 inches, oil and sand on canvas
“Education is the force for the future because it is one of the most powerful instruments of change.” Frederico Mayor Zaragoza, director-general of UNESCO in Seven complex lessons in education for the future by Edgar Morin, UNESCO, 1999.
A Life Story
When I began my undergraduate studies in Art Education at Concordia University, twenty years ago, I had the chance to develop an artistic practice in parallel with a didactic practice. Painting gave me the possibility to represent my ecological concerns and study my own practice as a method of inquiry. Using analogies and metaphors, I have been interested in revealing inherent contradictions between the beauty of nature and the devastating effects of pollution, or between the idea of the sublime and the exploitation of natural resources. My landscapes show this disequilibrium of the environment that is being transformed by the artificialization and fragmentation of water bodies and soil. Several artists have nourished my imagination, my thinking and my creativity, such as Edward Burtinsky, Alexis Rockman, Tom Uttech, Isabelle Ayeur, April Gornik and Gerhard Richter, to name just a few. Their aesthetic conceptions of nature contextualize complex issues that lead us to become aware of our humanity and impact on the environment. This relationship with the environment has proved to be something essential in my practice and teaching in order to reconstruct a new social ‘ethos’ based on creative and innovative ideas. It is through my desire to engage with youth on the issue of climate change that I decided to pursue my doctoral studies in ecological art practices, more commonly known as Eco-Art.
Isabelle Guillard, Rocky soil (2004), 48 X 72 inches, oil on canvas
What is Eco-Art?
Eco-Art is an artistic genre aimed at the conservation, protection and/or restoration of the environment through various artistic forms ranging from the traditional (painting, photography, sculpture) to the most contemporary (in situ installation, performance, eco-visualization[1]). Over the past thirty years, this practice has been on the rise in museums, educational institutions and cultural organizations. Many artists are seeking to raise awareness of environmental problems, and to transform the living environment through the reconstruction or deconstruction of an ideology based on the principle of sustainable development and resilience. Some do not hesitate to call upon public participation, such as Emily Rose Michaud for Jardin Roerich (2007-2011), through which a vacant lot in the Mile End was transformed into a community garden with artistic installations. Others will collaborate with scientists to decontaminate highly toxic soils using 'hyper-accumulative' plants that can store high concentrations of metal, as in Mel Chin's 'environmental sculpture', Revival Field (1991). These transdisciplinary approaches transgress the traditional boundaries between art and science, even design and architecture, to provide new ways of cohabiting with the Earth. Such is the case of the artist Daniel Corbeil, whose works show us futuristic housing modules powered by bioreactors.
Isabelle Guillard, Urban field (2003), 48 X 72 inches, oil on canvas
Eco-Art Education
In art education, Eco-Art is conceived as an artistic practice and a way of living, since it involves both aesthetic and lived experiences within the environment. These experiences evoke rich emotional responses that can foster ethical sensitivity and lead us to reimagine our relationship with the Earth. Although, it is difficult to see beauty in many places, as we experience increasingly unappealing and destructive habitats with the development of megacities and industrial sites. The challenges reside principally in addressing these issues within a systemic approach that involves affective and effective dimensions of knowledge, and more engaging participation in restorative practice. For that purpose, Eco-Art education has been integrating UNESCO's environmental education objectives as pedagogical strategies to build on the person-society-environment network:
- Awareness: to help social groups and individuals acquire an awareness of and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.
- Knowledge: to help social groups and individuals gain a variety of experience in, and acquire a basic understanding of, the environment and its associated problems.
- Attitudes: to help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment, and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and protection.
- Skills: to help social groups and individuals acquire the skills for identifying and solving environmental problems.
- Participation: to provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working toward resolution of environmental problems.
Mandala project with artist Nathalie Levasseur, 2019
Working in partnerships with artists and community organizations serves as a good strategy to foster the exploration of creative and innovative art forms beyond the classroom, and to encourage more direct and positive experiences with nature. Such collaboration increases the understanding of our interdependence with the ecosystem, and of localized environmental problems within a global perspective. By opening the space for dialogue and the sharing of life experiences and expertise with artists, students can relate the pertaining sociocultural context and traditions to which they belong.
Moreover, Eco-Art education allows students to reflect upon their actions and make responsible choices in using material, knowing where it comes from, how it is made and transformed, so that they can become more aware of its life cycle and ecological footprint. Through the process of art-making, the use of material can serve to communicate personal stories and create meaningful connections between cultural identity and territoriality. Although, not all Eco-Art projects are materially based and focused on the creation of an object. In some cases, we find the experiential process and participative action to be just as important, if not more so.
My research focused on the integration of Eco-Art practices in the school curriculum at the secondary level to provide a reference model for teachers and educational reform policies related to sustainability.
[1] Eco-visualization combines arts and technologies to reduce energy consumption and transfer data into forms of visual representations.
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