ColumnHow civilized are we, really?

When artist, Ali Golzad was ten years old, he was forced to flee his native Iran, and live as an orphan in Sweden until he was reunited with his parents three years later. As a result, he has a strong affinity for the estimated twenty million traumatized and abused children who are displaced by armed conflicts or human rights violations around the world.

Golzad says:

To me the plight of child soldiers and children abused as sex slaves escapes notice in the civilized world which causes me to question how civilized we really are. To me, these are invisible people.

Golzad’s use of recycled cardboard to reveal these unseen victims has an uncanny effect on our emotions, and his.

I have struggled with my material to create images that are highly emotional. The three-dimensional shapes of the eyes, noses and mouths, the wrinkled clothing, and the shapes of the hands and arms, outlined with Sharpie-lines, are a result of my struggle with the cardboard to capture the empathy we would have for any enslaved people.

As his forgotten subjects imbue new life and meaning into cast-off materials, Golzad does so, so that we might see through his eyes into theirs. It is hard not to.

Eco, trends, art, creativity and how they tumble through social media to shape culture fascinate EcoSalon columnist Dominique Pacheco. Her trends blog, mixingreality, speaks to these topics daily, and here at EcoSalon, she takes a weekly look at the intersection of eco and art. We call it heARTbeat.

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If run-of-the-mill gargantuan, carpet-covered cat scratch posts go against your green ethics and design aesthetics, SmartyKat’s new CatChaise is a must for your feline. The modern-style scratcher is made from recycled corrugated cardboard, which SmartyKat says is a favorite of cats because the honeycomb-like grooves closely resemble tree bark, a natural scratching post fave.

To entice your pet to get clawing, sprinkle some SmartyKat 100 percent certified organic catnip or home-grown catnip over the scratcher and let it fall between the cracks. Your cat should go crazy for the scent. If all the action tires out your fur ball, she can take a snooze on the CatChaise since it doubles as a lounger, too.

Another problem with traditional carpet-covered cat scratch posts is that once your cat claws one to shreds, it’ll end up going to a landfill where it will never biodegrade. The lightweight CatChaise on the other hand is recyclable, biodegradable and compostable – making it an eco-friendly cat toy in more ways than one. And if the CatChaise isn’t for you, you can always make your own scratching post, too!

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