The Bicycle Inter-Community Action & Salvage collective is hosting its annual Art Mart from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at 2001 N. Seventh Ave.
The Art Mart features activities for the public, including activities for children and families.
As a local nonprofit collective, BICAS has a primary focus on transportation justice and making bicycles accessible to the public. The group also repairs bicycles year-round and when they come across bicycles that are beyond repair, Tony Zepeda, BICAS’s art director, creates art using the parts.
“As part of loving art and loving cycling, I also am heavily involved in recycling, too, especially at the shop,” Zepeda said. “When old bikes come through that we can’t refurbish and fix, instead of throwing them out [into] the landfill, we save them or we strip them down for the parts that are okay or recycle the parts that we can recycle.”
The Art Mart is a newer addition to BICAS events, created in early 2021 in response to Tucson art events being canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, according to Zepeda. Although the collective hosts an annual art auction fundraiser, the Art Mart served a different purpose.
“An experience I had a lot last year was that people who come who are just more goers of like art markets, they come to Art Mart, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never been here before,’ to our shop,” Zepeda said.
Although the event does not require artists to take inspiration from bicycles or salvaged materials, vendors like Monique Laraway, also known as Revolta Art, naturally create through their passions for art and salvaging.
As an avid bicyclist and former BICAS art director, Laraway said they draw on their experiences with repairing bicycles and “overall passion for bicycles” and the Sonoran Desert in their prints, jewelry, stickers and other work.
“A lot of the creatures and plants that I [paint] in my art are inspired from places that I biked [to] out in the desert,” Laraway said.
Alexandra Berger Clamons, owner of The Glass Desert stained glass art business, also creates works based on a passion for the Sonoran Desert.
“My work is inspired by my natural surroundings as I strive to pay homage to Tucson’s Sonoran Desert. Each piece evokes the personality of the desert and are great for plant lovers with green or black thumbs,” Berger Clamons said. “In addition, every piece utilizes recycled materials, so my products are low footprint and high quality.”
The Art Mart is free to attend. For future BICAS updates, follow the collective’s Instagram @bicasart.
*El Inde Arizona is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
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