Elise Cheval as Namaka in her mini opera "Voice for Mother Earth" debuts at Green Citizen in San Rafael

Less than 1 week after Green Citizen, an environmentally and socially conscious business collecting e-waste for free opened their 19th center in the Bay area, Elise Cheval was contacted through her web site and asked to show her art and stage a grassroots performance in San Rafael.  With big dreams to reach people about the impact of plastics on the marine environment and human health, Elise puts her money where her mouth is and makes her costumes out of recycled materials.  For her mini opera, "Voice for Mother Earth", she knitted and crocheted recycled audiocassette tapes to depict the endangered sea dragons, creatures she saw for the first time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2009.  For the performance at Green Citizen, Elise created a music concrete, using sound effects of whales, shorebirds, and African animals, which have a "conversation" with concert pianist Jeffrey Paul and Native American percussionist QiQe White Elk.  During the performance, models wore the project GREEN runway collection including a dress made out of recycled plastic Target bags.   Elise's recycled art is currently on display through November 22 at Green Citizen, 777 Grand Avenue and 2nd Street, San Rafael.  The performance was videotaped by professional videographer Evan Harrar and will be shown on You Tube. 

Namaka wearing knitted and crocheted audiocassette tape costume

Namaka and QiQe White Elk

R to L, Louise Maloof, CEO/Founder of Green Citizen
James Kao, Forest Ray Thundercloud, Buffy Stolarcyzk, Angela

R to L, QiQe White Elk, Elise Cheval, Evan Harrar, Jeffrey Paul



A nice group of folks saw the show!