Sacramento art exhibit features eco-friendly paintings and jewelry. Where you can see it

Rhean Goodgame grew up in rural Tobago with few resources. Her family couldn’t waste anything. So they built everything by hand.

“We literally had to build everything we had with our own hands, like our beds, our houses,” Goodgame said. “My grandfather built the house my mom grew up in. You literally are taking the natural resources around you and making what you need.”

Her upbringing in Tobago would later affect the way she creates her art: reuse everything. Goodgame, who now lives in Sacramento after following her college sweetheart to a job in the city, has a new exhibit at with Atrium 916 at 1020 Front St. in Old Sacramento.

Goodgame’s exhibit, known as Island Girl Art, presents vibrant floral landscapes, all made from eco-friendly and ethically sourced materials.

“You really have to take whatever you have on hand and jury-rig things,” Goodgame said. “It’s just always been a part of how I do art. I just want to give (materials) a new lease on life.”

Goodgame’s work features paintings that have reused old picture frames, an old canvas from a childhood bedroom, paper napkins and Styrofoam that are no longer in use. Most of her canvases are upcycled, meaning Goodgame bought them at garage sales or took materials people dumped, she said.

“I thought all of this is totally viable,” she said. “There are ways that I tried to use a lot of reclaimed materials to create something new.”

A lot of Goodgame’s art work is zero waste. Outside of her Atrium 916 showcase, she sells earrings and other jewelry repurposed from sea shells and other materials. Island Girl Art is open until July 28. Admission is free.

What is Atrium 916?

Goodgame’s work is one of many eco-friendly and ethically sourced artwork and jewelry featured at Atrium 916. The Atrium 916 Center focuses on featuring eco-friendly art. Art featured with Atrium 916 must be upcycled or repurposed, said Shira Lane, the center’s founder and chief operations officer.

Lane said the Center seeks to be “omniconsiderate,” meaning its taking into consideration how its production affects the environment, the planet, the community and everything around us.

Since the center’s beginnings in 2017, the center has served over 850 creatives in Sacramento, its website says.

“These are artists and creatives that we like to help because we want to see a future where we are being regenerative,” Lane said. “Where we are being community driven, we are being collaborative and being omniconsiderate.”

Atrium 916 describes itself as a “Creative Innovations Center for Sustainability” that focuses on building a “kind, creative, and sustainable future for all beings.”

“The Atrium, through community-driven ideas, builds systems and provides support for the formulation of new mission-driven, eco-friendly products, and services that drive a sustainable creative circular economy,” its website states.

Goodgame’s art is featured in its gallery program. The Atrium 916 Center also offers art classes and a gallery shop and marketplace.

Atrium 916 follows recommendations from the Plastic Pollution Prevention Act, which sets goals to reduce plastic packaging, requiring the all single-use packaging be recyclable or compostable, Lane said.

“Right now we extract, use for five minutes and then dispose. And that’s what causing us having a finite planet. We can’t do that indefinitely,” Lane said. “We really have to think about how we use our resources and how we can continue to use them without depleting the planet.”