The use of recycled materials and his carbon footprint is very important to Mark, (especially as he is the father of have 4 small children). He regularly uses recycled materials where possible and loved working as part of the Creative Partnership Initiative in a local primary school.
One of his favourites was the Spaceship Sculpture.
The brief from the children was that the Spaceship was to be able to accommodate one of the students in a wheelchair, ” to have a giant spoiler like a racing car, to have a jet engine, to have loads of knobs and computer panels inside, tons of windows so you can see the world outside and slider tracks for a safe landing”.
Mark worked with the children on concept, design and build and the Sculpture was completely created from scrap materials such as lawnmowers, washing machines and computer collected from both the local recycling centre and contributions from parents.
Over the course of a week the project took shape at the school and the children of Thompson School loved collaborating with Mark Reed on the artistic project, with ideas and help in making it and it has proudly stood as a centrepiece of the playground in the Foundation Stage Playground, used daily and heavily!
As part of a later literacy project it was taken away, painted white and reappeared crash landed, jettisoning “space eggs”, with a local policeman adding to the drama as the children arrived at school- which they then had to turn into their own creative writing newspaper articles.