“We’re taking something that symbolizes something negative – like nuclear bombs, power plant meltdowns and consequences of nuclear waste -- and turning it into something positive.”
– Jill Drllevich, Founder, Blades of Change
What is Blades of Change?
On a rainy Sunday afternoon in June of 1979, visual artist and passionate environmental activist, Jill Drllevich took a stand. With her two young children in tow, she joined a crowd of more than 15,000 activists to protest the opening of the controversial Shoreham nuclear power plant in Long Island, New York.
More than four decades later, Drllevich, now a grandmother of ten, continues to merge her art and passion for environmental activism from her home studio in Ravensdale, Washington. She is now embarking on the most ambitious project of her life, one that has grown from a nucleus of an idea into a multi-faceted and profound community art project.
It began when Drllevich came across more than 200 industrial fan blades intended to cool the Satsop Nuclear Power Plant which was planned for Elma, Washington, but ultimately never came to fruition. She purchased them from a junkyard and knew they would serve as the inspiration for a profound community art project in the future.
While the blades themselves may have a negative connotation, the project is quite the contrary, Drllevich noted. “I want to create an awareness about kindness, about sustainability, about coming together more than arguing.”
In 2022 Blades of Change curated “The Tipping Point,” a group exhibition featuring eight Seattle area artists in various mediums who were invited to use the nuclear fan blades as their personal canvases. This exhibition took place at FOGUE Gallery & Studios in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood in March 2022.
“I want to create an awareness about kindness, about sustainability, about coming together more than arguing.” -- Jill Drllevich, Founder, Blades of Change
A Note From
Our Founder
“I have been an artist and social change activist since the late 1960s when I volunteered to work with former New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s program bringing art “happenings” to inner city youth.
My latest project, Blades of Change, facilitates an outlet for those who are ready to tell their stories and raise their voices through artistic expression. It seeks to link artists across generations and movements by providing a unifying and evocative found object as a sculptural base.
These iconic found objects are the fan blades manufactured for the failed Satsop Nuclear Power Plant Project in Elma, Washington in the late 1970s. I managed to salvage over 200 of these unused blades, thereby keeping over 50,000 pounds of fiberglass from ending up in the landfill and repurposing them into this innovative artist initiative.
I am making available these historically important pieces of Washington State history to artists to use as the building blocks for creative projects that will develop over time into many different iterations.”
- Jill Drllevich, Founder, Blades of Change
