"Green art" is not a term many artists are familiar with, at least not in the jargonistic lexicon of the aesthetic elite.

What does "green art" mean, anyway?

It could be a painting composed of fern, emerald, army, lime, forest, olive, hunter or jade. It could describe the naïve but honest work of a young artist. It could denote a piece that sells well. Or it could refer to an admired level of creativity that makes other artists jealous.

But it doesn't.

"Green" has become an affirmation of environmentally conscious undertakings or objects. But you would be hard-pressed to find artists who identify what they make as "green art."

Yet we found four local artists who are doing their part to nurture a visual dialogue that inspires and educates, that preserves and reveres a set of Earth-friendly ideals.

In honor of Earth Day (Tuesday), these artists want us to look a little closer and think a little harder about the things we do, what we appreciate and how we relate to our world.

David Morrison, Illustrator

Studio: Home.
Price range for work: $250 to $1,500.
On the Web: www.herron.iupui.edu
Contact: (317) 278-9428.
Works on display: Fidelity Investments, 8480 Keystone Crossing.

When David Morrison moved to his ranch house in Plainfield two decades ago, there was open land all around. There's still some evidence of that, from the little pond out back to his burgeoning plant collection.

And then there's that once sleepy road.

"It was a lot quieter then," said Morrison, as three minivans, those now-ubiquitous symbols of suburbia, sped by. "Now it seems like constant traffic."

But the award-winning artist and printmaking professor at Herron School of Art and Design still finds peace on his acre-and-a-half property.

He finds it by looking a little harder -- really looking -- just as he teaches his students in his drawing class, at something as simple as a leaf.

"There are so many different leaves, you have a tendency to ignore almost everything around them," he said, "and don't tend to look at how beautiful one single leaf is. I want people to look at them for what they stand for -- nature."

Morrison, whose work always veers toward the environment, is putting together his latest series of drawings, each one capturing the barbs, scarification and diseases of individual leaves.

It is in the detail that his images of dead greenery find life. He considers them almost portraits, or crinkled sculptural forms.

The images are rough, but meticulously rendered. They look almost as if they were artifacts preserved by a scientist. Morrison, 51, said they remind him of the bugs stuck on pins he used to see at the Iowa State Fair.

"They become like a micro-organism themselves. When you get that close to them, you see all sorts of patterns and shapes," said Morrison, who wears magnifying glasses to enlarge the scale. "It's almost a celestial landscape."

The message: Nature needs no beautification. Nature is beautiful; just look outside your door.

Morrison finds his leaves, whether maple or tulip poplar, in his backyard. He finds the fallen branches and bark he draws at the base of two huge sycamore trees there, too.

Each drawing takes almost three weeks, and each one makes him more and more intrigued with the role man plays in his desire to control, define and re-create his environment. The larger the images, the more personality and presence they have -- the more they speak to philosophies about life cycles and nature's fight against domination. Pick a leaf, any leaf, and it will tell you a story.

"I'm getting back to leaves that are kind of ordinary, that people wouldn't give a second thought to," Morrison said. "I want to show that existence, and for people to respect that leaf."

Kipp Normand, Sculptor

Studio: Harrison Center for the Arts, 1505 N. Delaware St. (Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday).
Price range for work: $75 (for a small framed collage) to $5,000 (for a large installation).
On the Web: www.idada.org.
Contact: (317) 396-3886.
Work on display: May 2, during the Harrison Center's open studio and gallery.

"I think I have some compulsive hoarder tendencies," said Kipp Normand, looking around his studio at the buckets of bottle caps, jars of light bulbs and stacks of old books. "But I think that other people who do this sort of work have those same, uh, issues."

Normand's collection of trinkets -- found in trash bins, on the street, at flea markets and gathered from friends -- has grown in the three years he has been constructing found-object sculptures and collages. It's so vast that he barely has room to work.

But the 44-year-old artist can't bear to throw his trove of trash and treasure away.

Normand, who also works for Southeast Neighborhood Development organizing the rehabilitation of old homes, used to work as an architecture reviewer for the city's Historic Preservation Commission.

His art is a reflection of his occupation -- an appreciation of the haphazard beauty of juxtaposing mistreated and damaged goods, and an overt statement about how overwhelmed and bloated we as a society have become in the past 200 years.

"The detritus that has accumulated over that period is still with us," Normand said. "It's in landfills and dumps and people's basements and garages and attics. We're a nation that's chock-full, packed tight with stuff. At times I find it awesome and repellent and beautiful."

So Normand turns the detritus into art that people find instantly accessible.

"Usually they'll see an object that they recognize or something that triggers a memory, because all of these things are imbued with emotion and memory, and people come at it from all different perspectives," he said. "It makes each piece a unique experience unto itself."

Kathryn Yost, Photographer

Studio: B240 in the Stutz Building, 1060 N. Capitol Ave.
Price range for work: $50 to $400.
On the Web: www.stutzartists.com/siteindex.html
Contact: yostcreations@gmail.com.
Works on display: Stutz Artists Open House; 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 5p.m. Saturday.

If you had a million dollars, what would you do?

When Kathryn Yost thinks of this question, the trappings of wealth don't come to mind. What comes to mind is land preservation.

"I don't have that million dollars yet; however, I do have the means to create art and promote it, and work with land trust organizations. That's my catalyst for working on a series that is related to nature in Indiana."

With an eye for natural light, Yost, 38, has produced haunting, dark silhouettes of bare trees in winter along the foggy banks of the White River, like ghosts in the mist.

She captures lush greenery against blue-sky backdrops at Eagle Creek, and the red-orange explosions of fall foliage on yellow fields by Ogle Lake. Her photos utilize the sun as if the rays themselves were the subject matter -- not simply a luminescent helping hand.

Yost has studio space at the Stutz, works for the Indianapolis Arts Center and has volunteered with the Central Indiana Land Trust by using her photos as marketing and fundraising tools.

"I think, to be honest, a lot of people have this opinion of Indiana as not being all that beautiful, so I started to explore all these wonderful areas that we have, that we've preserved," she said. "And my desire is to actually take pictures, and to share with people a reminder and an incentive to take what we have and appreciate it."

Ginny Taylor Rosner, Photographer

Studio: B255A in the Stutz Building, 1060 N. Capitol Ave.
Price range for work: $125 to $800.
On the Web: www.ginnytaylorrosner.com
Contact: ginnytaylorrosner@att.net
Works on display: Stutz Artists Open House; 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Her images are those of desertion and abandonment.

Scuffed furniture, peeling paint, cracked concrete floors, pockmarked plaster walls and weeds insinuating themselves between old bricks.

But where the viewer sees emptiness and debris, Ginny Taylor Rosner, an artist-in-residence at the Stutz, senses feeling and memory.

Rosner's images of abandoned industrial structures, captured by way of photographic processes more at home in the 1850s -- toned cyanotypes, Vandyke browns, gum bichromates -- have a painterly quality.

The 40-year-old's work has a tactile feel that is at once contemplative and raw, yet quiet. But the message is loud and clear.

"We've got to really consider what we're doing with our resources," she said. "We're very happy to say, 'I'll recycle a bottle and newspapers,' but what about our architectural heritage? We're losing it over and over. We're making throwaway buildings just like we make recyclable bottles. We need to rethink that as a society."

The stories she brings alive -- through light falling on objects, illuminating cold and unfriendly spaces -- makes it easy to see why she finds redemption in grimy, disused buildings.

"When you take the time to look, you'll actually see this beautiful glow coming out of this very dark space, and that's what I want to say: There's hope for us, as a society," she said. "There's hope for us as individuals, and we can transcend this, if we would only give it some thought and take some action."

Upcoming 'green' art events:

The Architecture of Nature: A Talk by Maya Lin

Where: Deer Zink Events Pavilion, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road.
When: 7 p.m. April 29.
Tickets: $10 for the general public; $5 for members, students and seniors.
Info: (317) 923-1331; www.imamuseum.org

Last fall, the IMA unveiled "Above and Below," a commissioned installation by Maya Lin inspired by the complex structure of underground tributaries in the White River. Join Lin, who emerged on the international art scene with her design of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., for a talk.

Children's art programs at the IMA

Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road.
When: Various dates.
Tickets: Various prices.
Info: (317) 923-1331; www.imamuseum.org

This spring and summer, children can learn more about green art with these classes:

Art and Nature for Young Children; Drawing the Great Outdoors, for ages 4-5. Sticks and Stones: Making Art from Found Objects; It's Easy Being Green: Making "Recycled" Art; Art Inside and Outside, for ages 7-9. Natural Elements: Clay and Water; Art and the Great Outdoors, for ages 10-12. For families, there are Bonsai: The Living Art, and the garden walks that take place every Saturday and Sunday.

R-value: Revive Restore Reuse

Where: Harrison Center for the Arts, 1505 N. Delaware St.
When: 6 to 10 p.m. May 2.
Tickets: Free.
Info: www.harrisoncenter.org

With an artists' reception and Open Studio Night, this group show features a number of Harrison Center artists with environmentally conscious work.

Historic Landmarks of Indiana will unveil its top 10 endangered Indiana sites for 2008, with artworks underscoring the topic and telling the stories of these historic places. The event also will include "Recouture" in Gallery No. 2, an exhibit complete with runway show featuring fashions constructed with alternative materials.

Festival of Flowers PaintOut

Where: T.C. Steele State Historic Site, 4220 T.C. Steele Road, Nashville, Ind.
When: 7 a.m. to 4p.m. May 17.
Tickets: Admission to the paintout is free for the general public. Artist entry is $7.50 for adults, free for children; pre-registration is required.
Info: (812) 988-2785; www.tcsteele.org

The T.C. Steele State Historic Site will host this annual contest of more than 100 Plein Air artists in Brown County. Steele worked outdoors, sketching and painting his subjects quickly, and the contest gives today's artists a unique insight into his method. The contest is open to amateur or professional artists of all ages and media. The Reel Tyme String Band will perform a free concert from 1 to 3:30 p.m.