What do Guilford students do after they graduate? Some move back into their parents’ homes and lay about like Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate.” Others pick up a nine to five and join the daily grind. Then there are the graduates that choose their own unique paths.

This summer Clare Gillen ‘10 and Arianna Pelullo ‘08 were living in Philadelphia when they decided they wanted to start a project. Pelullo had always dreamed of fixing up a van to run on veggie oil and Gillen really wanted to go on a road trip. Both studied art at Guilford and were looking for new ways to create and share.

They eventually found a Ford Grumman box truck on eBay and picked it up in Hershey, Penn. The name came to them in what seemed like a fit of divine inspiration: they would call it LadyBeast and with it they would travel the country in search of other collective and sustainable projects.

“We’re very interested in spreading knowledge about alternative living, whether it is how people create art or how they consume food and energy,” said Pelullo. “The purpose of the LadyBeast project is to interact with and document the different communities we encounter.”

The LadyBeast team will use photo and video as well as a computer database to document the various people and projects they discover.

Their truck is outfitted with recycled denim, recyclable plastic walls, a compost toilet, a pump sink and solar power. Every detail was either handcrafted or donated.

“It had a dope sound system,” said first-year Rachel Trontz, who got to see the LadyBeast first hand when it visited Guilford on Nov. 19.

Nancy Klosteridis ‘10 joined the team to help convert the truck’s system to biodiesel. They will eventually have the car running on vegetable oil, but the work for that cannot be completed until Spring 2011.

Until then, the LadyBeast team will travel as far as they can in search of intentional communities and other people they can learn from.

“We just spent time at the NOLA Art House in New Orleans,” said Gillen. “They build tree houses out of materials salvaged from Hurricane Katrina that provide venues for local artists and community interaction.”

When work on the truck is finished, Team LadyBeast will return to Guilford to give a presentation on their journey and their methods.

“So many artists think they’re all alone in creating their work,” said Gillen. “We’re in search of other artists that channel their creativity through their communities.”

— Visit LadyBeast at http://www.LadyBeastProject.com