Scrap Metal Works of Art
Scrap Metal of Works of Art
When the world is all the rage for recycling and reuse, artists, too, confine to this mantra with beautiful, eclectic pieces of art than defining artistic boundaries. For them, unlike the average person, the terms ‘recycling and reusing’ mean different things. This gives birth to artistic novelties, and turns trash into sought after artistic treasures.
Take for instance, artist Lin Evola-Smidt whose dream is to create a violence-free world for children, worked towards expressing her desire through recycled metal art. In the 90s, when Los Angeles was a violence-ravaged community, Lin convinced the residents in her neighbourhood to give up those guns. The irony was that she melted these guns into statues of divine beings. These angels were an appropriate icon for uplifting the increasing violence in the community and also served as a reminder to those with Lost Angeles that it was, after all, the city of angels. She believed that it was more than a mere piece of art from scrap metal; Lin wanted a shift to take place within the audience.
Since the late 90s, artist Michelle Reader has worked with varied forms of scrap metal; she has pieced ‘trash’ into elegant masterpieces and incorporates mechanical elements from clocks and toys. She sources her material from the roadside, thrift shops, and even city dumps that have both household and industrial metal waste. One of her applauded works was a family portrait, christened as “Seven Wasted Men”, this consisted of using a month’s supply of household waste from a family. It was curated with the objective of educating the community of the amount of waste a family produces and each had a unique story made with discarded material.
Ptolemy Elrington’s passion for seeking ‘gold’ in roadsides and parking lots are fuelled by he sees beauty in almost everything – including garbage and waste material. He desires to transform the undesirable and abandoned objects into works of art. His sculptures resemble the actual item to a great degree and prove how much hard work and toiling goes into converting scrap metal into sculptures.
Rodney “Rodrigo” McCoubrey is also another artist who is fascinated in transforming unwanted scraps of metal into beautiful treasures. He derives his ideas and inspiration from the many dumpsites in the Baja California; this resident of San Diego is happy to spend his time gathering material amongst worthless piles of metal that has no use.
A stay-at-home mom for over a decade and a professional nurse for almost two decades prior to that Jane Perkins is known as a late-bloomer in this industry. She particularly enjoys a good challenge in the form of art and takes to the streets and recycling centers, junkyards to forage objects for her creativity. She spends less time doing this now because most of her neighbors now take the liberty of placing the junk on her doorstep.
Like these, artists’ ventures there is so much we can do only if we use our imagination and let it run wild. Not only does this define contemporary art but also retires scrap metal being used in dumping yard and being buried to conserve the environment.