The Brick City Center for the Arts in Ocala, Florida, is hosting the exhibit "Upcycled: Turning Waste into Wonder" for the month of April. Nearly 50 local artists have pieces on display. Each piece is required to contain at least 50% recycled materials. There are lots of quirky and fun items on display, including two of mine, shown in this post below.
It's hard to pick a favorite, but I was very taken by "Wire Horse" crafted by Elisa Prescott. Ocala is known as Horse Country, so this sculpture made from a rusty crib mattress really represents the area. The skill and finesse it took to mold this metal into shape in quite impressive.
This is my upcycled fiber bead necklace "Nothing But Scraps" made from recycled plastic drinking straws and denim scraps. I showed it along with some made by students in a class I taught on making the beads in my last post here.
"Hearts at Home" is my other piece in the exhibit is this shabby-chic heart ornament stitched and stuffed using fabric leftovers from a local interior design firm. They would have gone to the landfill, but I got a big bag of some very beautiful fabric pieces from them. The embellishments are also recycled and include a "spray" of orange plastic produce bag and a hanger from sari silk, which is itself a reclaimed textile. I've been making several of these because the fabrics are so pretty.
Darian Mosely made the nicely textured "REforestation" with corrugated cardboard and stones.
There were other fiber pieces as well that made use of small bits of fabric. Liz Chojnacki stitched "A Whale of a Time" (11" x 14"). Lots of other interesting throw-away materials made an appearance as well. There was a full size mannequin covered with decoupage images and with a globe for a head! Very imaginative entries. All of the items needed to be for sale, and I'm happy that the necklace sold in the first week. It was so much fun that I hope the Marion Cultural Alliance will issue this art call again in the future.
5 comments:
That horse is so creative!!! I love the stitching details you added to your Hearts at Home piece, and that "spray" of orange is brilliant!!! So posh!!!
Love the creativity!!
Thanks for sharing. The horse is wonderful and I liked seeing more of your pieces. How cool that your necklace sold so quickly.
Wow, Nancy! That horse is out of this world. My hand is hurting just looking at how the artist manipulated that crib mattress.
Nice that your necklace sold already, and I LOVE that "Hearts at Home." I adore the composition and the use of the produce bag and the hand stitching. This is my kind of art and I love EVERYTHING you showed us from the exhibit. It's too bad the exhibits are no longer being shown on their site, though.
Ooo. What a fun exhibit! And how great for you to have two pieces in the show! Congratulations! I like both of yours, particularly the necklace... made with straws, you say? I wouldn't have guessed, as you sure covered and painted them beautifully. Is this something you plan to wear? Light weight for sure, and no doubt you'd get compliments. How interesting that you used a plastic produce bag as the spray on your ornament. You are very creative. Great job having your pieces shared like this.
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