I love the idea of creating contemporary / modern art from the trash & junk that would otherwise just be sitting in the ground polluting our earth. I think the habit of collecting discarded junk/trash & unwanted items of others started for me many years back, probably in the early 2000's when I would attend auctions and take home box lots that nobody else wanted. While others saw a box of junk and would not bid I always saw another purpose for the treasures that I saw when I viewed what others saw as only garbage.
I'm a nature girl and always outside so no matter what the outdoor activity; whether exploring abandoned places, walking along the beach or hiking in the woods, my eyes are always searching for that discarded piece of 'junk' that I can alter or recycle into a work of art.
Each piece of art that I create from the found objects and I junk I collect has it's own story to tell. When I create these assemblages all these pieces, with their own separate stories, come together to create a new tale. The first found object pieces I created and sold were created inside old cigar boxes that I had gotten at an auction. I filled the inside of the boxes with little scenes from the plastic toys, junk jewelry and other oddities I had collected at auctions in my junk box lots. My altered art / recycled art assemblages went on from there to my monochromatic assemblages that were created from all of the discarded trash I noticed that I was responsible for when creating my paintings. So all of my old tubes and containers of paint, broken paintbrushes, old painting gloves, cardboard boxes my materials would come in.. all of it was saved, placed on to canvas or wood and uniformly sprayed one color.
In 2014 my found object assemblages changed to using all of the old discarded wood and metal my husband and I were finding on his parent's property. I am in love with all things rusty and I love the discolorations that take place on objects as they lay exposed to all the elements as they lay outdoors. I started these assemblages for my own needs because I wanted art for my walls that looked like it actually belonged in an old farmhouse. Often my creations are driven for my own wants/needs for art for my own home and not finding what it is that i am wanting.
I have always been drawn to old farmhouses and when we purchased our first old farmhouse to rehab I wanted to fill my walls with artwork that to me told stories of old times on the farm. Many of these pieces I created from materials of old abandoned farm equipment that we found in the woods.
In many of my found object assemblages I also incorporated my own photography from photos I had taken over the years of old farm equipment into my found object art assemblages.
I think I am really drawn back to working in recycled art / found object assemblages at this time because of the huge toll the Chinese counterfeit reproductions of my paintings has taken on my joy for art. I find myself simply not wanting to paint right now but the moment I picked up my tooks and started digging through our found & gathered object piles of withered wood, rusted metal, old books & magazines, etc my heart felt at home again.
The cross is a symbol I am drawn to for so many reasons. I think it is the one symbol that represents the ultimate sign of love while at the same time a sign of pure hatred. Good/Evil. I am also drawn to the cross so strongly because of a sign I have with my sister who has now passed. We lost my sister very unexpectedly in 2019 to an issue with her heart. As soon as I arrived to mom's when I got the news she had left us I jumped in the shower and just bawled. I begged her to let me know she was safe, to let me know she could hear and see me and I asked her to please let me know how I would know she could hear me. All I heard in my head was that I would see a cross and know. As I walked to where she passed away she had taken one of the wooden cross art pieces I had made and put it on her wall. My sister passed away laying under the found wood cross I had made. Since that day I see the cross everywhere and I know that is her way of letting me know she hears me, she sees me.. her energy is forever with me. I had never shown or sold the previous found wood crosses I had made. With all the struggles I have had losing my art business to Chinese counterfeits I went back to my found object art.. as I could not find myself able to paint at this time. I started an assemblage one day and it was a cross... that is where I am drawn at this time.
For pricing / info on any of my found object assemblage art please inquire
via email or phone 219.306-9474.
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