Sunday 21 December 2008

The Art of Recycling


I am a real horder, I can't throw anything away and I've been saving up stamps, old paper bags, magazines, old tickets, postcards, fabric, beads, broken china, bits of metal and plastic and scraps of anything, ever since I can remember. I like to think that I'll eventually use all the junk in a massive artistic outpouring of beautiful collages and altered art sculptures. I love patchwork, collage and mosaic partly because of their potential for recycling old rubbish into beautiful new works of art.


Kaffee Fassett's books on patchwork were a real inspiration to me and have so far resulted in 3 baby quilts, 4 cushions and 1 and a half full sized quilts. I've got a massive collection of fabric scraps taking up boxes of space. Gaudi is another icon and inspiration - Barcelona is beautiful because of his amazing architecture and mosaics. Again, I've got boxes full of broken plates, cups and tiles. I just love the mix of colours, textures and patterns.

The beauty of rubbish as art is that anyone can do it. I've got a fantastic book about 'Outsider Art' full of the amazing creations of hundreds of people from around the world. Nek Chand's garden in India is one of the most amazing, hundreds of mosaic people and animals in a concrete, landscaped garden. I'd love to see it one day, if not have a go at creating something like it! For now I'm sticking to paper, with a bit of collage and mixed media. There's something really additive about collecting and creating. I think it's a combination of the colours, patterns and images and the act of creation that I enjoy. I can't get enough!

5 comments:

Admin said...

You have an interesting blog full of nice artwork. Are you an artist?

Cecca said...

Thank you!
Yes, I'm a part time artist, I paint mostly in watercolour but also do some mixed media, collage and photoshop. I love your Bruce Willis portrait - do you use Photoshop?

Admin said...

Yes, I use Photoshop to do digital painting. Part-time artist sounds good! I'd love to be one too when my work get better... now I'm not sure how be one. =P Have you blogged about how you get started?

Sigrid Frensen said...

Great to read you're a Kaffee Fassett fan too and Gaudi... well, who doesn't like Gaudi.... ;-)

Cecca said...

Thanks Dancerene - I'm surprised your not a professional illustrator your work is so good! I'm afraid part time artist sounds much better than it is. I try to sell my work online and I've done art markets and joint exhibitions in the past but it's not much of an income. I work 9 out of 10 days at my day job in IT, hopefully I can shift the balance more to art in the future - I'm working on it.

Thanks Sigrid, I'm glad you agree :-) Have you got any tips on making a living as an artist?

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