Holiday Lighting: Spiral Tower (and Trash Art)

Ingredients:

• Broken patio umbrella pole
• Swivel chair base
• Rope light (blue)
• Spot light (red)

Found Object Art or Trash Art?

I've been referring to myself lately as a found object artist, but then I went to Wikipedia and found out that what I do is not found object art.

Found object art is when you take some object and display it as art. If I took a typewriter and stuck it on the wall, that would be found object art.

Since I take apart broken things, and put them back together in a different way and sometimes mix in other found stuff, the more accurate label for my work is Trash Art.

The Holiday Lighting shown here doesn't actually qualify because the red spot light and the blue rope light were given to me by people who know I like lights. Plus it's not art. At least it's not finished. Don't ask me to explain why this is the case; I can only tell you that it is.

I have not studied Trash Art, but I have learned some things from doing it.

Pros and Cons of Trash Art

Pro: Life is a constant treasure hunt

Con: Clutter

Pro: If you ever sold something, you'd recoup the cost of your materials

Con: There's an awful lot of scrubbing

Pro: "Re-use" is higher on the environmental ladder than "recycle"

Con: Found objects often have sharp edges

Pro: Nobody will tell you that you have broken rules with your art

Con: As you do a piece you will realize that there rules, many rules, rules that you would not have expected and drive you crazy

Pro: You can always blame your materials

Con: Some found objects have bugs inside