Posted by Snow in 
A trip to a new blog made me envy people who had time to shop amongst the junk for art materials.
Junk now means whatever is unwanted in a particular space by a particular person. Stacks of plates, would-be collectibles, worn furniture or antique toy parts too precious or nostalgia ridden to throw away. Waste management, junk art, and recycling projects enjoy a many-forked intersection that spans fine art to found art as well as re-use and reclamation to clear landfills of usable materials.
Perhaps there is a use to the stuff, but there is no priority of time or function assigned to deal with it. The junk might be metal, wood, of a furniture form or ceramic purpose. Machine components or tool parts can take on the playfulness and creativity of tinker toys during re-use and remanufacture of toys and standing art. The eyes of a child and an adult will see the piles of junk components and their possibilities very differently.
Why was so much junk kept? People amass things to feel plenitude and security. Perhaps they wanted to see if they might use it at some future time. Maybe they thought there was some need in the past that might come up again. Humans are great ones for amassing piles of stuff and boxes of records and file cabinets of information that could so easily be green space.
The painted article of any type is massively underused in junk reclamation. Reviewing any material or object as a potential paint surface brings creativity and a change of perspective into the mix. Cubism and representationalism are not for flat canvases only. The serrated dged of an egg carton bring a curious type of meaning and symbolism to paintings rendered on this “canvas”.
Color, surface, material type, pliability, and shape and grouping or singularity can for new uses for more than just the garage or kitchen utility drawer. A marching band of vacuum cleaners or a polka-dotted bus are things that normal material utility could not have constructed. Shop your nearest trash or junk collection yard and examine the art and decorative possibilities.
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