I use the term garbage art not as an insult, but in a most endearing way. You can call it recycled art if that makes you feel better. I love making things out of found materials, and knowing that I prevented the materials I used from ending up in some dumpster. After reading a blog post by Katherine Moore, I felt so inclined to share some of my garbage art!
One day my art teacher came in with a stack of old books. She told us to choose one, and turn it into art. Since my book was called Dragonsdawn, I decided to turn it into a dragon, stealing inspiration from Harry Potter’s the Monster Book of Monsters, and one of my favourite movies as a kid, the Pagemaster. The scales are from pop cans, the map the book is standing on, as well as the maps on his wings were once inside of him, his toungue is cut out of his title page, and the teeth and claws are used art razors (which, of course, one must be cautious holding).
Garbage art is a great activity for highschool and elementary art teachers. On top of being really amusing, and environmentally friendly, it’s nice on the school budget, and teaches kids to look for inspiring materials all around them.
I would love it if anyone reading this would post a picture of their own garbage art with a little story on their blog, and link to the page in a comment here. If this post could turn into a resource of examples for garbage art projects, that would be just awesome! Or, if you have never made garbage art, get out there and make some, and tell us about the experience!
Happy trash hunting!
