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Dante took this photo yesterday. I wasn't aware of her snapping me as I worked, grinding the edges of a piece of steel.
The steel was the last scrap of the rusted oil drum I bought the other week. I'm pleased to say that I've used every bit to make art. Two completed new paintings, one final small sculpture, and nothing left over to litter my studio.
I worried that the place would end up as a junkyard, filled with piles of twisted metal. It didn't happen. With leftover wood I can always feed my stove during the cold months. But scrap iron is a different matter. Unsightly and dirty.
When artists collect trash and try to turn it into art they often end up with more trash. You have to be clever enough to transform each and every fragment, or why even bother?
Artists don't re-use, recycle, or repurpose stuff. They "artify" garbage. The only purpose of art is to be art itself. I strive to be an artificer. All is grist for my mill.
