Tag Archives: art

Upcycling: Michael Smith’s Destructive Testing

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In this installment of Upcycling, I’d like to highlight my current favorite upcycler, Michael Smith from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, whose Etsy store is named Destructive Testing.

In my last Upcycling post, I mentioned that I love how these projects range from useful new items to purely aesthetic objects, and Michael Smith does a wonderful job of creating imaginative, playful, even elegant pieces, most of which strike a harmonious balance between form and function.

His lamps, in particular, stand out for me, utilizing a wide variety of old found objects married with vintage-style bulbs, resulting in pieces that magically look decidedly modern.

Smith’s clocks are truly one-of-a-kind:

And here he combines the two:

Smith also has a good eye as a curator, which you can see in action at his blog.

R.I.P. Maurice Sendak

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Heavy sigh. Maurice Sendak has died.

I am moved, therefore, to say that the joy and pleasure I felt, when reading the following lines to my son when he was younger, cannot be overstated.

The night Max wore his wolf suit
And made mischief of one kind
And another
His mother called him “WILD THING!”
And Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!”
So he was sent to bed without eating anything.

It didn’t matter how many times I read it aloud, or later when we read it aloud together, I never, ever tired of it. Each and every time, those opening lines would cast a spell over me, as I was pulled totally and utterly into Max’s world.

But there were two parts of the story that were particularly special to me, for I couldn’t help getting caught up in the telling, adding the following embellishments.

1. As I read this:

And the wild things roared their terrible roars
And gnashed their terrible teeth
And rolled their terrible eyes
And showed their terrible claws.

…I would put the book into motion, as if brought to life by those terrible roars, and my voice would get louder and deeper and wilder, and I would draw the book right up close to my son’s face, to bring him up close and personal with the Wild Things.

Honestly, it is entirely possible that I enjoyed this more than my son did. In fact, I’m pretty sure that, at least the first few times, it very well may have scared him a little, and, having read quite a bit about Sendak today, about how he rebelled against the sickly saccharin and sanitized children’s literature of the 1950s, I like to think he would have approved.

2. And, when I read this:

And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus begin!

…I would sing a little song of my own composition, well, more of a march chant than a song, and it went like this:

Rumpus, rumpus, we’re having a rumpus!
Rumpus, rumpus, we’re having a rumpus!

…and I would sing it over and over again, and the book would go back into motion, my crude attempt at animating the static pictures of the rumpus, a glorious parade of Wild Things, with Max on the shoulders of one of the beasts, a revery, a celebration of wildness and freedom.

Oh, and I guess there was one other embellishment.

3. When I read this:

And Max, the king of all wild things
Was lonely and wanted to be
Where someone loved him best of all.

…I would give my son a gentle and yet firm squeeze, as if to emphasize that I did, indeed, love him best of all.

I can still feel his little body, nestled in under my arm, his head resting on my shoulder, as we:

…Sailed back over a year
And in and out of weeks
And through a day
And into the night of his very own room…

Thank you, Maurice Sendak.

Rest in peace.

Upcycling: Extreme Dryer Conversion

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One of the many things I love about upcycling is that the projects I’ve seen, as well as the few I’ve done myself (latest example), range from useful, to purely aesthetic, to simply silly and playful.

Today’s Upcycling installment clearly falls into the latter category.

Dave Haldane of Tallahassee, Florida posted the following video to YouTube, documenting his conversion of an electric clothes dryer into a ping pong ball shooter, and initially it left me feeling jealous of his engineering skills and his collection of tools.

Once I got over that, however, this project just made me happy due to its downright ingenuity and goofiness.

Tweet of the Day: @Booooooom

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Here’s a thank you shout out to Jeff Hamada (aka @Booooooom) for his tweet today, sharing a video of some animation by Masanobu Hiraoka.

I found this piece thought-provoking, an animated dream of sorts. From an aesthetic perspective, the, to me, odd color palette contributes to the uneasiness suggested in the title, and yet Hiraoka’s other animations all utilize similar color choices.

I couldn’t find any detailed bio information on Hiraoka, but it seems he’s self-taught and now rather successful. A fellow WordPress.com blogger at Idealist Junk has a great post on the animator’s work, as well as three other videos.

Anyway, without further ado…

Upcycling: More Fun With Shipping Pallets

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I’ve written twice before about an upcycling coat rack made from a shipping pallet (original, my copycat), and today I’m excited to share a pallet project of my own design.

Pallets, as I mentioned in the post for my copycat coat rack, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This project was inspired by a pallet I found that, unlike the one used for the coat rack, had top slats placed close together, with very little gap between them.

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make a coffee or end table, because it had a surface that could hold things, such that said things would not fall through the gaps in the boards.

Here’s the finished product:

I settled on the shape for two reasons: 1. The roundness contrasted nicely with the squareness of the pallet from whence it came; 2. The clean, modern shape contrasted with the ragged industrial quality of the pallet.

Sadly, I didn’t get any photos of the earliest stages of the project, but here’s what I have.

The top after having been cut out, and before sanding the edges.

Close-up of sanded edges.

Used legs, found at the ReStore, our local outlet for recycled building materials and household items.

The painted underside of the top, showing: the bracing I had to add; where I moved the outer 2″x4″s which provide extra support and something for the legs to screw into; and how I trimmed the 2″x4″s in order to tidy them up.

Just the painted top.

Finished table, in place!

I’m pretty thrilled with the outcome, and it’s incredibly satisfying having a piece of furniture in my home that I actually built.

Full instructions on Page 2

Eyecatchers: Street Art by BLU

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It’s been a while since I featured a street artist in an Eyecatchers installment, but I was inspired to do so today when I came across the work of Italian artist BLU, via Street Art Utopia.

Of the last artist I featured, Sam3, I said that his work was particularly noteworthy for having, “…a distinct touch of sweetness that is often missing in the edgy world of street art.”

Which is not to say that I don’t appreciate edgy art. Indeed, edginess is practically inherent in street art, specifically because there’s often a conflict in the mere existence of it — in works created on a large, in-your-face scale — and the act of creation itself is often illegal.

Digging deeper, as I wrote on the subject back in March 2011, street art can be seen as a powerful reminder, to an economic elite wearing blinders, that injustices keep them elite, an elite that wants to, “…cocoon themselves in their squeaky clean estates, trying to blot out visions of tin shack shanty towns and war-ravaged landscapes.”

Well, BLU’s work is loaded with statements, both subtle and overt, about the inhumane ugliness wrought by the wealthy and powerful, so it seems more appropriate for me to just hand it over to him, via the following photos, as well as a stunning “making of” video of a piece he did in Valencia. (Be sure to check out BLU’s website too for even more of his work, including some amazing animations he’s done.)

Click on the images to enlarge: