Where do you find this Stuff?--Chinatown Remixed 2012

One question I am asked most often by those viewing my artwork is, "Where do you get this stuff?"
The odd bits of junk I use to make collage, sculpture, and the masks for my upcoming show at Zen Kitchen for Chinatown Remixed, are culled from here, there and everywhere.

I have a large collection of scrap metal pieces that have fallen off cars that I pick up off the road and throw in the milk crate on the back of my bike on my rides home from work in the wee hours.  Most of these have been sculpted by rust and salt and flattened by traffic.

I am also a collector of bikes and a lot of bike parts make it into my work.  This bike was rescued from the canal--Check out the zebra mussels that have attached themselves to the bell.
















Friends an neighbours who see me at work offer me things from their garages and basements and trunks of cars.


Don't kid yourself, Ottawa is not all tulips and Parliament buildings.  We have our share of nitty gritty vacant lots, dead ends and it is sad and surprising how many things show up in and along the banks of the Rideau River where I canoe with my sons.

We throw out a lot of good things, some of them admittedly obsolete.  When I find beauty and mystery in something useless, rusty, and broken, I take it home and try to make something out of it.

Junk Sketch, May 2012