Artist’s Statement:
I love the idea of transforming something that has been discarded into something strikingly beautiful. I began with recycled metals such as aluminum cans and old bullet casings, polishing or modifying the metal with heat or chemicals to create interesting color or textures. More recently, I have moved on to other recycled materials that can also be transformed to become something beautiful.
Experimenting with various materials, I invented a visually exciting new material that has many possibilities. I discovered that CD’s, CD-R’s and DVD-R’s can be modified with the flame of a small butane torch to become almost jewel-like in appearance. When carefully manipulated, the metallic, mirror-like coating on the back of the discs distorts in a way that mimics precious stones and metals. In the proper light, the iridescence and spectral colors that are created are unique.
This material is very dynamically ‘alive’ in that, depending upon the viewing angle, the colors and character change constantly similar to opalescent stones. In direct sunlight the spectral colors flash forth are just spectacular.
Given the serendipitous nature of how the flame distorts the metal layer, the resulting textures of this material are also visually exciting. Each piece is unique and is like a little cosmos in itself.
Cutting the CD/DVD material into shapes to form various design patterns, I can present an image to the viewer that has all the classic aspects of art – the flash of light upon wonderful color, a pleasing composition and the mystery that attends to an abstract creation.
My ultimate goal is to create objects that speak to those parts of our mind that crave beauty as well as those most primitive parts that delight in color, sheen, glitter and sparkle. I am always striving to bring about pleasing and exciting visual imagery that can actually alter the mood of the viewer, shifting the mood away from the mundane and creating good feelings in an emotional way, to give a visual and positive energy to the viewer.
Media:
My artworks utilize mostly recycled materials. Chief among these are CDs, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs that I modify with a propane torch in a way that partially melts the plastic and distorts the shiny aluminum layer. This gives the material a very unique and eye-catching beauty that resembles fire opal or mother of pearl due to the refractive nature of the information on the CD’s surface. I then cut the discs into pieces and do abstract or geometric mosaic compositions from them.
I also work with various recycled metals. I like to use the soft aluminum of soft drink and beer cans in to do either repousse’ or mosaic patterns, sometimes combining this with the torch-modified CD materials mentioned above. I also cut up discarded brass bullet casings, pound the metal flat, polish or texture or treat it with heat and/or acid and then cut it to shape for whatever artwork I’m creating.
Another recycled material that I like to use is the foil wrappers from chocolate bars or other candies. Many chocolate bars or candies have foil wrappers that are often of a beautiful gold, silver or color that is very eye appealing. This very thin foil can be flattened and then using like gold leaf in art works.
Rusty metal from old cans or other sources provide a nice counterpoint to the polished metals or CD material in some of my compositions.
I have often used other found objects such as plastics, metal pieces, circuit boards or flat stones in my compositions. Not only that, but most of the backing boards and mat boards I use are discards from my office or from frame shops. Many of the frames I use are either discards or garage sale items.