Saturday, June 4, 2011

View some amazing art!

Wow!  The sun can still shine in Oregon!  Great day....85 degrees, pretty dramatic change since the temperature has not been much over 60 for the past six months!  Nice.

Hubby and I took advantage of this great day by taking a short road trip to Salem, the capitol of Oregon by the way, to visit their Saturday/Farmer's Market. 

Bought a plant and some yummy fresh produce at the market and then, headed over to the Hallie Ford Museum on the campus of Willamette University.  It was opening day of a show for Seattle mixed media artist Ross Palmer Beecher.

Awesome work and the ultimate in recycling!  It is very humbling to see what this artist has created with everyday cast offs.IMG_0734 IMG_0735

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This quilt is made of metal and stitched together with wire, the same as all of the pieces above!  See close up below........for details.  Ross, actually, began her art career as a quilter of FABRIC, later experimenting  and switching to metal.

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Suggested uses for your old cigarette lighters........

IMG_0716IMG_0709 IMG_0719Check out the detail....soldered stain glass, hot wheels, old jewelry and below, she used bullet casings, army patches and old fabric.

IMG_0725IMG_0731IMG_0732IMG_0736This is a woman with a gift for seeing an item for what it could be NOT just what it is!  She uses only basic tools like a hammer, tin snips, nails, hole punch, a file and needle nose pliers to construct her art, in some cases adding a bit of paint.

IMG_0729You can tell I was inspired!  I'm going back.....there is so much to see, it was hard to take it all in.....such incredible detail.

Art is not all about pretty pictures!  Pretty pictures are wonderful, but someone who can express them self so brilliantly  with such simple materials and tools is AMAZING, to me! 

I'm linking this blog to Creative every day a wonderful place of inspiration!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

those are just cool.
i always feel so intimidated working with metal - that is just damn cool though.
Assemblage pieces tend to be the trickiest things for me :)

Xx,
Amy

Quiltemarerittet said...

Gosh! Wow! I`m impressed! Buy me some time! I will create something like this too!

Mary said...

this is the coolest stuff ever...

Julie said...

Ross Palmer Beecher is amazing! What an inspiration too! I have a bunch (a ton, really) of beer cartons...I wonder what I can make from that? I keep staring at the pile...they are so colorful and pretty...maybe I can try a flag for July!!! Of course, they are not metal, but the mixed media ideas come to mind here...Thanks for showing these amazing pieces of art!!!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I like all these metal assemblages. They are really beautifully done. I got a huge kick out of the one with lighters. It looked like something I could make, but it would take me 100 years to find that many lighters. Great, great examples of her art.