Recycled Sculptures and Richard Hunt

Last spring my students studied Richard Hunt, a Chicago sculpture artist who uses recycled metal scraps to create small and large scale abstract sculpture. We had gotten a really great set of cups, pizza tables, boxes, dowels and Styrofoam from Creative Pitch and got busy! The work turned out amazing because the students were able to use the creative freedom afforded them by the amount of different materials available.

Some of the students made pieces focused on balance and tension.

Some of the sculptures appeared to be functional objects.

One of the kids brought in his father's old airplane made of recycled materials!


One of the sculptures was made to be hung while another looked like it was blowing in the wind.

Sometimes you are just still interested in two dimensional art work.

It's water under the...

I have yet to paint the rivets on this bridge (Ashland & Webster) and to avoid moving forward on that arduous task I am checking out what my stencil may look like. I have used the amazing Photoshop to add the mum stencil that I created from a drawing. Any suggestions on what colors to use for the stencil? The current mock-up shows light pink/white flowers over a brown/mauve background. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I wanted a nice fuchsia type color in there somewhere. More later...

Old Memories + New Toys =

I found a great post on the internet about using masking fluid to make a stencil. I am obsessed with stencils currently, so naturally I had to try this method. I happened to have that blocking fluid from a trip to Blick a few weeks back.

I had already begun a drawing of a memory from a couple of summers ago when my friend and her baby were lounging and feeding on the floor of the cabin next to a sleeping dog (not pictured). Swimsuits make for easy access!

So I added a quick stencil of peacock feathers (the mother's favorite) in the background.



I think next time i will do only a fraction of the background with the stencil but I'm pretty happy with this little piece. I can't wait to give this to my friend-apparently she has yet to hang any art on her walls!