Art out of Trash

When I found this little metal gizmo in the weeds on one of my trash walks I had no idea what it was.  I kept thinking it looked like a little sea horse so I kept it.  I do find things occasionally that I keep. (Mainly money.  I am up to about 50 cents found over three months.)  Anyway, I thought about the art that is made every year from trash pulled out of the Mississippi River by DNR volunteers. This could be used in that sculpture.  A local artist is chosen every year and the sculpture is on display at the Minnesota State Fair.  The DNR has been doing trash into art since 1994 to bring awareness to the problem of dumping trash into the river.  There have been some interesting sculptures over the years.

                                http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/adoptriver/sculptures/index.html

An organization that really steps up the trash to art game is Washed Ashore out of Oregon.  They create some really beautiful pieces out of plastic that washes up on the world's beaches.  I love the giant plastic fish. I wonder how many plastic bottle caps are in that thing.  I find an amazing amount of colorful plastic caps.

                                                        http://washedashore.org/events/

My bit of trash ended up with Bill Lillibridge an artist who had a booth at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival over the weekend.  He immediately knew that it was part of a bicycle brake handle.  (I brought him a few other things too).  He is a sculptor who repurposes objects into some really cool robot sculptures.  Take a look.  They are really nicely done.

                                                              http://billsbotshop.com/