The Reincarnation of Junk
Clearly, it’s been a while.
The difference of having time for a blog? School. Once I’m home these days, I’m disinterested in technology. I want to disconnect and sometimes even shut off my brain… just a little though. I have found that the best way to maintain creativity and release stress is officially welding. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done, and mostly because I never knew I could!!! It’s incredible what you can push yourself to do. And I’m happy to have learned I was up for a new challenge!
The best part about my newest hobby is the fact that I am using completely recycled materials! The scrap yard is my new shopping-center! It’s so exhilarating, sorting through junk and getting excited over a giant spring, an army helmet, obscure nuts and bolts and just finding the inspiration with the right scrap! Generally speaking I don’t go to the scrap yard with the intent to find something specific, it’s too vast. Sometimes all the small stuff is buried by huge steal beams and industrial fans that are bigger than my car. It’s like my own version of “Where’s Waldo.”
I found with one project why these scraps are so cheap, twenty cents for each pound of steel. The re-bar branches of my coat tree took hours to sand the paint off. The lack of blood in your fingertips from hours of sanding is a bizarre feeling! And one I’ve never known before. The final feeling of a completed piece of artwork is so fulfilling, and even more so when you say, “I spent less than $2 on that moose.”
To me, this is the reincarnation of junk. To take something that is at the end of the road and maintain its shape in an interesting, creative and sometimes silly way- To strip the years of decay off and reveal an ever youthful gleaming surface- To surprise yourself at what you can accomplish when you only push it a little.
