Monday, April 1, 2013

Recycled Art




I don't want the Belize tourism board to come after me. So before I tell you that the beaches in Belize are filled with garbage, I have to point out that this is where we stayed.  An enchanting private cabana on a beautiful beach.  Just a few feet from the waters edge.  Heaven right?  Well, sort of.  Don't get me wrong.  This cabana was one of the highlights of over 12 weeks in Central America.  Amazing.   


Sunrise outside our front door.  But...



The beaches are filled with garbage.  At least on the main land.  We stayed on the beach in Hopkins on our first trip to Belize.  I loved it.  But I vowed to start picking up garbage on my next trip.  And to turn lemons into lemonade I decided to do a little art project.  So when we arrived in Placencia, I started collecting on our very first beach stroll.  And as you can see I stuck to a specific color scheme.   It actually became kind of fun to discover so many different shapes,  mysterious containers and the not so mysterious.  



The first thing I did when I got home was select a canvas that fit all of my art (excuse me) garbage. I laid it all out in what I hoped was an interesting manner and took a photo.



Then I painted the canvas in a kind of rustic, textured and sandy tone.


click to enlarge

Then for the fun part.  I started gluing all the garbage onto the canvas.  And so far everything has stuck!  Please take a moment to look over all the different pieces of plastic.  My favorites are the curlers and the little rocket.  The phone and mirror are also pretty fun.  But the story isn't over.  I plan to adhere more plastic shapes to a frame and then spray paint it.  I got the idea on Pinterest!  If you have any small plastic toys, junk or odds and ends please send it to me.  I would love to be able to complete the frame with all found pieces. I haven't even started the frame. So this post will be continued...

P.S.  If this post tickled you please pass it on to your friends.  

15 comments:

Tina Fariss Barbour said...

Oh, my goodness, to think you found all this on the beach? You certainly did something beautiful with the found trash-turned-into-art. I love the finished product. It's fun to look at the different pieces and wonder where they came from. Thanks so much for sharing this!

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

What a fun way to make junk positive. I love all the blues.

Hilary said...

I love that you're finding something creative to do with found junk. I can't wait to see more.

DJan said...

You are so incredibly imaginative! I love this use of trash, making it into art. You're amazing! :-)

Tweedles -- that's me said...

gosh- you found some treasures for sure!
love
tweedles

Linda Hensley said...

Love it! Sad that the beaches are full of garbage, but isn't it wonderful to see the beauty in trash? Great color scheme :)

Serline said...

Great piece of art! You are always so creative and full of ideas.

Tabor said...

What a treasure you are to the world. I stayed in Belize one year...a different area. I am guessing it is on the current of a cruise line or boats and all this washes ashore? You should send your artwork back to the hotel and maybe more people will try to keep the beach clean.

Tabor said...

Forgot to mention congrats on your POTW!

TexWisGirl said...

so creative! congrats on your POTW!

Red said...

Your message on messy beaches was much more powerful when you used the junk to create some art.

Unknown said...

This is such a neat idea, however I already hoard lots of items and stuff for a rainy day - what will they think of me next of I go dumpster diving! Great balance of all the items on the canvas, particularly like the plastic spoons - so neat and tidy :P

Unknown said...

Visiting from Hilary's site and thoroughly enjoyed turning junk into cool art! :)

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I am glad that everything you glued on there is "G" rated. Some stuff I've found on beaches definitely isn't (course you wouldn't pick that up anyway would ya?)

Mage said...

I liked it in the bucket too. :)