Any artists out there who want to turn a piece of garbage into art? Join me!Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one artists who claim a piece of rusted metal garbage, old car hub caps from the 1930's through the 1970's, to create fine art. Ken Marquis is the founder of the project.
I was contacted by Ken quite a while ago, and after the initial "get to know you", I was sent one of the landfill hub caps which I was to turn into art. The box arrived and I was so thrilled when I saw the old, banged up, piece of garbage; it came off an old Chevrolet and had lots of character. I started thinking as to what I should do with the chrome hub cap with blue and red markings. Should I paint on it? Make a large art piece with the hub cap as a part of the masterpiece? Lots of ideas started flowing through my head, but none of them seemed to be quite right for the old guy. Finally, I decided that I would not turn the hub cap into "something else". I would simply show everyone the beauty within the piece.
Upon closer investigation, I got super excited as I uncovered what was underneath all that awful beat-up chrome... a lovely layer of solid brass! Exactly what I was hoping for. I slowly ground off the chrome and gave the brass a bit of a "barely there" texture. Then I gave the piece a lovely coat of a dark patina and brought out the high-lights. There were a few other steps along the way of course, but this is all about he old hub cap of course. Our story had such a happy ending too... the Chevrolet hub cap, which has been laying all beat up and useless among other landfill trash was rescued by Ken Marquis, a modern day price, then was sent to BelaArt, the Izabela Wojcik Spa of Art that is, and came out looking like the most lovely bronze sculpture. Don't you wish all trash had a happy ending like this? So what are you waiting for? Click HERE.