PrimarilyPaper: July 2014

ABOUT RUSTY STUFF

There came a point in time on my daily walks in the high desert that I could no longer walk past all the wonderful Rusty Stuff I saw along the roadways and irrigation ditches. I starting taking a canvas bag with me on my walks and started hauling home rusty stuff with me. I started creating mini installations in my garden areas and randomly nailing some of it to wood blocks.

Here is one of Thomas Hogan's birdhouses that I mounted atop a leftover piece of a tapered post on top of a leftover piece of 8x8" This birdhouse is about 8 years old -- Thomas' newer work is much more elaborate and colorful. If you want to take a look at his current birdhouses -- his website is www.newmexicobirdhouses.com

Here's a close-up of the post and the 8x8 -- I think I'm probably finished nailing things to the 8x8, but the post is still a little bare and as I find just the right things to add, I'll nail them on.

And this is a the area where the birdhouse lives along with the wonderful rusty lizard I bought at a yard sale for fifty cents! I toss mostly rusty round things into this area. And I created the walkway from firebrick that I found buried in my back yard!

Then, there came the time that I had hauled home waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much rusty stuff and decided that I needed to open an Etsy shop and share my New Mexico Rusty Stuff with artists who didn't have as much access to it as we do here in New Mexico. After all, one of the best things about life is creating as many win/win situations as possible! I get to take my walks and clean up the environment and share the goodies! And I think I must have saved thousands of flat tires by picking up rusty nails.

I opened my Etsy shop in 2008 and over the years I've mailed rusty stuff not only all over the United States, but all over the world. It amazes me that rust actually makes it through Customs!

I thought it would be fun to ask the artists who have been using my Rusty Stuff to send me photos of what they have been creating so that I could post photographs of their artwork on my blog. So, this post is the beginning of a gallery of Rusty Stuff Artwork. As I continue to receive photos, I'll keep updating this post. I hope you enjoy taking a look at how other artists have used my Rusty Stuff.

And if you haven't visited my Rusty Stuff shop on Etsy -- the name of the shop is simply "pvcatalina"

GALLERY

Valerie Hibbard is a prolific mixed media artist in Ohio and her work can be viewed on her website at sculpture.plainandpractical.com/

Below are a few of her mixed media wall pieces which incorporate found metal objects from my Etsy shop:

Here is Keely of Southern California who purchased rusty bottle caps from my shop to use to embellish her wonderful vessels. Aren't they just absolutely glorious!!

Lisa from Alabama has created crosses using rusty nails purchased in my shop -- she uses the crosses on decorative items to either be laid on table or hung on wall. She'll be selling the items at a Christmas shop in which she participates in November in Birmingham, Alabama.