Found Object Art: Assemblages and 3-d Collage

These are some sculptures I made out of found objects.  A found object assemblage is made of various objects that are placed together to create a visual composition.   My first attempt at making sculptures like this happened when I was about 14 years old.  I had been to a gallery gift shop at the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, WA and seen figurative sculptures constructed of nuts and bolts and wanted to make something similar.  My grandfather's garage in Pasco, had boxes and crates containing random nuts, bolts, and screws of every type.  Unfortunately I figured out that elmers and super glue wasn't up to the task. Nevertheless I collected numerous found objects for my own amusement which later became the foundation for dozens of sculptures.  Part of the process involves looking for interesting objects to use in compositions.  Streets and alleyways in industrial areas provide an excellent resource in the city.  Rivers, creeks, and beaches of all sort can provide a wealth of materials.  Abandoned and demolished buildings, empty lots also can reveals useful treasures.  Though some of these places may project an element of danger I have yet to be harmed or discouraged.

Seed Pod, Found Objects: Steel and sandstone on found wood pedestal. 1995

The Seed Pod is actually an old bucket that was used for containing railroad spikes.  When I found it, it was stuck in the sand beside some railroad tracks on the outskirts of Denton, TX .  The bucket  was also filled with sand and several small sandstone rocks were shattered inside.  Nearby were the remnants of other  buckets that were crumpled, torn, and shattered.  After studying the buckets I determined that they had been filled with sand and rocks and placed on the tracks by someone.  A train had obviously come along at a high rate of speed and pulverized the buckets.  This one remained somewhat intact and also happened to become a rounded object resembling a seed pod of sorts.  I've been dragging this thing around with me ever since.  A strange sort of forces and tools were made to create this piece of art

Untitled, Found objects earthenware brick, steel, copper, glazed earthenware

The objects here are assembled to make a totem of sort that could also loosely resemble a woman's breast.  It is made from worn brick, found in a creek, a rusted sey of ball bearings, and an old ceramic marble, found near a demolished house.

Funometer found objects 1998, when I made this piece I was struggling with bouts of depression.  The ring at the top was made of terra cotta and fired in a kiln I made out of found bricks, the turquoise disc is plastic and came from my job at the Alaska Airlines warehouse. The metal pieces were found in an abandoned lot.

This was one of the very first pieces I made right after I moved to Washington from Texas.   I stayed in Tacoma for my first  six months, living with my mother.  I used to frequent the old Tacoma waterfront in Old Town searching for bricks and other artifacts from the abandoned mills, which there were many. This is made of found objects: terra cotta, obsidian slag, rusted steel, iron, copper , nickel, cardboard, wood.  This sculpture used slag from the Asarco Mill in Ruston, WA.  Asarco was known for leaving behind a superfund cleanup site that polluted Commencement Bay and parts of Vashon Island with arsenic.  I'm not sure if the black slag is toxic, but it is glasslike, almost like obsidian.  I also used terra cotta in this piece and a  quarter dollar coin that somehow got trapped and re-milled in a dryer.  

Untitled, Wood, sandstone, limestone 1995.  This sculpture was made when I still lived in Texas.  I used limestone found in a creek, creosote coated wood found near train tracks, and a sandstone "eye" from Lake Ray Roberts

Untitled Found objects,  2003 Metal road debris, brass cutting, driftwood, plastic case

This "bird-head" object is really just a piece of driftwood, found in the Puget Sound.

Sunspot Found objects, 1996  metal, felt, rubber, and an old token

I used to spend a lot of time wandering near train tracks.  It was always a good way to find stuff and it reminded me of my dad, grandfather, and uncles.  Tressles where often the only way to cross creeks despite their obvious danger.  One time while crossing we almost watched a friend of mine get run over by a train.  While crossing a bridge in cowboy boots and not wearing his contact lenses, my friend was unable to rapidly put his feet forward to get off the bridge.  Hobbled by these factors the train bore down upon him and he narrowly escaped death by wrapping his entire body around a tressel girder.  He didn't even make it off the bridge.  The train which had been cruising at a speed of about fifty miles an hour barely was able to slow down, and blared it's horn all the while as it zoomed past. My friend, terrified was only able to peel himself off the girder after the train had passed.

In North Texas all the farms and ranches are becoming parking lots, warehouses, and shopping malls.  Often while driving around in the countryside you'd see land offered for development with usually an old barn or farm house still standing.  Sometimes, I used to enter these sites looking for objects.  Horse shoes, boot heels, and rusty metal was common.

Horsey detail , found objects 1996

Flower,  1997 found metal, wood,  canvas, mud, burlap. Found frame.  Acrylic paint, and epoxy

Untitled, Limestone, glass marbles, wasp nest 1994

Ghost Town Found Objects 1991

When you are an artist sometimes it is easy to incorporate things that are nearby and familiar.  When I was in college at the University of North Texas I had a job at an art and crafts store similar to Michaels. I used to take home the mat board scraps and old frames from the framing department to mount my objects.

Trans Am, Found Objects , Mat Board frame, 1995 

One of the best ways to search for found objects these days is to ride a bicycle around town.  Bicycles give you a closer glimpse of the world by enabling the rider to traverse alleyways, lots, trails, roads, and sidewalks with ease.  Often while riding I 'll see something on the ground that I have to circle back for because I was unable to catch it upon first approach.  Also the objects found are also road worn,  similar to the affects that one would get from something tossed about in a fast moving river.   

Sun,  Found Objects 2008  Plastic, wood, metal

Ocean View, found wood assemblage.  2014  

Bird,  1998 found copper and ceramic, wood fired terra cotta , thrift store frame

Most recently, I have using them to make things that are also assembled from new materials.  At Pratt Fine Arts Center, I welded together this obelisk from new steel.  Then I welded some found objects to add texture to the piece.  

Collage and pocket picture books

Collage, Pocket Picture Book, and Altered Texts 1997-2013

In March of 1997, I packed up all of my possessions and moved to Washington State from Denton,TX.   I was out of college, having recently graduated from the University of North Texas. I was without a permanent home and a studio to make art. While trying to figure out where to live and work I had a strong yearning to make art to help combat the stress I was facing with the uncertainty.   Lo and behold, while staying a few nights in my grandmother's basement in Pasco, WA, I discovered the art of altered books.  In her basement was 2 complete sets of Encyclopedia Brittanica, outdated textbooks on Atomic and Solar Energy, and several volumes of National Geographic.

  A friend of mine in college, Jason Rutherford had been making altered books for quite sometime and I decided that this art was ideal for portability.     The text also was exciting, because as a novice writer with a degree in English Composition, I could form a story by using imagery and text that was already available but change the wording and phrasing and imagery by using cut and paste methods by hand.  The juxtaposition of images could create a story of it's own and often create a great piece of art.

   In all, from 1997 to 2004 I created 62? books with unique subjects, titles, and imagery.  Since then and currently I have created dozens more. What started out as pure collage soon morphed into a plethora of art forms.    I have explored drawing with colored pencils, graphite, pen, ink, marker, charcoal;  I painted with watercolor, gouache, acrylic, egg tempera, and even oil.   I used found objects, photos, ephemera, and memorabilia. I used linoleum, woodcuts, silkscreen and styrofoam to print. I also wrote poetry, philosophy, and humorous phrases.    The books became pocket sized art galleries.   I saved a few for my own collection, many were given to friends.  Most of the books were over 20-60 pages apiece with a few having over 100. Here is a list of most if not all of them, including some I am still working on.

1. Atomic Comfort 1997

2. Texass: Steers and Queers 1997

3.Atomic Bomb

4. Mars Mission

5. The Elusive Mind of Man

6. The Wonderworld

7. How to Raise and Train a Dog

8. Bug: The Realm of the Insect

9. Astronuts

10.  The F.B.I. (Fun Being Ill) note: over 200 pages

11.  Health and How to Get It

12.  Outer Surfaces in Interstellar Spaces

13. Wonderworld: Book 2

14.  I Inhaled

15. Bar Talk:  The Bathyscaphe and Beyond

16. Youth Trip

17.  The Healing of Sick Minds by Iman Sane*

18. Wonderworld Jr.

19.  Landforms

20.  Wonderworld 2: Geothermal Unit

21. Let's Fly by Ace Pilot*

22. Birthday Kate (note: present for my wife)

23.  The New Lust Blues

24.  Rainbow Planet

25.  Eureka: I Found It!

26.  Tooth Movement Jr. : Baby Tooth Baby

27. Vantage y Gorge: to Columbia

28. Handyman's Guide To Romance

29. Handyman's Guide to Manhood (68 pages)

30. The New Funklopedia (30 pages)

31. Tooth Movement

32.  Tooth Movement Tooth

33. Tooth Movement Threeth

34.  Mixed Greens (30 pages)

35.  Hampy Camping Handbook (32 pages)

36.  Space Age: Return of the Astronuts

37.  Rubbish  #

38.  "L" Practice (gift to Mom)#

39. On Time

40.  The Handyman (46 pages)

41.  Pocket Rocket Handbook  (24 pages)#

42. American Heritage Jr. (24 pages)

43.  The F.B.I. Project: Boredom  (48 pages)

44. Rainbow Planet 2 (36 pages)

45.  Big Galoot (38 pages)

46. "c"  (30 pages) #

47. Lies: the Book of Truth (34 pages)

48.  Quigly's Guide to Scribbling  (32 pages)

49. Redneck's Guide to Violence

50.  Down South

51. Invasion of the Minds

52. Humboldt Honey

53.  Reflections  (20 pages, made in  2003)  see below

54. Reflections Accordian

55, Gone Fishing (gift to Dad)

56. Crash Pro Handbook by Ace Pilot*

57. Eddie y Rosela (48 pages)

58. The Park (28 pages)

59. Art Seen

60. Art Seen Too

61. New York Minute

62.  Spot#

63. Drop#

64. Magic Carpet Ride

65. Combustible Journal (32 pages see below) 2006

66. Waterworks

67. Planet x

68. Mystic Sons of Morris Graves

69. Poppycock

70. Ballyhoo

71.  Portland

72. Seattle +

73. Swimming Pools

74. Art Seen Three

75.  Emily's Friends and Significant Others+

76.  LOLA+

77.  Joey+

 78. Madelyn+

79.  She's Crazy Quilting+

80.  Cityscape

81.  Art Desert

82.

*written under a fictional name

#Mini book

+ Works in progress

I still have some of these books.  Below are some examples of a few.

Invasion of the Minds

56 pages of art created in 2003.  paintings, drawings, collage, found objects, found photos, found slides, found ephemera, print making.  Bound with copper wool and hemp fiber, 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches in size.

Cover with copper wool binding and wood-fired terra cotta beads on hemp string

Inside front cover printed with ink, drawn with markers

The Mind from pages 2 and 3 watercolor, acrylic, collage imagery and marker

pottery via piano,  photo, watercolor, ink, and collage

daydream, acrylic paint, watercolor, found objects, and  textbook paper

All You Have is What You Know

Brain on the Cosmic Plane(left),  Correspondence with Al Finnell (right)

Mind Eraser

These Minds Know......... More Than We Think

Don't Be Fooled..... Because The Mind Already Knows

What Were You Thinking?

Auditory This, watercolor and ink on textbook imagery, found polaroid photo

OM, watercolor on textbook imagery

Crash Pro Handbook by Ace Pilot*

40 pages of art.  Made in 2004.  Contains paintings, drawings, woodcut print, linocut print,collage, found photos, found objects, found song lyrics, found drawing, found blue angels stickers and more

Inspired by a weekend job I had at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  5 1/2 x 5 inches

Crash Pro Handbook Cover.  Red String Binding

Found song lyrics.  These were written inside a sketchbook I found at a thrift store along with some drawings.

In a crash situation it is important to be prepared.  A list can help.  Found photo on right.

These are plans from a real airplane that I discovered in a trash can in the catacombs of the museum.  

woodcut print

Linocut print... originally titled Guitar Wolf, this print is re-used here as a portrait for Ace Pilot.

The Combustible Journal

32 pages of drawings, paintings, collage, text, linocut, and burnings finished in 2006

This book was roughly based on the idea of burning books and that if the viewer did not like what was in it at least the book could be burnt for warmth. 

inside cover and first page

painting of fire, acrylic on textbook page
"The Fire was warm and bright I thought about my family and friends and held my hands closer to the fire.  I wasn't afraid.  Then I thought about glass and how it's kinda like fire"

Combustible Position

Farm House Fire

"If there is anything to this combustible journal there must be some sort of ignition device which would make it sometimes able to convert itself to fuel" 

Reflections

This book is 20 pages of original art.  Drawings, Paintings and photography on various papers.  The cover is made of cardboard with a metallic silvery coating.  Bound with Ribbon scraps.  This book was originally received in a trade with another artist at the Occidental First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square.   I altered the book by adding pages, changing the cover, and adding all the art .

Reflections Book Cover 6 3/4 x 6 3/8 inches

Left is watercolor, right is a photo of a tree in Denton, TX on  Ponder Street

acrylic color fields

Strange Musings

Architectural Visions

Are we a reflection of our surroundings?

The Mirror reflects our thoughts

The Beast Within

Self Portrait Thoughts

The weird thing about making books like these is often a lot of serendipity occurs while putting together pages and the story line.   Images seem to appear when needed and text just somehow fits. Once I would get on a roll, it was hard to stop, so I just kept on going. The books are great for documenting a trip, an event, or acting as a sketch book of sorts.

Bleacher Creatures from the book Magic Carpet Ride