Recycling Art A creative way to reduce, reuse and recycle
by Jennifer Guerra
Everyone has stuff. Probably too much stuff. Stuff you don't use anymore, stuff that's just gathering dust in a box somewhere. Sure, you could recycle it. Or, as Michigan Radio's Jennifer Guerra discovered, you could turn some of that stuff...into art!
Vivienne Armentrout has only the essentials in her house. A table, some chairs, a sideboard. Maybe a vase with fresh cut flowers from her garden. But that's it. No clutter, no knick knacks. Armentrout doesn't like to have stuff lying around her house. So she gets rid of it. But she doesn't just throw it out or recycle it.
"The thing is," says Armentrout, "it's easy to recycle. You just load up everything take it to drop off center and put it in the bin. And that's OK for material recovery. But a lot of objects have a real use still and that would be a waste."
Like fabric, for example. Armentrout says there's nothing inherently wrong with recycling old neck ties or curtain remnants. But if you go that route, the material will probably just end up being turned into stuffing for seat cushions.
"But I think making them into a beautiful piece of art is a much better use," continues Armentrout.
Now you might be thinking to yourself: Ok, sounds like a cool idea...but I'm not an artist! That's ok, you don't have to be. That's where someone like Britten Stringwell comes in.
Stringwell calls herself a "creative, inspirational doer...or artist."
Stringwell and Armentrout live in the same town. But they never met...until Armentrout read an article about Stringwell in a local paper. Stringwell had some art work on display at a coffee shop, so the paper was doing a little bio on her. When Armentrout read that Stringwell used recycled material in her pieces, Armentrout immediately went to work. She went through boxes of stuff she had in her attic and basement. Armentrout invited Stringwell over to her house and together, the two sifted through old metal gears, antique furniture knobs and wooden beads.
Some of the items Stringwell took home with her. Some she didn't. Stringwell is quick to point out that she doesn't just take anything that's handed to her.
"I don't like to keep collecting things," says Stringwell. "But if I can help to inspire other people who would use them, too, is really important."
I think that's key to understanding what drives Stringwell to do what she does. She likes to make connections, to form relationships with people.
People ? strangers ? will read or hear about Stringwell. And they'll invite her into their house. Virtual strangers! Sometimes they have her over for tea, maybe a light snack. And then, they just talk. Mostly, about all the stuff they've got in their basement or their attic.
And it's those stories ? the stories BEHIND the items and not the items themselves ? that Stringwell says inspires her the most:
"More recently, I've been interested in not talking so much when I enter a space, but kind of seeing where the person leads me. And just kind of finding out what's important to them or what story comes up and why does this object inspire me more or them more..."
For example, that's how Stringwell discovered someone's box of old tennis balls.
An older woman invited Stringwell into her home one day. The two walked through her basement, where there were boxes of stuff everywhere. When they came to the box of tennis balls, the older woman went on and on about her love of the game...about how she and her partner used to play tennis all the time when they were younger.
So Stringwell took those tennis balls home with her and gave them new life. She put them in an art piece. Tennis balls that otherwise would have stayed in a box in a basement or ended up in a landfill somewhere. She created an interactive composition of sorts. Within the composition, the balls can be arranged by the viewer to form different patterns and shapes.
"What's important is that it becomes this new, physical game. What was important to them about it. They might not be as physical as they were when they were younger and playing tennis, but now they can take these things out and play a matching game and change it around and recreate it."
Of course not everyone is a creative inspirational doer, like Britten Stringwell. But that doesn't mean you can't reduce, reuse and recycle. That part's easy. Everybody gets that. And maybe, while you're at it, you'll start to look at all the stuff around you in a different way. And maybe you'll find your own way to recreate, re-purpose and re-imagine.
