Wow!

My "I'm a serious artiste" pose with Fossil in the foreground.

Last night was the opening of the Private Arts gallery show at Artery 717 in Alexandria and I have to say that I was totally blown away by the response. There were probably close to 300 (maybe more) people there over the course of the evening looking at more than 140 works of art in the show by almost 40 artists. I've never been to an opening like that and, as one friend described to me, it was like a Hollywood movie set in Greenwich Village starring Doug Fuller as Andy Warhol. Now, I am nothing like Andy Warhol, but I appreciate the comparison.

It was incredible to finally share my rust love with people beyond my immediate family and friends. My wife, kids, parents, neighbors, friends and clients were there (around 25 in all) and I got a tremendous amount of positive feedback on my work. Nothing sold, but I wasn't really expecting it to), but one gentleman was really enamored of a piece I call "Fossil": a rusty pieces of rebar with piece of concrete attached connected to a piece of wood I found. I left around midnight on a creative high!

Best question from the evening: a young teenage son of a friend asked if I used quotations around the word art on my name tag because I was unsure whether or not it was really art that I was doing. Pretty perceptive kid! ; )

Here are some (not so great) photos of a few of the pieces in the show:

Love/Hate (found metal, wood and cardboard on a piece of an old wooden trunk) 21"x19"x10"

Tone (found corrugated metal on an old breadboard) 20"x25.5"

Wingardium Leviosa (found metal and wood) 27.5"x11"

Almost (found metal grill on painted wood) 21.5"x21.5"

Rusty the Clown (found metal on the top of an old wooden trunk) 16"x33"

Peace (found metal on a piece of an old wooden trunk) 20"x20"

Fossil (found rebar and concrete on found wood beam) 19"x25"x15"

My Favorite Quotes...and Why

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." – Marcel Proust

"It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope..." – Dr. Seuss

“Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain." – Edward de Bono

"I like nonsense — it wakes up the brain cells." – Dr. Seuss

I've always been a sucker for a good quote. The first two above succinctly sum up the philosophy behind my rust art: finding new places is less important than discovering new things in familiar surroundings. For example, just yesterday I took a long hike/walk on the trails around my home in Reston, Virginia. These were paths I'd trod many times before, yet I still managed to find a great piece of rusted chain link fence, a cool section of a cut stump and an old weathered shipping palette with rusted nails. One of my favorite things about my rust obsession is the fact that it's made me more aware of my surroundings and given me an excuse to get out of my car and see things in a much more intimate way than I ever did before. I'd highly recommend it — even if you're not hunting for rust!

The bottom two quotes reflect my attitude towards life: that the act of finding humor in the everyday is in itself an art form. And in some weird way, making "art" from junk you find on the streets has a certain humor to it.

My Private Arts are Showing!

I'm excited to announce that nine of my rust pieces will be on display at Private Arts: A Designer's Art Exhibition at Artery 717 in Alexandria. Tonight, March 21st, is the show opening and it will hang until April 18th. I've been on the committee organizing the show (it's taken us over a year to pull it off!) and it is so amazing to see it finally come together. There are over 140 works by almost 40 artists who, in their day jobs are graphic designers, photographers and other professional creatives. The show is sponsored by the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington (ADCMW). Check out www.artery717.com for more details and gallery hours.

Scanned "Art"

Since this blog is pretty new, and I may not get to post as much as I want to right away, here's a sample of some of the many (smaller) things I've collected and scanned over the past 5 years or so. My process is fairly simple, but it seems to work okay. I use a typical flatbed scanner and scan most things at 1500 dpi or higher, which can make for pretty big files. Most of these I print out using an Epson 1280 or Epson 4000 inkjet printer on Epson watercolor paper with pretty good results. A few pieces have been output by a service bureau at a larger size using the giclee process.

This one reminds me of a chicken for some reason. A rusty chicken.


This is on of my favorites. It's pretty small, less than 2". I love the expression on "his" face.


Is it a dog? A moose? I'm not quite sure...



This is one of the earliest pieces I found. I was at my father's soaring club (that's sailplanes) and noticed this little piece of metal, probably 2"x3" on the ground. It had a wonderful patina: a mix of rust, dirt and moss. I scanned both sides and really liked how they looked blown up huge to about 24"x36". They have a real painterly feel to them. I went to look at it several weeks after I had initially scanned it and found all the moss gone! It was a good reminder that the stuff I collect is constantly changing.


I found this at the beach and love it's organic jaggedness.

"Artist's" Statement

This is what I had to say about myself for the Private Arts show. I'm still not sure I qualify as an artist and I hope it doesn't sound too pompous!

A while back, while working at my design firm Hinge, I found myself drawn one day to a beautifully sculptured, rusted crankshaft discarded behind our building. Soon, I was collecting rusted metal of all sizes, particularly pieces that resembled letters of the alphabet. I have always prided myself in being able to appreciate the unusual or absurd and finding beauty in cast-off objects seemed to suit me well.

After years of “rust harvesting,” my collection of rusted metal and other found objects have finally started to find themselves being combined into sculptural objects or scanned on a flatbed scanner to produce abstract works of what I hope might be considered “art.” I particularly enjoy taking something small and seemingly insignificant and blowing it up to find the hidden textures, thereby giving it new meaning and significance. If my work can also produce a smile or a puzzled look from a viewer, then all the better.

What I’m best at is spotting things. I love the feeling of finding beauty in something that others have ignored. Like the design work I do, if I can make someone stop and take a look at something, you’ve done your job.