I spend a lot of time out west meeting people who like to make yard art from junk. I have seen old dishes stuck in the ground to create fence borders, broken glass bottle necks strung on wire to make a string fence...old mufflers turned into dogs, bowling balls turned into cat faces...I love to go to Madrid, New Mexico, and Chloride, Arizona just to see the creative elements, and innovation. In Golden, New Mexico, there is a fence made from colorful old bottles. Recycling is an art. Madrid, New Mexico really captures the authentic hippie culture. They seem to be caught in a delightful time warp. It may have a tad of yuppie-ism here and there, but hasn't "sold out" like so many cute towns have. I hate to stumble upon a town with an ice cream cone (one scoop) at $3.00....no one wants to be price gouged. I really dislike Plastic yuppie tourist traps. They often have so many restrictions, they frequently frown on Art Sculpture. Madrid is great, and Chloride is a cute town.
http://gocalifornia.about.com/bl_mdrdphoto.htm I found a few nice shots at this link. Madrid is a little mining town, and they don't want fast food, or traffic lights. So far, so good.
to those interested in making their own altered/recycled object art, Lizard Lady gave me a really excellent book for solstice/christmas called altered art, techniques for creating altered books, boxes, cards & more, by terry taylor, published by lark books in 2004. she probably got it at some place like michael's. i'd imagine she'd live there if she could. this isn't yard art, its on a smaller, and sometimes more functional level, but it's a great start for those interested in the art of recycled found objects. projects include altered books, boxes, cards, tags, and games, and even some altered clothing. it was an awesome, thoughtful gift and its truly an inspiration for creative beginners in found object art.
Check out the "garden junk" forum on Garden Web. There are a ton of junk-to-art projects pictured there.
