Artists who scavenge for supplies definitely approach the creative process differently than they would otherwise. Instead of planning their materials in advance, their work is a serendipity of discoveries found stacked at the end of people’s driveways. It’s also known as junk.
"You never know what you'll find," says Delta artist Dennis Walsh, who loves to work with scavenged materials.
Walsh is an advocate for Spring Clean-Up and feels it’s a wonderful time for an artist. He looks forward to hustling through the forgotten and admits he’s fascinated by the domestic items people throw away.
For Walsh, it goes much deeper than that: “It’s a time when others make the very delayed decision that the moment has come to remove what they once loved or cherished and throw it away.” He views these as valuable treasures because, in his words, “They hold the memories of loved ones, happier times, love and, yes, anger and hate.”
As Walsh explains, “There is a beauty to that which was once loved, things that have been created through time their own worn patina, that are marked and broken through human use take on a beauty of their own that you just cannot buy in a store.”
These things have great value to artists as his or her vision is only expanded by the presence of these values. Plus, it’s all free.
Walsh feels the secret heart of the artist is that life continues and sees the value to an artist in taking something and turning it into something that it never was as inspiration. In his eyes, Spring Clean-Up gives artists a chance to take the discarded, or no longer wanted, and turn it into a one of a kind, the only one in the world, by adding colour, rope, stones or string. And with their knowledge of what absence is, an artist can bring life back into the forgotten and discarded.
He has found many frames, furniture, soapstone carvings, vases to paint on and uses the backs of old posters to do his paintings. He was once again sifting through piles on driveways this week with the hope of finding more gems.
According to Walsh, “Spring Clean-Up is a renaissance of the mind to the artist, from the smallest items to the largest pieces of furniture that call for a friend’s truck to carry home.”
He feels it this is not about the removal of forgotten junk, but more about the future unfolding before our eyes. He sees it as an opportunity, a challenge, a fulfillment of the circle of life. In the eyes of an artist, Spring Clean-Up can really be a blessed time of year.
Remember that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
Mary Ann Burrows is an artist and creativity coach; visit www.maryannburrows.com. Meg Neufeld is an artist, anthropologist and co-founder of Alongside You; visit https://www.alongsideyou.ca.
