Recycled Wood Art

A bag of hardwood flooring bits have been sitting in my shed.
For awhile.
The last time they fell from the shelf and hit me in the head, I decided it was time to show those bits who’s boss.

I love making ironic pieces. And I really love it when they cost me absolutely nothing.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own variation of Recycled Mod Art:
Hardwood scraps-ask a flooring man to save a bag full for you
Plywood scrap (mine was about a 2’x3’)
Stain
Polyurethane
Foamy Brush
Sand Paper-forget the palm sander–not needed
Oops Paint & roller
Nail gun w/ appropriate nails or gorilla glue
Table Saw & Chop Saw
Level
Hammer
Sharpie

Paint your plywood scrap with a bold color. I chose red because we had it on hand. But I really would have preferred orange.
Oh well. That’s the way the paint chips crumble…

Set up your table saw and create a ‘push stick’ for yourself if you don’t already have one.
Cut the tongues off of your wood bits.
Sounds gruesome, I know.

Using your chop saw, cut the lips off of your wood pieces.

Your little wood bits should look like this when you are finished hacking them to pieces.

Hand sand any little burrs from your wood bits using a very masculine and furry hand model for the occasion.

Stain your wood bits with your choice o’ color and let dry.
I would suggest wearing gloves, unless you like the street urchin look.

After deciding what pattern you like, you can either use your brad nailer to shoot your wood bits to your plywood scrap or attach them with gorilla glue.
I was tempted to go with a box that became smaller and smaller, or a random flowing line of wood bits…but ‘The City’ called to me and I wouldn’t deny it.

If you do opt for gorilla glue, I would recommend doing this ghetto method, or getting fancy and using real wood clamps to hold your bits into place overnight.

I drew my title for the piece freehand using a sharpie.

Use your foamy brush to apply a thin coat of polyurethane on the entire piece and let dry according to the manufacturers directions.
Or in my case, until it no longer sticks to your fingers.

Behold….

…your masterpiece beckons to be hung on the wall.

Recycled Art, Steel Drums and Free Food

(All that you need to throw a good party.)
My brother was asked to participate in the Tulsa Young Professional’s Art Show.
The entire show focused on using recycled materials. My brother submitted five pieces and was allowed to show them all.
I was allowed to eat free food.

The show was held downtown in the Living Arts Studio in the historic Brady district.
I want to live in this building. That is, if everyone would clear out and give me some dang privacy.

Light-hearted, fun and not too pretentious, the steel drums and acoustic guitar set the mood.

Here is the man of the hour, next to my favorite piece he’s ever created.

This piece is called, ‘Facade’ and I want it back in my living room.
It once was there, and then my little stinker of a brother took it back.
Meany.

My brother created this piece after studying in Korea. He named it ‘DMZ’ for the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
I respect his political viewpoint, but of course, I gave it ‘pounds’ more than once.
Is that wrong?

My brother found these masks in an abandoned gas station in Illinois and turned them into ‘Me Minus Fifty’.

This piece of my brother’s, ‘Moniker’, was the winner of the ‘Best 3-d Design’. He almost threw this away when it didn’t turn out as he expected.
He promptly sold it thirty minutes into the art show.
I guess we’ve all learned a little lesson, haven’t we?

This is not my brother’s, but I loved it so much, I just had to show you. Aptly named ‘Heartbeat’, the bulbs would light up in sync with your heartbeat when you put your finger in this little clampy device.
How cool is that?

This was done by another local artist, Kris Atkinson. (He also did the scissors you see in the first picture.)
The vivid colors from his pieces mesmerize me.

This is my baby brother’s piece, ‘Captured Nature’.
The blurry thing in the center is a real working fan, recycled from a walk-in cooler.
I have tried capturing nature before…and let me tell you, it bites.

Look at this man that I refer to as my ‘baby brother’. He has grown up before my very eyes.
The world needs more men like this guy. What a stud.

Bowling Balls and Black Lights

The smell of lysol mixed with stale beer, the rhythmic clanking of the pins against the lane floor and the exuberant celebrations by the alley’s participants surround
you upon entering a bowling alley.
And the domestic dispute in the parking lot?
That’s just a reminder that it isn’t all fun and games at the magical place called ‘The Bowling Alley’.

I am a terrible bowler, by every sense of the word. My score has only twice broken a hundred.

However, I love to bowl.
The primary colors throughout the alley are simple and inviting. I am a sucker for anything brightly colored.

The last time that I slapped on a pair of public shoes and claimed a pink ten pound ball as mine, was over a year ago while we were on tour with David Copperfield.
He didn’t laugh when I asked him to ‘make my pins disappear’.
(I thought it was pretty funny.)

This is my beautiful sister-in-law on the left and she married that guy in the hat which is my baby brother. My brother is in the band Bruder with Biceps.

And the night took a slightly weird turn when appendages were suddenly being compared to one another.
That is Biceps’ cute ‘hammer toe’. And that’s our friend Fiawna’s dainty thumb that she insisted looked like a ‘hammer toe’.

I can’t believe they let someone like this in public.

Friend Phillip made me giggle each time he threw the ball from about six feet back.

This is our sweet friend Fiawna, who did a little dance before, during and after every single one of her turns. She’s crazy but we like that about her.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bicep’s graceful approach. Check out his form, his concentration, the perfectly centered ball in the lane.
Too bad I still beat him.

Halfway through our game, the lights went off, the music went up and my photos were blurry remnants of the evening.

I had no idea just how much fun could be had while wearing public shoes.

After spending our life’s savings on only the one game, we left the lovely bowling alley with its black light glow, truly wishing we could have stayed a little longer.
But ice cream beckoned us, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint it….