Landfill Art Project: Koi Hubcap

Yesterday I finally finished my hubcap for the landfill art project. A few months ago, I applied to be part of this project:

*Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art.

The 1,041 pieces of rusted metal are actually old automobile hub caps from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. Each hub cap, after being cleaned and primed, is affectionately called a “metal canvas.” Although most “metal canvases” have been transformed by the artist using oil or acrylic paint, some have been weaved on, glued or screwed or welded to, or made into fine sculpture.

I have found that the fine artists I have worked with on this project do not even flinch when looking at this white round disc of metal canvas. And why should they. Artists from the beginning of time have used cave walls (Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain,) walls of pyramids (Egyptians,) animal skins (American Indians,) etc… as their canvas. In addition, as a gallery owner for over thirty years, I maintain that artists, generally speaking, are more ecologically in touch and environmentally aware. Perhaps that is the reason forty-one artists readily accepted the challenge and embraced the project.

Although the project is in its infancy (I hope to have it completed by 2012,) it will evolve from a simple idea of taking forty-one old rusted hub caps and creating forty-one pieces of great art. The second phase has already started with the acquisition of one thousand additional (1000) rusted hub caps which will be turned into cleaned and primed “metal canvases. The project will continue with finding one thousand (1000) talented artists who believe in this project.

The third phase will involve publishing a book on the project showcasing all one thousand forty one (1,041) completed “metal canvases.”

The fourth and final phase will involve choosing 200 metal canvases that adequately represent the project and create a traveling show. The book and traveling show will publicly portray the global art community's effort to positively impact the environment through re purposing previous metal waste into great landfillart.

 

*taken from the website of landfillart.org.

 

 

I wanted to do a koi fish to represent me and my art studio: KoiStudios. When I received the hubcap, I cleaned it well with soap and water. Then I applied a couple coats of white gesso. Painting on metal was new to me, so I was taking my sweet time with it. Once the hubcap was completely dry, I sketched the fish out in pencil and then started to paint with watercolors and eventually moving on to acrylic.

 

how I received it in the mail




gessoed

 

big guy © samos 2012



close up © samos



detailed close up © samos