Found Art

Nature has always been a source for artists’ inspiration from famous painters to architects. In recent times the act of implementing more eco-friendly and earth conscious designs has become a more prevalent element of inspiration for many artists. Artists are starting to reach far outside of themselves and the social implications placed on “trash” to try and cut back on waste while managing to raise awareness about recycling and the environment with each piece. This emphasis is forcing artists to move beyond themselves and their “norm” for art materials and where they find them.

This art is sometimes referred to as found art which can also be defined as art that utilizes items and objects that are discovered through many different modes. Some of these modes can be the environment, stores, garage sales, and, yes, even trash. Artists find an object or item that is not their intention and being inspired by it in some way take it to implement in their art in some way.

Michelle Stitzlein is one such artist. She relies on found objects, usually from trash or landfills, to create elaborate pieces of artwork. By looking closer at discarded objects Michelle aims to look beyond what made them old, distasteful, or even just unwanted for something deeper, like potential that could serve to make them applicable to her art.

In doing so she is going outside of herself and into the object in search of the uniqueness that would drive her to make it useful and new for her art. Michelle could simply just view the item as what it is at the landfill, trash, however she is able to remove that social implication by looking outside of what she has known for the chance at finding a great item for her art.

Her process is not decided by her or even by her plans, but rather what she finds and how she can use it. She had the idea to create moths using some of her found work because of the way she had intended the objects to be. It became a whole series of larger-than-life moths. Sometimes she altered her moth because the objects just weren’t working with the form, other times the “junk” made the piece fit. By altering her expectations Michelle and many artists become able to find inspiration in what they find rather than what they plan to create.

Image borrowed from:

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