Making Do, Found Objects, Found Art, Creative Limits

In a previous article, I wrote about how our physical limitations are a key in both our appreciating art and creating it. Today’s take on this subject is more about making do with what one has.

If you are cooking but don’t have all the ingredients and don’t want to go to the store, you improvise. Not having everything which is ideal is one of the kernels of creativity. Our problem solving abilities in general come from not having everything go our way. Otherwise, there would be few if any problems to solve.

In an article about the American Visionary Art Museum in the Baltimore Sun, it states ,"Painting is a part of the self-taught artist’s medium, but many use materials such as matches, glue, paper plates, crayons, metals, machinery parts and even unraveled thread from wash cloths."  This is an excellent example of people using the things around them to create rather than the neccessarily accepted mediums.

Also in The Oklahoma Daily today was an article about the Firehouse Art Center in Norman, OK. The coordinator states,“You can make art out of anything you can find.”

We are by neccessity limited by the material world. Using found objects or what we have lying around can limit us more. But in doing so, it gives our imaginations the ability to be more flexible in putting together things in ways never thought of before; and as a result it allows us to be more free.

See Also

• Greenwood Commonwealth - Junkasaurus
  Art Alfresco - includes art created from junk
• American Visionary Art Museum - Baltimore Sun
  Description and story of Museum
• Oklahoma Daily - Redefining Recycling
  The Firehouse Art Center
• The Desert Sun
  Transforming Trash Into Art
• ArtDaily.com
  Artist- Nina Canell combines found objects in art