Yesterday, for my birthday extravaganza, the boy and I went to the Peabody Essex Museum. We hadn’t been in awhile, so all the special exhibits were new to us, but by far our favorite was the Trash Menagerie, an exhibit teeming with creatures made from recycled materials.
(Sulphur Blue Smeck, 2005, Michelle Stitzlein, mixed junk, 62 x 84 x 11 inches)
This butterfly is even more impressive in person. The stripes on the bottom of the wings are piano keys and the circles at the top are pots. It was impossible to pick a favorite, between the cardboard monkeys and the clam made of cigarette butts and the bunny with cigarette filter fur (bunny was even more adorable in person) and the glowing centipede comprised of bundt cake pans and bicycle brakes.
I love art made from repurposed stuff, and something about repurposing junk into animals is entirely enchanting. I can’t precisely put my finger on why, but the whole exhibit made me very happy. Finding new and exciting things, especially on my birthday, is a happy-making sort of thing.
After museuming we went out to dinner and managed to not get rained on, though it is the second coldest birthday that I can remember having.
We are still munching on funfetti cupcakes and I have a beautiful new necklace, my very first piece from Parrish Relics after years of coveting. Will be posting the first flax-golden tale tomorrow morning, and so far being thirty-one is very nice, indeed.
3 Comments
Liz · July 9, 2009 at 11:33 pm
So cool! There are going to be animals made out of junk in my next novel 🙂
Paul · July 10, 2009 at 7:45 am
The butterfly is brilliant, isn’t it? And I rather love the bunny, too. Hee!
I’ve just spent a while looking at Parrish Relics – there’s some gorgeous stuff, isn’t there?! I like your necklace a lot – I hope you have chance to wear it soon (if you haven’t already! :-))
Steph · July 10, 2009 at 11:04 am
That butterfly is awesome!
And ooh, what a pretty necklace! (Etsy, you’re going to destroy me!)
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