Recycled Art at the AMoA

DR and I have learned that rather than taking one long vacation that two or three long weekend trips through the year work best for our family. With young kids getting drug here and there, missing naps, staying up late in hotel rooms more than 3 days of a vacation gets exhausting for everyone. I'm hoping that when the kids get older that vacations may get longer and further away. Anyone care to comment on what my future vacations may hold? 

Anyway, this weekend we went to Amarillo, Texas which is about a 4 hour drive from home. One of the places I really wanted to go to was the Amarillo Museum of Art. 

My favorite artist is Georgia O'Keefe and she spent her early years as an artist teaching and working in Amarillo. Most of her early work were small watercolors before she moved onto huge oil paintings. I've seen the big ones but I'd never seen any of her early watercolors...and the Amarillo Museum had TWO!! I was so excited. As soon as I stepped through the museum entrance I asked where they were.

Ggggrrr....one was out on loan and the other, being almost 100 years old, was rarely displayed to the public. But I did come away with a free poster of one of the paintings...good thing it was one of my favorites!! 

I forgave them for denying me the O'Keefe though after going through their collection. They had a fabulous Asian Art collection and had a really neat exhibit by local artists of recycled art. Here's just a few of em'. 

Spider made out of curlers, wires and florist eggs. I'm not sure what a florist egg is but I assume it's the big yellow thing used for it's body. My mom hates spiders...I wonder if she'd like this though? 

I want a chair like this!! The seat is woven with old leather stamped belts. Anyone have some belts they want to send me?? I bet it would even be comfortable to sit on. 

What a gorgeous rooster painted on an old window! 

The museum was three levels and each level was a circle with railings to look over into the center of the museum. From this empty middle hung this sculpture. The pom poms were made from newspapers and colored tissue paper hung from fishing line that was strung with drinking straws. There are also chains (attached to the rails) made from wine corks. I love this exhibit!! It makes me want to start raiding trash cans around town! 

This one is probably my favorite. Have you ever read about Mother Teresa? An amazing life! This is made entirely from found objects, even the paint was found or bought at garage sales. In the upper left are the words, "I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use. -Mother Teresa". I feel like that sometimes. 

I think this one is probably DR's favorite. I'm trying to talk him into helping me construct a tool family for our front yard complete with likenesses of me, him and the kids. He just rolled his eyes at me. What? That isn't such a weird idea! 

This exhibit got me thinking and I'm wondering what I can scrounge together creatively into a fabulous work of art. I may have trouble though..DR has forbid me to start stashing away junk for possible uses. I already have some ideas brewing though!