Trish Ransom
Salvage art….art from found objects…debris………. Trish’s trash………….”junque”………….I really get a kick out of creating something unique out of society’s cast offs! I am prone to suddenly stopping the truck to pick up the remains of a roadside collision or bottle caps discarded in a parking lot. I take walks along roads, in abandoned repair shops or salvage yards, picking up pieces of rusted metal, wire, or springs. Sometimes these objects themselves suggest a final form. Sometimes I have an image in mind and scrounge through all my various bins of metal, plastic, rubber to find the right elements for the concept. I use a variety of cutting tools and saws to create the shapes I want. The design of a “TrishFish” may incorporate old telephone wire, used car parts, rusty metal, linoleum, used guitar strings or broken jewelry, even old records or CD’s. Bottle caps are crimped and hammered flat then nailed into place. I often spray paint them silver, assemble a shape and then paint on the colors of a redfish, trout, or catfish. I use mostly salvaged wood, old cypress, pine, oak, or cedar. I love old cabinet or panel wood doors. The wood is cleaned, sanded, and then painted or stained with acrylic paint before my creature is assembled on it.
I create my debris jewelry using bottle caps and/or pieces of found metal held together with wire and assorted glues, depending on the material. I may use cars parts, colorful old wire, fishing tackle, shards of taillights or beads or CDs. The bottle caps are crimped and hammered then embellished with repurposed paper motifs cut from magazines or catalogs over which I glue my found bits of “junk”.
I feel so fortunate to, at last, be a working artist. While I utilized my art education in my “corporate” career everyday, I get to be creative all the time. I particularly enjoy the reaction I get at art fairs when folks realize that my work is created out of what many consider garbage. Beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder!
