A friend, John Lawson, created the most extraordinary art objects colleged with Mardi Gras beads. He wandered the streets after the celebration was over and collected hundreds of pounds of these garishly bright beads. Then came hours of soaking and cleaning. Then sorting colors. And then the magic began!
These are life sized pianos covered, in a jazz theme, with the collected beads. This one is an old New Orleans Honky Tonk piano and is totally playable, right down to the "Jelly Roll Morton" twang. The pianos have been shown in museums and are part of great private art collections. They are really beyond belief! This is the hight of recycling, don't you think?
7 comments:
I found your site through the Assemblage group e-mail. I love this stuff. one day i will post some of my own dysfunction purging. Thanks a lot for the site. CIAO- Organiparadox
Beverly, this beaded piano is amazing! Love the eyes and the scarab above the pedals. The colors really sing! -AnitaNH
Thank you both for checking out this blog. A collector came by who loves art with a musical reference, and John's work came to mind. Although, how do you ever, for even an instant, forget an entire beaded piano!
Wow, what amazing intricate work!
Thank you so much for sharing these works with us. The piano leaves me open-mouthed with wonder. What an intricate project! I love it. Barbara G-P
Barbara:
I'm posting another one! He is such a great talent. I found out he's also a writer and recently published his first book called "Hurricane Hotel". A really fantastic painting by his four year old son is very appropriately on the cover.
That is NICE! Great post Beverly!
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