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Trashed art exhibit
A St. Pete art studio is turning trash into treasure.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A St. Petersburg studio is challenging artists to think outside the box while finding a new use for discarded items.
Atelier de Sosi recently put out a call for artists to create something using 85% found or recycled material.
"I think a lot of people just toss things aside thinking they are done with them, but if you get them into the right hands, then there’s an opportunity there for it to be changed into something completely different," stated Danyelle Bauer, artistic director of Atelier de Sosi.
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Artists submitted everything from paintings to sculptures to furniture. Atelier de Sosi owner Megan Allums was impressed by the response. "I was pleasantly surprised," she stated. "Something very cool about this show is that there is such a broad range and there doesn’t have to be that it’s sculptural or that it is functional. It kind of takes in a whole range of things, so if you find an old chair on the side of the road that can be repurposed and used maybe in a whole new light to somebody else and that’s something that I really appreciated about the show is that it encompasses so many different materials and art forms."
One artist collected beer cap bottles for three years and made a Bonsai tree out of it. Another artist takes used paint brushes and makes jewelry and little dolls out of them.
"I like to make artist think outside of their normal and we had that happen quite a bit in this show. I had a lot of artists tell me, ‘This made me really think outside of what I normally do and materials that I normally use,’" Bauer said.
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Walking through this exhibit, guests may see items they often throw away and Bauer wants to change that.
Bauer added, "Give it a second thought before you toss something aside, put it in the right hands and get it an opportunity because there are so many creative people out there that will shed a new light on it and make it something new."
This exhibit runs through Earth Day which is April 22.
Learn more about the exhibit and Atelier de Sosi at https://atelierdesosi.com/.