Junk Assemblage – The Art of Upcycling

November 21, 2011

Artist Tom Deininger sends out a few assistants every week onto the streets to collect as much ‘trash’ as possible. Discarded objects once destined for the landfill get a new life starring in roles such as, ‘Monet,’ ‘Ansele’s Aspens’ and ‘Fall Foliage.’

Deininger creates idealistic landscapes, self portraits and other snapshots of life using various junk materials. His re-creation of Monet’s Bridge Over A Pond Of Water Lilies is created with plastic forks, phone cords, bottle caps, toys and odd pieces of plastic. “When you can take something out of context and put it together with a variety of other things, you can coax a new definition out of it and maybe a new purpose,” Deininger says.

Deininger has mastered the art of up-cycling by converting old trash into treasure. On a small scale, his artistic contribution minimizes trash from sitting in landfills but, on a larger scale, I hope it will inspire us to consider that Americans toss out about 4.5 pounds of trash a day; that’s enough trash every year to circle the equator 300 times.

Monet by Tom Deninger

Monet - detail

Close up detail of Monet

Fall Folliage by Tom Deninger

Detail of 'Fall Folliage'

Plastic Paradise 10' x 20'

Ansele's Aspens

Detail of Ansele's Aspens shows phone cords, computer wires, etc

Poland Springs 8' x 8'

Tom Deininger Self Portrait

Tom Deininger Self Portrait, up close detail.

To watch a time lapse of the self portrait process, click here.

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