Above: Womans Face – Watercolour by John Dumergue

John writes about recycling

Looking around our house recently I discovered items that could be recycled as part of something artistic. I have been saving up the tubes from paper towels that I pass on to a school teacher for the children to make arty things, rather than throwing them out.

Climate Change

The first item I made was a polar bear. The base was an off-cut of timber, and some old florist wire for the armitage, and some felt left over from my chess set pieces. The work is titled ‘Climate Change,’ with the bear on one of the last pieces of ice left floating in the ocean.

The Ice-Skater

A family size apple pie I bought was placed on a round shiny base. This base reminded me of my ice skating days as a teenager, so I used this for a base to place an ice skier onto. The base was thickened up by using some packing foam from a recent kitchen appliance.

Having recently sold two cut-out faces on MDF I decided to make two more from some off-cuts a joiner gave me. One is, ‘ Girl with Blue Ribbons’ and the other is a Geisha Woman. To become a Geisha takes some years, like an apprenticeship, and while training they can only wear lipstick on the bottom lip. They wear raised footwear so as to not get their long sleeves caught up when they walk.

Over time my collection of plastic bottle tops from milk, mint sauce etc., has grown so I used some on a round sheet of MDF to create Lady Going to Sleep. The ones with an opening flap were used for the partly closed eyes.

Woman with blue ribbons | Geisha Girl | Woman falling asleep