Turning old instruments into art!

Brass pipe water feature  at the Philadelphia Flower Show's 'Jazz Garden' 2008 . photo by Bérénice

So this is a post that will strike different ‘chords' with different people. For some this is art, but others may see this as decimation of a beautiful instrument. But before you begin to grieve for them, to my knowledge all the instruments shown here were beyond repair.      

Garden Piano at Hagal Farm

The above picture is of the Garden Piano in the gardens of HagalFarm, my parents' holistic retreat in West Cork, Ireland. I have written about this in a previous blog post which you can find here.

Recently I have become aware of a number of other garden pianos. I like to think that after reading my garden piano post, readers ran off to drag their old broken pianos out into their gardens, but I am sure that this is unlikely.

The Piano water feature below as well as the brass pipe water feature above were part of the 'Jazz Garden' at the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show.     

Piano water feature at the Philadelphia Flower Show's 'Jazz Garden' 2008 .  photo by Bérénice

In recent years, with people becoming more environmentally friendly and looking for green alternatives in the landscape, recycled or found object art seems to be more popular than ever. With found object art, musical instrument parts on occasion find their way into art pieces.

Artist Noel Brady at work in his bush studio
 near Emu Park, Queensland, Australia  

One artist that takes 'musical themed, found object art' to another level is Capricorn Coast based artist Noel Brady.

Born in Ballarat, Victoria Noel completed his Diploma of Arts and Design at the Ballarat School of Mines and Industries Art School before embarking on a long career as a secondary school art teacher in both Victoria and Queensland.

He retired to his Emu Park bush studio in 2004 to concentrate on his own artwork with a particular focus on sculpture. Noel works largely with recycled timber, clay and metal - but has a particular penchant for reimagining old piano parts.

Convergence by Noel Brady

Symphony under construction by Noel Brady 

Noel has had moderate success to date, exhibiting in Rockhampton, Gladstone, Yeppoon, Emu Park and Goombungee, and has sold works into private  collections  in San Diego, Sydney, Canberra, Griffith, Dandenong, Brisbane, Cairns, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.

     He presently lives and works in his bush studio on a small acreage near Emu Park on the Capricorn Coast, and regularly exhibits new work in a small privately-run gallery in the seaside town.

Lots more of Noel's artwork can be found through his website http://www.noelbrady.com.au be sure to check it out.

Lasseter's Legacy  by Noel Brady   

An unrelated yet worth mentioning, Pool wall panel by Noel Brady

Mosaic Guitar by Mosaic Artist Lisa Calabro   

An artist who takes a very different approach to turning musical instruments into art is American artist Lisa Calabro of Crooked Moon Studio in Warwick, Rhode Island. Lisa has transformed old instruments into artworks by mosaicing them. See more of her lovely mosaics on her website http://crookedmoonstudio.com

Mosaic Violin by Mosaic Artist Lisa Calabro 

Mosaic Guitar by Mosaic Artist Lisa Calabro

Thanks to both Noel and Lisa for allowing me to share their artwork. Thanks also to Bérénice for the use of her photographs of the Philadelphia Flower Show. 

Dewdrops and a photo competition.

As those of you who follow my facebook page probably already know, I have entered a photo competition.

Checking out the Dewy Drumstick primula

These photos here are part of a series of photos of 19 photos, all in this theme I entered into the competition, which is all about self portraits. You can see the rest of the series here http://sunny.see.me/aw2011 Please rate the portfolio by clicking on the stars giving it a rating of 1-5 :)

Admiring the Water feature Drop

I particularly love the concept of having an image within an image. In the past two months I have been experimenting and discovering my new found passion for photography, as I just bought myself my first DSLR camera. Wandering around in some of my favourite places in the world (some lush green gardens) I have been snapping shots of all the lush spring colour that has just sprung into life.

One of the nicest times to be out in the garden is in the morning when the sun is shining and the dew makes all the plants glisten. One such morning when I returned home after experimenting with some photos of dew drops on plants, I turned to the Internet to find somewhere to share some of my days treasures. While searching I came across this competition, and I thought 'wouldn't it be fantastic to put myself into these photos that I love so much'.
Taking inspiration from works by some of my favourite artists like Escher and Jan van Eyck, I set out to create a self portrait of an image (me) within an image (the dew drops on the garden plants). I love the concept of capturing myself in the scene of something I do on a regular basis but in a way that I envisage Escher or Van Eyck would do it. In my case it is me going on one of my garden walks, feasting on the sight of the glistening plants in the dew, and becoming captivated by all the wonders in the garden.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the series here http://sunny.see.me/aw2011 and rate the portfolio.

Checking out the budding flowers in the dew

Oh and while I'm on the topics of self promotion and my new found passion for photography, for anyone who is interested, you can follow my creative photography adventure on my new blog http://mynikond90adventure.blogspot.com/.

Thanking ye all in advance, Sunny

Art inspired landscape art. Sculptures by J. Seward Johnson

Between work, the fantastic summer were having so far and of course the world cup, I have had very little time for blogging in resent weeks. So this again will be a quick little post of something that caught my interest recently.

When flicking through a book recently I came across this first picture, and for a split second I thought that there was something a bit funny about this famous painting by Edouard Manet. I quickly realised that this was of course not Manet’s ‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ but in fact a sculpture by American artist J. Seward Johnson.

‘Dejeuner Déjà vu’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ (1863) by Édouard Manet.

To be quite honest, my history of art is not quite as good as it should be as much of my time in art college was spent drinking large quantities of alcohol, and perusing women, however one era of art that did really stand out to me was the impressionist era, and it is quite obvious that this era has also had an effect on Seward Johnson, as much of his works are inspired by many impressionist artists.

Here are more examples of a large series of works he made titled ‘Beyond the frame’, most of which are recreations of some of the most famous paintings from the impressionist era. Most of these works can be found in the sculpture park founded by J. Seward Johnson in 1992 ‘Grounds for Sculpture’. This 35-acre public sculpture park is located in Hamilton, New Jersey.

‘On Poppied Hill’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Woman with a Parasol, Madame Monet with her Son’ (1875) by Claude Monet.

‘Were you invited?’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Le déjeuner des canotiers’ (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

‘If it were time’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Terrasse à Sainte-Adresse’ (1867) by Claude Monet

‘Sailing the seine’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘Argenteuil’ (1874) by Édouard Manet.

‘God Bless America’ by J. Seward Johnson

‘American Gothic’ (1930) by Grant Wood.

Garden Piano

A few weeks ago when down visiting my parents at our family home, down in West Cork, I went for a wander in the gardens (you may remember these gardens from my previous post ‘'garden labyrinth’). During my wander I stopped off to have a look to see how the garden piano was doing.

By now it has all but disintegrated, but it still holds a magical charm about it, in fact it was all part of the plan! Perhaps I should explain.

Besides being a passionate gardener, my dad is also a passionate piano player, so a few years back we got him a new piano for his birthday. So the old piano spent a wile in the shed before he had the great idea to put it out in the garden. I can almost see one of Bruno Torfs sculptures sitting there playing it when no one is around (The first picture is my photoshopped impression of this)  

Tucked away in a inconspicuous corner, the piano creates a entire atmosphere of its own. Slowly over time it began housing plants and wildlife alike, becoming part of the landscape. Although it quickly lost its ability to play any notes, my dad was hoping to wake up one morning to a loud clang, when the piano would finally fall apart, making its final encore.

Unfortunately it never did produce the theatrical clang he was hoping for, it did on day just fall apart, creating a new and in some way far more enchanting garden feature.

Unfortunately as I was not there when the piano was moved, I don’t have any photos of this. The first few photos were taken in 2008 by a guest staying at my parents farm, and the rest were taken a few weeks ago on my resent visit.

Encore from the musical tree, to celebrate arbor day!

Happy Arbor Day USA, Ok I know it’s a bit late, but ye should really make it a week like we have here in Ireland, that way I won’t miss it.

So another short and quirky post today as I have to go to work shortly. This post is for those of you who are (were) celebrating Arbour day.

This video is of a piece of music by Diego Stocco, a sound designer & composer, who creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques.

For this video, Diego said

In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it.

Well here is your answer.

Personally I feel a bit sorry for the tree, but it is entertaining and worth a watch.



See more of Diego's crazy videos on his website www.diegostocco.com/