The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

Change Perspective — Change Everything

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(Pic #1) "Cody" -- A master in communication

Or, how an Australian Shepherd taught me to see his world.

(Pic #2) Cubism - Picasso's new view: "Still Life with Mandolin and Guitar" 1924

I preach it all the time in my corporate creativity workshops: Change your angle on the problem, and your creative solution emerges. It’s a time-tested formula that has worked for artists for centuries.

Artists generally view the world–-or a challenge–in a unique way: their own way. It’s through this personal filter they interpret and see what others miss. It’s the only way to create a work of art that is original—not derivative.  In our work—and in life—it is crucial we be conscious of the fact that there is always another way to look at something. (See Cubism, Pic #2)

Confirming the theory – my experience with “Cody:”

(Pic #3) Cody's paw: A lesson in signing?

Last week, I took my friend’s 10-year-old dog Cody for a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. He’s always bursting with energy and eager to lead the way. On this day, he stopped halfway up the trail,  seemed to be favoring one side, and then lifted his front left paw–and held it there–just like Lassie. I’ve read that such a move could mean injury—like a sprain or cut in his pad—so I ran over to inspect the bottom of his foot for rocks or thorns. Mysteriously, I found nothing.

I kept looking, and wished he could tell me something. It was clear he didn’t want to go any further. I suddenly realized I needed a fresh view of the problem. How could I figure out what was going on? I knew–if I’m to be true to my beliefs–I needed to change my perspective, and be a dog. Yes—that meant getting down on all fours—and placing my own paws down on the dirt.

So I did it. I got down on my knees and flattened my bare hands onto the wild greens and dry path that Cody had to navigate.

(Pic #4) Invisible hike spikes

Wow. I mean – “Ow.” It took half a second to figure it out—as I quickly extracted my hands from the ground to find my fingers bleeding. The culprit? Spiky microscopic needles on crabgrass leaves that pierced my skin. Clearly, this is what Cody stepped on, and it did not feel good. I had the benefit of sneakers; he did not. I immediately said, “Oh Cody, I am so sorry.” And off we went in search of a sweet, soft patch of grass.

My lesson here was this: being willing to change my perspective gives me an added dimension of understanding. In the end, it solved the problem. I had to be open to step out of my familiar place and venture over to the unfamiliar—even though it was a little goofy. In so doing, I  got to experience the beauty in connecting with one of God’s glorious creatures, and relieving him of what must have been awful pain.

I treasure this experience, and will pass it along to my colleagues and friends. You just never know when the lesson will present itself.  But change your view—and I guarantee — discovery sits right in your path.

 

Environmental Art “Hits The Wall” In West Hollywood

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Eco-artist Tom Deininger transforms trash into artistic treasure in West Hollywood. Check out the “reflection” in the pupil–a junked white coffeemaker.

Local pre-school saves toys — makes art

Close up: new life for trashed toys

Hot pink action figure provides a pop of color

Yes, we’re talking trash. The kind you can reclaim, recycle, or reuse.  It’s what stirs the imagination of environmental artist Tom Deininger – and what inspired him to bring his unique brand of artmaking to “The Creative City” – West Hollywood, California. With Tom’s expertise in “all things tossed” we asked dozens of children at the prestigious Fountain Day School to save their broken toys for a few weeks, and allow us to “re-purpose” them into a wall sculpture titled, “Through the Eyes of a Child” on the outside of their school. We asked their parents to do the same with milk jugs, detergent containers, broken crates, and generally unrecyclable plastic. It didn’t take long for the collection bins to fill up.

Fresh eyes on the Fountain Day School, as seen from Santa Monica Blvd.

The relief is comprised of 100 % recycled materials, some salvaged from local landfills.

For a salvage artist like Deininger, access to a city dump — or any kind of waste management facility — means hitting the mother lode. Tom and I have worked on a number of “eco-projects” for companies like Fortune Magazine, and NBC Universal, but I had never accompanied him in his search for the perfect pile.We had an opportunity to “raid the refuse” at the Athens Services MRF (Material Recovery Facility) in the City of Industry, and you’d have thought the artist had won the California Fantasy 5. Tom found wonder—and possibility — in each passing container of junk. He extracted exactly what he needed, and began to plot: garden hose here, doll heads there — the perfect caldron of solid waste stew for a sculpture still in his head.

Through the artist’s eye

By pairing up oddball mixtures of color and shape, somehow, Deininger and his art assistants managed to smash, saw, and screw nearly a thousand minute plastic parts into a cohesive work of art. There is not a speck of paint on these two sculptures, though it may appear that way because of their clever use of color.

From a distance, the piece propecia shows the eyes of a toddler gazing upward, as if to a parent, or the future. A closer look reveals an intricate web of tossed toys and familiar objects that make up the image as a whole: action figures, baby strollers, pool toys, plastic trucks, and detritus from everyday life. A sobering visual message — underscored by the following facts from the eco-file:

  • Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 %
  • An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash – much of it plastic – is dumped in the world’s oceans every year.
  • Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today.

For texture and depth, the artists incorporated tiny doll heads and plastic fencing into the larger structure.

Tom began with the simple shape of his own child’s eye, and added hundreds of layers of shattered plastic to create dimension.

Deininger redefines the meaning of “color theory”as he has discovered a way to “paint with plastic.”

Late night installation via scissor lift.

Dump-recovered plastics: Deininger’s preferred palette.

Recovered insulated copper wiring served as bendable lashes.

When Tom saw these massive fabric blocks at the dump, he said he wished he “could take them home.”

 

The artists chose a pink baby stroller (left) to serve as the base color for the left eyelid.

WEHO Council member Abbe Land surveys new work atop scissor-lift with artist Tom Deininger

More about Tom…

Deininger is a dedicated environmentalist who educates others about consumer wastefulness and resource overuse through his art. His award-winning installations incorporate trashed plastics, reclaimed wood, broken toys, furniture, and factory overruns – generally unrecyclable waste otherwise destined for city dumps. His work was recently commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution.

“Through the Eyes of a Child” is an environmental art project sponsored by Art on the Outside – a program developed by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.  For more information, visit the WEHO Arts and Culture page.

A special thanks to: Mrs. Firestone’s Language Arts classes at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills, California, for enthusiastically collecting and contributing hundreds of discarded plastic caps for this project.

Photo Credit: Josh Kaplan, Executive Producer, Good Day L.A. on Fox 11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Eye for Dirty Art

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(Pic #1) The artist's eye: finding magic in the mundane

How one devoted artist showed me how to really seize the moment

(Pic #2) Deininger: "Talking trash"

This week, I’m working on a mural for the City of West Hollywood, with a world-class environmental sculptor named Tom Deininger. He makes stunning wall reliefs out of consumer trash. Today we stopped by a sprawling city “dump” to root through garbage and tossed plastics Deininger needed to complete the piece. (Pic #2)

Immersed in the debris, and pressed by a tight schedule, Tom stopped in his tracks to tear across the warehouse floor to get a closer view of a filthy, rather unspectacular window. It had a gooey film of thick brownish gray residue from corner to corner.  And it was peppered with splotches and scratches cipro that let light seep through in interesting patterns.

Tom couldn’t wait to break out his own pen, turn it upside down, and start scratching his own design into this “blank canvas” of pure dirt. He just started sketching a pair of eyes he would later use for his mural design. (Pic #1)  I was inspired by his childlike enthusiasm to simply create.

He told me he just has “a peculiar instinct” to see the beauty in everything. It’s that fresh approach to familiar or ordinary surroundings that I adore. I’m convinced it’s what defines a true artist. But it’s my contention too, that we are all equipped with the those perceptual powers — as long as we are willing to allow them to interrupt our day.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau