Jen Jolliff - Found Art

I built his image entirely from the parts, packaging and paper towels we used to replace our car's disk brakes!

That's what I mean by Found Art. It's using the stuff that's all around us to make pictures of something else.

Here's my story about Found Art...

Once upon a time...California's Coastal Corridor Alliance asked me to design a plan for a series of community outreach events in Orange County Parks. The workshops would culminate in an art show at a local gallery. I chose Found Art as our medium so we could combine the group's on-going beach clean-up with some pop-up art workshops for the community. The pelican above is an assemblage I created here in Alaska to use in the grant proposal we wrote for the project. I wanted to show how everyday objects could be arranged to create images of local birds, animals, and insects.

Barking Foundlynx

Moose Poop Owl

Alder cone squirrel

Living in semi-rural Alaska, much of what I have at hand to play with is natural material like bark, cones, plants and moose poop, or common household objects like cutlery, tools and house-building supplies. I collect them, arrange them, photograph them and then put them where they belong.

exploring radial symmetry

exploring axial symmetry

asymmetry

Litter collected along Clarks Road.

Storck Park Eagle image despite building wind

For this project in California, however, I wanted the materials to be based around human-discarded and lost items. I decided to try out collecting trash from my local parks and building on-site images to photograph before recycling the litter. Working outside in a park turned out to be a real challenge. I could barely build an image and capture it in a photo before it got blown away by the wind.

One of my fieldtrips to clean trash and build art in the Anchorage Town Square led me engage with a local woman who was curious about what I was up to. I showed her the little dragon I was building and she wanted to "help." I gladly encouraged her and she carefully placed an assortment of toiletries and drug paraphernalia on top of the dragon, but with no apparent consideration for what would be an identifiable end picture. I then suggested we take all of our objects and make a new image with an agreed upon theme.

little dragon in Town Square

first attempt at collaboration

new collaboration with defined theme

So what had I learned so far? Left to my own devices, I could take the time to collect and assemble fairly coherent images, but for the workshops in California, we'd have a limited timeline and a mass of people with a range of ages and abilities. In order to create gallery-worthy (or even identifiable) images out of garbage might be a tough model for the pop-up art workshops unless...

I created a series of template designs to help guide our participants' art experience. I chose to model the templates largely after species of birds, insects and animals that could be found locally in Orange County and were important to the local indigenous people.

I practiced using the templates myself, making sure I could assemble different objects to make different-looking images that were still all identifiable as a hummingbird, red hawk, coyote, etc.

I also created two assemblages to honor the Acjachemen fable of "Starman." The first I made in Alaska, using objects from around my home. The second is largely assembled from leaves, grasses, bark and trash I picked up out of the street as I was walking from my car to my hotel in California.

The first pop-up event was a huge success. Lots of people came together on a sunny day in Fairview Park to make found art images of local wildlife!

I've worked with schools, non-profit programs and other community groups to use Found Object Art as a way to spotlight environmental and social issues and encourage community engagement through hands-on creative work. Here are some images from my facilitated art projects. If you have an interest in sponsoring a group art project, I would be happy to discuss the possibilities. Send me an email with your project ideas.

AT Bear Valley School I worked with students to create "found art" from recycling and trash. The photos I took of the fish the students created are assembled into a Seek and Find book. For more pictures click here.

Through the Youth Employment in the Parks (YEP) program, I worked with youth to create sand sculptures in a number of city parks.

In Unalakleet I worked with students on the beach and in the village making "found art." Using natural and man-made materials, I taught them about color, form, symmetry, design, color and composition.