As an artist, I strive to find new ways to use waste items in my projects regularly. I attend car boot sales and hang around to see what gets left behind afterward that are recyclable. Vendors abandon toys most commonly. If they don’t sell the toys, lots of vendors drop them off for the organizers to dispose of as they hold very little resale value. I thought that it is quite depressing that these once-loved playthings get discarded with the trash. When did childhood memories become so disposable? My solution was this Green Devil Punk Bear, among other creations.
It made me think along the lines of Toy Story, of the toys as sentient beings. How would they cope battling the streets alone? Would they also have to ‘grow up’ like the children that no longer cared for them? How would it affect their personality? So my Abandoned Toys were born. They are a social commentary on the ugliness of our throwaway culture.
Here is my latest piece, Sid the Anarchist. I adorned him with other upcycled items. He has keyboard keys and Scrabble game tiles for teeth, and punk-style piercings from ring pull and bottle caps. Check out more Abandoned Toys at my Etsy Store.