Artist's Statement
For years I have been collecting ‘stuff’. Tag sales and flea markets are storehouses for the used and discarded remnants of our society. I never know what magical ‘stuff’ will serendipitously find me. The challenge for me is to see beauty in the junk. Piles of vintage printers’ wood type, toys and games, kitchen utensils and industrial findings that were once useful or entertaining find new form and come alive again in my art. Life is a circle and I take pleasure in salvaging the old to create something new, asking the viewer to recognize the past while appreciating the here and now.
Recently, I came upon the word bricolage, "Something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available." Now, I have a name for what I do.
Lewis Cohen