The recycled magazine work of "Danny O"

I just hung up my 2009 calendar in the Junk Mail Gems studio...featuring the art of Daniel O'Connor (aka "Danny O"). It's really a fun calendar full of his work, which is made up of a collage of magazine paper.



This one is my favorite although it is not in the calendar:


Ever since I was little, my mom used to set us up at the kitchen table with some glue, paper, and a pile of coupon ads from the newspaper, magazines, etc. We would cut out shapes and make our own collages.

Collages are a great way to re-use, and just plain fun project for kids. It gives them an opportunity to create artwork by including images of things that they may have a hard time drawing otherwise...plus, what kid doesn't like using scissors and glue? Kudos to Danny O for turning his passion and talent into a professional fine art career!

"Gathered Together" 2009 Calendar

I just saw this beautiful calendar on one of my favorite shopping sites and had to share. Since I was a little kid, I've been a huge fan of collage and making 3D stuff out of paper and found objects. My mom could never throw away a cereal box without me or my siblings wanting to turn it into a robot. This is a collaboration between Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh, who both have more great work on their sites worth checking out. It's even printed on recycled paper with veggie-based inks!

It also reminds me of a post card illustration I created a couple years ago with the same fantasy-like feeling, only I did this one digitally in Photoshop, entirely out of pieces of photos I had taken of plants and flowers. But, this makes me want to get out my glue and scissors and get back to doing things the old fashioned way. I could definitely do something fun with Junk Mail as well as you know I have plenty of it!

Junk Mail Art

Check out this cool artwork made out of recycled junk mail! I discovered this via a recent posting on Green Dimes' blog. Schimmel is the artist...check out more of her stuff here!