Indulging Her Passion - Artist as Collector

Philadelphia based artist Ellen Benson is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

©2012MichaelRusso
collection of Ellen Benson

I collect 2 main types of art: sculptural work made out of found objects, and "outsider" and folk art. I go to Mexico every winter and I call Oaxaca the art capital of the world, so it's not been hard to indulge this collecting passion!

This piece is from Florida based artist Michael Russo which I fell for when I saw it in a small gallery he owned in Miami Beach on Espanola Way, probably in the late '80's. The simplicity wowed me.  He made something fabulous out of absolutely NOTHING--a box that held XMAS ornaments and some artfully crumbled up faces torn from magazines- stuff that would have been thrown out anyway, with no intrinsic value.

Quite different from ART BASEL Miami Beach where I saw hundreds of collectors flown in on private planes to write checks for Jeff Koons pieces for millions. 

Ellen Benson is a member of the Dumpster Divers of Philadelphia, a group of artists which focuses on re-claiming cast-off pieces of the world around us to make art, as well as to make use of things headed for the trash stream. She is moving towards her goal of creating 1000 figures that she calls "divas"many of which she makes an armature for their “bodies” from those ubiquitous plastic grocery and newspaper delivery bags. To date she is up to about 400, many of which are currently on display at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Born Again Lamps

New York based artist Rebecca Kelly is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series

Menorah
Recycled spoons and found objects
17"(h)  x 16" (w)
©2012EllenSall
Collection of Rebecca Kelly

I was curating "transFORMations: Making art from recycled and reclaimed materials" for the Bucks County Community College Artmobile and I knew I wanted Dumpster Diver Ellen Sall's lamps in the exhibition. I travelled to the Dumpster Diver temporary gallery in South Philly and fell in love with a menorah Ellen had made out of silverware. 

It reminded me of a childrens' book that told a story about Jewish prisoners in a concentration camp who put together stolen spoons to create a menorah to celebrate Hannukah in the darkest of times. 

I had to have the piece- but, you guessed it- it was sold. 

Ellen kindly offerred to make a new menorah which was in the exhibit. I had to wait a long time to actually get the menorah (the Artmobile exhibit traveled for two years around Bucks County) but it was worth the wait. The piece now graces our Manhattan studio apartment. 


Rebecca Kelly is a mixed media sculptor and book artist who draws upon her experience as an actor and teacher, as well as a storyteller, to create her work as a visual artist. Rebecca is also currently expanding her oeuvre into textile explorations when she is not curating, teaching or doing her own dumpster diving.