One student’s trash…

…is another student’s art project.

Now that the Fall semester at Keene State is entering its final month, student art projects are starting to appear on campus. Because student artists are typically starving artists, these projects are usually constructed from common, inexpensive materials. One past project, for instance, was constructed entirely from plastic coat hangers, plastic forks, and plastic drinking straws: materials a student could easily (and cheaply) acquire at the neighborhood dollar store. Other past projects have employed tin foil and styrofoam cups, and this year’s projects show a strong preference for chicken wire and papier–mâché.

As much as I enjoy visiting art museums to see installations made by “professional” artists, there’s something inspiring about the ingenuity of these student artists. Given the limitations of a short semester and cash-strapped lifestyles, it’s encouraging to see creativity find its own way to transform a trashcan’s worth of recylables into something far more interesting. Now that I’ve seen this sphere of chicken wire studded with bead-bedecked water bottles, I’m inspired to take another look at my own trashcan and recycle bin, wondering what sort of art-in-the-making I might find therein.