If you looked inside my kitchen’s junk drawer right now, you’d find all kinds of home necessity bits and bobs-from new and used batteries, to pilfered restaurant/bar match books, both flat and Philips head screwdrivers, rubber bands, a flash light, screws and nuts, metal scraps from picture hanging kits, and other crap I’ll eventually use at some point in time. I’m guessing you’re storing similar type sundries as well, right? Well, I recently discovered an artist who had the vision to sculpt hers into fabulous fine art robots.
Her name is Donna Provo Leuck, from West Lafayette, Indiana, who creates whimsical, home decor robots made from 99% recycled and vintage everyday items. As just mentioned, many of the pieces she melds together can be found in any junk drawer in America. Even the bolts and nuts are reused!
It makes me re-think how often I’ve thrown out perfectly good hardware left over or unused from lighting and picture hanging kits, or rusted old flashlights and tin containers I thought I’d never ever need. If you add up all this discarded stuff from a bunch of people like me, I suspect we could overload a landfill.
“Downhill sledding”– (top photo as well) recycled materials used: red sled, vintage kitchen item, fork, spoon, aluminum kitchen item, recycled metal, found object. 24″ long and 11″ tall. Price: $175.00.
“Silly Rabbit”-recycled materials used: vintage flashlight, recycled metal, vintage shoe horn, vintage aluminum, vintage tin, old red flashlight, industrial light. 11″ tall and 12″ long. Price: $140.00.
“Rover”-recycled materials used: recycled metal, vintage roller skates, vintage metal, aluminum, vintage kitchen item. 9″ tall and 8″ long. Price: $135.00.
“Lead me, Guide me, Light my way.”-recycled materials used: recycled metal, upcycled items, forks, spoons, kitchen utensils, tin container, night light, funnel, aluminum, retro kitchen item, vintage aluminum. 21″ tall and 12″ wide at the base. Price: $175.
“A Little Bird Told Me”-recycled materials used: vintage thermos, tin dishes, coffee pot, vintage bird, vintage aluminum, vintage kitchen items, forks, bright red ball, scotch jug. Measures 22″ tall and 9″ wide at the base. Price: $160.
I realize, not everyone can be a recycle artist, but, we can certainly dig a little deeper and imagine other uses for our things. I wanted to ask a few questions from Donna herself, to get the scoop on all her scrap. I also wanted to let her know I couldn’t wait to save up my under-the-sofa- cushion-coinage to purchase one of her junk gems that’ll stand right at home on my industrial shelving. Mostly, I wanted to learn more about this artist and her robots, and how, bit by bit, they’re saving the earth.
For the full artist interview, visit DivulgeMagazine.com for upcoming news on where to get a copy of the December issue.
To purchase or contact the artist, visit her shop, Kitchen Robots by Leuckit on etsy.
All images courtesy of Donna Provo Leuck, Leuckit