Art appreciation

Art has always been a big part of my life. I first developed my appreciation for art and the arts while at college getting my degree in design. I particularly enjoyed art history and the architecture. These appeal to my sense of design and function.

My wife, as I have mentioned here before and is evidenced in my masthead, is an amazing artist. We have always taught our kids through example that painting, sculpting, dance, literature and music are to be noticed and cherished.

The daughter is also an incredible artist and expresses herself through sculpture, painting and mixed media. She recently received her master’s degree in Art Therapy and is already working in her field. We are very, very proud.
The daughter counsels and works with many artists in her job. There is one artist in particular that she works with who uses scrap metal and other bits on useless stuff to create the most whimsical sculptures. We have on a couple of occasions sent in a ‘bucket of junk’ for the fellow to use. I just love creative recycling.

With this type of recycling in mind, I decided that the various springs, coils and odd shaped metal bits from our old and deteriorating basketball hoop might make some fine art. So I decided to take it apart this weekend.

The parts were rusted and stuck due to many years of harsh weather. So, just as I always preach, I used my head. Rather than wrestle unnecessarily with rusty bolts– I put on a generous coat of WD-40 and let it sit for an hour or so to loosen up.

Still… they were pretty stuck. So I got out my big wrenches – two of them. I put one on the head of the bolt and snugged it in tight – then took the larger and longer wrench to the nut on the back so that I would have good leverage. Using the two wrenches together the nuts loosed up easily. I was starting to collect a nice pile of little bits and pieces…with one more bolt to go.

I had my two wrenches in place but I couldn’t get it to budge. Why is it the last one is always the hardest. I added more WD-40. I got the two wrenches into position and started to pull with all my might… as I was doing this it occurred to me that perhaps there may be some binding going on from the weight of the hoop… so I leaned over the edge of the backboard to have a look as I was pulling the two wrenches as hard as I could....when the WD-40 kicked in.







Well… at least no one can say I wasn’t using my head.