Saturday, November 15, 2008

Recyclebin Art

We bought these IKEA plastic bins to organize our obsessive recycling lifestyle here in Switzerland. Since all three were exactly the same and plain, we needed a way to distinguish one from the other, so I decided to give each bin a characteristic look. I could have just painted 'PAPER', 'BOTTLES & CANS', and 'PLASTIC BAGS', but in case we use the bins for other purposes in the future, I wanted to keep the theme generic. Hence the three different paintings.

  • Cherry blossoms

    I painted the sky background and the branch, then glued on the flowers which are actually the Japanese textile cutouts. We use this one for storing all our plastic bags.

  • Poppies

    This was a spontaneous inspiration from a trip to Provence. This one is for all types of paper.

  • Cats

    This one is special because the painting shows all six cats that we had at one point in our house attic. One cold winter, the mother cat took a refuge in our attic, and soon after we discovered that she gave birth to five kittens! Now the mother and the three others (Pumpkin, Mustard, Dusty) have either passed away or gone missing in action. We currently have two friendly cats (Green eyes and Halloween), and an extra stray cat whom we call Totoro. This bin is used for all the bottles, cans, and aluminums.

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