Newton OutDoors - upcycling old doors

Creating in Nature, Howie Green, detail.

Our city has a Community Pride organization which supports arts and culture activities throughout the town.  There's more art than ever outside this year, in part due to the pandemic.  Through a juried process 25 artists - including several high school students - were selected to repurpose old doors as public art. There are several locations throughout town; I visited all of them in a sort of  "Tour de Doors".  All of the panels are thoughtful and thought-provoking; below are images of some of the doors which particularly spoke to me.

Let Me In, Grey and Leslie Held.

Let Me In, verso.

Inside and Outside of the Virus, Sophy Tuttle.

The doors were installed on park land, including in my neighborhood. A historic wooden mill building, recently restored, is the back drop for a door imagining a Fig Newton festival. The cookie was named after our city and  it would delightful to have a real Fig Newton festival!

Fig Newton Festival Poster, Harun Zankel.

Doors and gates are powerful symbols of travel between worlds, or to new iterations of self; they can lead to adventure and danger or refuge -  think of the doors of a magical wardrobe,  the doors  Alice opens in Wonderland, or the doors concealing the lady and the tiger.  Can you think of other literary doors or openings?

A newcomer to Newton made her door a memory of her special place in the image below.

Mi Isla De Encanta, Yenny Hdz.

One door had to be moved from its location after vandalism, sadly. Our city is not immune to anti-Asian American sentiment and after the door below was defaced it was moved to City Hall for better monitoring.  The door presents a moving portrait of the artists' grandmother, called Por Por in Cantonese, who raised six children in nearby Brookline after immigrating from China.

Por Por, Amanda Beard Garcia, now in front of City Hall.

 

Another  portrait door co-exists among the blooms of a city-sponsored demonstration garden, another Community Pride project.

Garin and Nyle, Scott Debus.

Cheery fruits, flowers and birds figure on several doors, exploding with intense color, below.

Blooming, Julia Smithing.

Discovering Paradise, Grace Julian-Murthy.

Colorful Crows, Sepi Golestani.

A more restrained palette can be eye-catching too, and the door below, in white and blue tones, was one of my favorites. If you look closely you can see, in white outline, a pattern which looks like the leaves of a locust tree. This is an homage to an ancient locust tree, long a sentinel at our local historical museum, which sadly toppled during a storm in 2020.  Look also for the occasional bird silhouette.

Welcoming Committee, Kit Collins.

Welcoming Committee, detail, with locust leaves pattern.

 

Two of the most striking doors were made by students from our two high schools.

Corner Vending Machine, Abby Zheng (high school).

Ms. Zheng's comments, from the Community Pride website:

There were multiple vending machines scattered throughout my school, and I would catch a reflection of myself as I walked by them every morning just as the bell signals the beginning of the school day. These vending machines would attract a group of friends during lunch who are in search of a snack. I came to associate vending machines as something that brought strangers and classmates together. It became these sockets of shared moments where quarters would be given to the person who doesn’t have enough change. It was a place where friendly conversations would occur. I have walked by these vending machines so often that I can almost hear the conversation: “What chips should I get?” “I hope the chocolate bar doesn’t get stuck” or “Here, you can have this bar—two fell down”. I wanted to recreate these moments of interaction. I want my audience to have their eyes scan over the wide variety of snacks that the vending machine offers, standing there for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, or even a minute. In that brief moment of time, I hope strangers or acquaintances will approach each other and create a bond, even if it’s over a door. For me, the vending machine is a door to new friendships and relationships.

I assume she added cats as kitties are everywhere now, yes? I hope to more of the work of these two talented young people in the future.

 

Gaea, Chengyue (Sara) Wang (high school).

Gaea, detail.

From book to wreath - upcycling library discards

Rustic wreath made from book pages.

Our local public library is an active community center and programming continues even during a pandemic.  Via Zoom, artist and enthusiastic library employee Janelle lead a group of us through the process of making a rustic wreath from a discarded library book. 

The idea came from this blog post: https://www.vintagepaintandmore.com/2013/11/book-page-wreath-tutorial.html

Find more ideas about repurposing discarded books in publications like this.

 

First, we registered at the library's website and then, masked of course, retrieved a kit of discarded book and cardboard circle, the base for our wreath, as well as a length of twine, from the front desk.  To cut your own donut, the outer dimension of the cardboard "donut" is 13", and the inner hole is 3 1/2". 

Cardboard "donut" is base of wreath.

 

In addition to a discarded book, other materials include:

 

Stapler

Glue gun and plenty of glue sticks

Discarded book 

32" or so length of twine for hanging loop

My discarded book was a hardcover so I followed the lead of another participant and removed the covers and spine. This makes it easier to remove the individual pages. Initially it felt very transgressive to destroy a book, but then it became oddly liberating. I separated most of the pages and was ready for the next step.

 

Pages removed from book, and stapler.

 

Next, roll each page into a cone shape and secure the shape, either by stapling near the base or with tape. You can also use the glue cone to form the cones.

Cone, stapled at base.

Now, you can either make all your cones first, or glue them on to the cardboard as you go. Janelle's three-row wreath used about eighty cones, and I decided to make my cones first. All the cones will be slightly different; don't worry about it. The key with this project is to embrace the words "wonky" and "rustic."

Bin of approximately eighty cones.

Time to start applying the cones to the base - but first attach the twine for hanging, as shown below. 

Make a loop, bring ends up through loop and knot.

The first row of cones is glued to the back of the ring - this will make sense once you move onto the second ring of cones. I glued four cones as "compass points" to better gauge the placement of the remaining cones, so they would radiate out evenly.

 

First cones glued to back, about 3/4" in from the center.

Note direction of cones - facing what will be the front. Next, begin gluing cones around the ring, using the glue gun. I used about 23 cones for this first ring, but later realized I should have squished my cones together a bit more and used a few more cones.

Gluing cones to back; should have fitted a few more.

Once the back is covered in cones, flip the wreath and glue more cones to the cardboard, spacing them in between the cones on the back.

Gluing cones to front of cardboard base.

Completed ring of cones on front.

 

Finally, add the topmost layer of cones - at this point you are gluing them to other cones, not the base. Let about 2" of the first layer of cones project behind this top layer. The ends of the cones will protrude into the hole space; don't worry about this yet.

Glue top layer of cones to first layer.

Once the top layer of cones is secured, the back will look like the image below. Wait until the glue is completely set, then fold and glue all the ends of the cones to the back of the cardboard base.

 

Back side of wreath - fold ends of cones and glue.

Could cover the messiness with decorative paper.

My end result was acceptable, for a first try. I used about sixty cones, but may add a few more in the future. I may also glue the top layer of cones a bit more securely to the layer beneath it. Janelle also suggested dip-dyeing the page edges, or adding glitter, which could give a fun, festive look.

I may add a few more cones to that top layer at some point.