Making Art From Junk

you about to see a movie provoked by my desire to make something good out of something bad and 4 years ago something bad happened to [Music] me I had a fire N9 days ago my AR iive 175 films my 16 mm negative all my books my dad's books my photographs I had collected I was a collector major big time it's gone I just looked at it and I didn't know what to do I mean this was was I my things and I was taught some strange thing as a kid like you got to make something good out of something bad you got to make something good out of something bad that phrase has been ringing in my head ever since the fire and I'm here in downtown Santa Cruz California this Saturday morning and I am about to enter the studio of artist sculptor Michael Leeds who said he would help me to make something out of the burned pieces I brought my video rig along to capture the process and to my delight stepping into Michael's World proved quite extraordinary Michael's place was amazing magical so removed from the world what a place to create his collections were everywhere and so I knew he would understand me as a collector and you couldn't help but notice Michael's cars designed and built by him alone single-handedly from the ground up the engine the chassis every inch of it his I felt that I was in the presence of a master and so I placed myself in his hands lights camera [Music] action [Music] all that's my DVDs and mini DVDs DVDs used to be bought that in Tania this no the the jewelry 16 mm rewinds 8 mm 16 mm in videotape Super 8 mm editor my first film it's my first film and this painting I keep it it's very important to me because I only have two paintings from my dad who was an artist still looks beautiful to me well yeah I was kind of this and this yeah so here we go how about we get a little bit of wire and we start creating a mobile here okay I mean let's play the cards that we have okay I'm going to get a little bit of wire [Music] yeah that's pretty creepy [Music] huh well I don't know where this will go but here we go [Music] you could certainly look at a fire like you got [Music] hung well yeah that's how I [Music] felt okay so I thought i' I'd create a we create a thing here that very like um like a Salvador Dolly thing just kind of these things that come up and hold this like this cuz there's no way to and it just kind of sits here and here and it just cradles right in there like that so I'm going to make some templates [Music] [Applause] here it looks like a lot of fun it is a lot of fun it's having it's having dominion over stuff you know it's like over the material world and the thing is is that for me the comparison between the actual world and the virtual world it's no contest you know right it's like this this is life it's real yes it's not recycled pixels you know so there we go huh here are all the heads I've lined them up for you okay look at that huh it's great so we can divide these into necks with openings and necks without openings and then we could do I love dolls heads broken dolls heads to me there's something very beautiful and tragic about a doll whose head has been broken we could do a thing with with like a a piece of um of wood in the front here and I was thinking it might be nice curved and then we could put screws in and then we could Mount all these heads head on the screws on the screws and then and I'm thinking actually you know like a thing a a thing from a a a rocking chair you know a nice curved piece of woods that was something see that's appropriate cuz everything here was something that was useful but now we're repurposing it these all this stuff has just incredible value because it talks about that moment in time when it was created and and there's like this port hole to view our culture or any culture in that moment there there's the the lifestyle the Aesthetics the purpose it was used for the machines that made it the level of technology that we had and you know so forth and so on and and it's Beauty I find all these things beautiful and it's Beauty yeah and it's Beauty let's just get something that represents what that's going to be and I think let's just use that piece of pine siding that I have here I don't even remember where this oh this was a ceiling from uh one of the rooms in my house we'll just do a thing about probably about that long I like these screws you like those screw holes and everything well you know what this is going to be a Maybe This is the End the piece that we end up with I don't [Music] [Applause] know [Applause] [Music] we can actually build a little thing to accommodate this so it looks very intentional and then each of we can mount the heads all I kind of like a nail versus a nail okay creating artifacts out of the remnants of disaster I'm kind of thinking about grouping these like this was a couple or friends and this is the the patriarch of the the little Clan here I don't know so we just kind of go with it and see what happens and just Little P piece of pair of pliers has $150 I guess we can do stuff like this see if we can oh yeah I don't want to wreck it there we go what a person that's a person a little baby yeah little teeny baby with a bow on its head oh yeah those are not ears that's a that's a bow huh is that terrific see this one's good for there and this one's good for there a lot of people they they need to know what it's going to be before they start see and this this opens up a whole dialogue around process you want to know what it's going to look like before you start every choice you make is the death of a million other possibilities you're taking that future that space and you're filling it with something before you even know what the options are and are we're conditioned to want to know anxiety caused by when not you don't know yeah and so in in order to really kind of step into a creative moment you just need to bring your confidence and your accumulation of experience and an openness openness to stuff that you don't know yet and the possibilities in that moment and you know that is like so hard yeah for for [Music] everybody boom look at that that goes there we put a screw in there and everything's in flux at this point and then we just kind of like sculpting it or the the term that I like to use is coalescing in The Ether you know and then you get oh you go ah ah ah oh that's it that's it and then you you know you nail it that moment is very satisfying I yeah and so you got this terrific Adventure you know going on you've just entered upon this into this realm you know behind the Wardrobe you know of of Endless Possibilities that you couldn't have conceived before you started yeah looks good huh there yep we're good there we're good there I think that's [Music] good oh with the jewel this should be the front I think okay 8 mm film I can simply put a screw you know just mount it right like [Music] that there you go what on I feel there's something be honored to the greatness of what I did and how these things helped me to make my films and now there's still something remaining it's not all garbage that's how I feel about it it's not all garbage in fact it's something to look at and think about and provoke be provoked by yeah she's quite something that girl on the top of my your burned and chattered remains of your family's burn your former life this piece kind of honors my father's photographing of my life that's my early life yeah that's the 8 mm my father took of me when I was a kid that's did that influence your career path my dad taught me how to see he used to say to me I'd say that's a good picture when I was 8 years old and he'd say yeah it's okay and I would say say what do you mean okay and he would show me what the difference was between okay really good and really good was hard to hear but made me [Music] able [Music] it's just it's melted plastic it's melted plastic that's pretty do you like it like that or do you like it like that I like it like that like a be well it's great if it can be done okay is it possible I'm thinking some strips of metal what kind of metal I think a sheet of [Music] aluminum I think about just about that much mhm put the chest forward yeah yeah yeah this was some of the aluminum that I use to build the body for the car that I'm building and just a leftover piece of scrap I'm thinking maybe just like a steel rod up through here and then down through there this might work Michael oh I like it and with this thing hang down this like that this little thingies pull it off okay pull it off maybe we keep this plastic on here and we take a poy an image of one of your burned pictures or a picture of your face full size burned around the edges that's there and then you're looking out from I have a burned picture of myself with smoke all over my face that could be that could be perf pretty powerful H there we go that's the ticket yeah there's all the Schmutz in the on the I just left it on there you mhm do you see it as just sadness or more oh I think it's like very uh mindful Soulful inquiry you know into the nature of our deepest fears and you know and our uh are tapping into our ability to regenerate and know reconstitute ourselves you know don't you think I think your whole place is that this whole place reconstitutes throwaway oh absolutely yeah okay let's see how we're going to put this together key to seeing my very early computer 8 mm camera see look at that [Music] it's that's my Earl scrs film 1971 or scrs Doc Watson Bob Dylan and Joan pz not much that shows that anymore but it'll make a good editing on image [Music] and you could put my first film here that is my first Fone yeah I like that if I had a hand I'd put a hand on there uhhuh well wait a second this is a little too uh yeah we need something that's going to do this Justice this copper tubing is funky and we can make it snake it up there that's [Music] [Music] great oh Michael that's a that's a piece of work that makes me just brings a emotional like a tear to my eye because that was my editing room many films made there well I think that we did something really good here David thank you Michael it's my pleasure David that was very much of a treat I'm proud to show that at the Museum [Music] at first they were just pieces I felt bere I pulled myself up tall and began to dig feeling shocked and [Music] exposed my broken doll's heads still look at the world with [Music] innocence my angel watches over the 8 mm films my dad to me as a in honor of the editing table that was the center of my creativity my rewind my 8mm camera my first film people asked me how I felt about the show well it certainly didn't replace what I could have done with those objects over time but my goal was to make something good out of something bad and I did plus I had the wonderful creative experience that you just saw [Music] [Music] oh oh

Channel: David Hoffman

Views: 46,652

Keywords: disaster, hurricane, fire, loss, ted talk, struggle, challenge, artist, creativity, Santa Cruz, David Hoffman, documentary, legacy, stress, inspiration, motivation, inspirational, sculptor, prayer, flood, gopro, filmmaker, TED, crafts, Chris Anderson, makers, artistic, creative, create, educational, high school, training, art class, art project, Drawing, Sculpture (Visual Art Form), Fine Art (Literary Genre), collections, Hoffman, leeds, objects, santa cruz artists, michael leeds

Id: 3GlD0w_gIxc

Length: 23min 1sec (1381 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 16 2012