Jen Wootten

Each year at Christmas, my dad announces the annual "Project" to my siblings and I. We have until the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day to complete The Project (yes, we do capitalize The Project in my family), then we present it at my sister's annual St. Patrick's Day party. Although the winners get dinner out with Mom and Dad, everyone knows the real prize is bragging rights. The project began back in the early 1990s, with each of us receiving identical bird houses to decorate. Past materials have included: a tambourine, a jar of marbles, a set of little wooden knobs, and toy blocks. We've had writing assignments about our grade school and high school days. One year we received a can of Spam. Projects are presented at the party, and everyone in attendance gets to vote.

What started out as a silly little assignment from Dad has turned into a much-loved family tradition. Each year I brainstorm for weeks, and my husband threatens to not participate, but he always comes around. Now our kids help. One year my twin sister announced that she was expecting a baby as part of her project. My brother Den, who recently retired from the Marine Corps, has sent entries from around the country and world. Video entries are often the crowd favorites (see my Iron Chef spam entry here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VltYXmxkW24).

What does any of this have to do with "Spark"? I marvel each year at how my Dad gets all 7 of his kids to devote their time and energy into this creative process. The variety of the projects astounds me. I have no reason to make a piece of furniture, a video or a clock in my every day life, but Dad has inspired to do each of these projects.

This year we have been presented with the oddest assignment yet: a bag of tiny used hearing aid batteries and some wine corks. Which brings me to the second reason I'm writing - I'm looking for suggestions!

Michael Cerbone

This happened from a gift I received over Christmas. The frying pan was too small but it was cute. The thought of bullet casing in it came from I don't know where, but I saw it and had to build it. The teflon was wired brushed out so the paint could stick. The casing were cleaned and polished and set in the wet paint. They took long time to shine up like that. It was fun and I'm currently looking for a place to hang it.

Eric Daigh

hello Studio 360! In short, I make very large mosaics (mostly portraits) out of pushpins. Attached is my latest, featured in my solo show opening next week in Chicago. It is from a portrait I took of Chicago's outgoing Mayor, Richard M Daley. Also, my biggest piece to date will be featured at this years Armory Show in NYC. Happy to share more if you like. some work can be seen here: http://www.daigh.com
all the best,
e.

Eugene Vallely

I am a harbinger of found items. I take items that I have found, natural or manmade and enclose them into a "cage" made of wire mesh. The cage represents our creative brains and all the ideas and emotions that are trapped inside hoping that a spark of creativity will at some time in our lives let us express this creativity. The items placed inside reflect the trapped ideas. I am not an artist but feel a great need to express myself in some format. I initially made skyscrapers out of the wire mesh to express the sight of the New York Skyline from my first trip on the Staten Island Ferry in 1984. The image of the Twin Towers and the view from the ferry has been forever imprinted on my mind and I have been recreating this image in many forms since. It is like the peak made of mashed potatoes in Close Encounters of the First Kind, I have to reproduce this image. I call my creations Cageheads and give them to friends and family and often will place items in the cages at their request. My favorite is a cage with a bashed up toy car that I made for a friend of mine to help him deal with a car crash he was in. Some people like to wear the cages, others like to have them on their desks are as items for home or work places. I am looking forward to reading Sparks as I still feel I have not found my creative outlet. This cage has an Australian Crystal, raw copper and a piece of broken mirror. It is my wife's favorite. Thanks Eugene Vallely.

sarah tisdale

I dont have a car and have to walk most places. Most days little hearts made from the debris of like catch my eye and beg to be photographed. Since I always have my iphone on me I snap quick pics and document them here at http://lotsofhearts.tumblr.com
I have included a photo sample, but there are many more than that. Its an ongoing, forever project.
:)
-s

christian french

Several years ago I went to an artist's residency in North Carolina (called "Elsewhere") that takes place inside a former thrift store, including contents. Here's an image from the series I created, assembling objects into characters that perform an Opera, called "Altrove". Since then I have continued to explore this territory, of assembling objects in a kind of hybrid sculpture/performance/still life/animation...

Jim Marshall

Title: Protrait of W.
Mixed media (map of Iraq and plastic army soldiers.

Size: 30" x 30"

When President George W. Bush declared himself a 'war President' I wanted to make an artistic statement. I have done other portraits using only 2 or 3 colors and discovered to my delight at the Dollar Store a variety of 2" tall army figures in vareous colors. I glued an assortment of grey, tan and green army figure toys over an enlarge map of Iraq attempting a portrait of the President. I have submitted 2 photos. a partially completed work and the completely work.

Charlie Seton

When I visited Thailand in 2006, I was visiting a big temple and off to the side, I noticed a pile of leaves with many discarded shrine objects in it. I've photographed shrines around the world, but I had never seen a collection like this.

Tim Williams

I, along with my partner, Arvin Breiwick, created Spaghetti in Meatball on-a-stick!
You got the noodles, the italian meatball, and the garlic bread, all on a stick. We've actually made more then just that on-a-stick. We've also made S'mores on-a-stick (my personal favorite), tacos on-a-stick (this really is one of the best tasting tacos ever), and Reuben on-a-stick (this was our first material mashup). We both have some sausage making experience, and both like to cook, and, most importantly, think outside the box. Thanks for taking the time to read my submission. I'll stop now so you can read someone else. Have a great day, and love the show!

Jake and Frank Reilly

My son and I found a beautiful old piano dumped uncerimoniously in a vacant lot and thought something should be done to commemorate all the music it must have brought into the world. We pulled off (lovingly) its keys and hammers and created "Keys to Heaven", a sculpture that hopefully reflects the joy of music let loose into the world.

Ed Vogel

In the process of being a volunteer piano teacher with students who cannot afford an instrument of any kind. I decided to come up with tunable and playable three string cigar box guitar made from only hardware store parts. That one went on to be featured in Make Magazine in 2006. I tried to make a go of teaching classes making and playing them but between a day job and not much self employment zeal I came up with a simpler one string instrument that I could again do as a volunteer thing. The little guitar plays real music and takes five minutes to build with kids as young as 5.

Caroline Armijo

Tobacco Rug
materials: tobacco, hardware cloth, ink, craft paper
dimensions: 38” x 15”

This project recreates a latch hook rug, like the rugs I made with my grandmother when I stayed with her in the summers and after school. I wove together twists of tobacco and strips of craft paper. On the craft paper, I wrote three recollections from my childhood.

My grandparents were farmers in North Carolina. They raised tobacco as part of their crops. I vividly remember working in the tobacco as a child, and my grandmother also smoked, both of which affected my childhood allergies. The smoke would seep into the shag rug in their house.

The first story describes when I cut my right hand with a Dr. Pepper bottle on the steps of my grandmother’s house when I was kindergarten. The shape of the final piece is taken from the shape of my scar. The second story is about spending time on my grandmother’s brown shag rug and my severe allergies. The third story shares the time when my grandparents thought they saw a snake on the shag rug.

Hear the audio files of the three stories online at http://www.carolinearmijo.com/wordpress/?page_id=1729.

Bridget Parlato

This is one of the self-portrait images from the "Predators or Prey?" series I have been working on. This image is comprised of a self-portrait, scans of nail holes, pictures of a ripped up costume I had and images "scavenged" from various sources and altered. It is entitled "Taken".

Bridget Parlato

I have been working with images found in womens' magazines. The following is part of a body of work called, "Predators or Prey?" which contains both gritty self-portraits (concentrating on the messy,interior self)and slick collages of clothing and body parts from the grocery store check-out rack. The bug-like constructs of "women" as bizarre, man-catching creatures (or victims)depict the warped ideas/images women "buy" about themselves.

Matthew Johnquest

Am submitting my twist tie sculpture. Various figures: dog, cat, horse, llama, fish, palm tree on an island surrounded by water, tree bare of leaves, evergreen tree, shrub and a space man. Am currently working on a bird. I use only recycled twist ties, those things you use to close a bag of bread. I ask everyone I know not to throw them out but to save them for me. Occassionally I get lucky and recieve a kitchen drawer full. It takes hundreds of them to make most these figures and many hours. They range from a couple inches to about a foot tall.

Peggy Hartzell

Mash and iron plastic bags into handmade books, bags or "cloth." Set your iron on warm and iron layers of recycled plastic bags together with a sheet of paper on top. You can add paper,leaves, milkweed fuzz, art work between the layers. The fused bags can then be cut and sewn tobether to make something useful.
The book in front is made from a Barnes & Noble bag.

Martha M. Bergeron

This is a life-size horse I made for the outdoor sculpture show at Maudslay State Park. It's constructed of mostly birch saplings (gleaned from an area in the park that needed to be thinned) tied together with artificial sinew, and has leather ears and a leafy mane and tail. To see additional photos: http://www.asitshouldbe.com/Peace_and_Power/

Catarina Sandin

I like to play in snow.

Guillermo Ascanio

This item is one of a few table ornaments that I have created in the past month...I find the form of Eggs rather interesting..So, I have taken a cracked white egg from my collection of cracked eggs and inserted coloful wood balls of different sizes and colors, then glued them to the inner walls of the egg. Expanded open a metal ring of a key chain glued it to the bottom of the egg and last glued the metal ring to one of my stone's collection..I call it "split-Egg" Ornament for a table or glass cabinet..
Thank you for the opportunity...GA

Eric Celarier

This is one quilt from a collection of works called the “Wasteland Series”. These designs are made from leather, wood, and obsolete computer parts. They are intended to remind us of the inherent beauty, the shortened lifespan, and the problems with disposal of such materials. Some viewers see my works as aerial views of landscapes, while others as microbial zooms. I feel that by obsessively stitching together a variety boards, I create a juxtaposition of color, shape, and form that unifies otherwise disparate elements.