I’ve talked to artists who work with hand-made paint, fresh flowers, tiny glass tiles, and delicate paper… but today is a new one. Lint – aka dryer fluff. Yes, Canadian artist Tonya Corkey creates these gorgeous pieces using lint from the laundry room! I wrote about her years ago {the second I found her work obviously}, and now thanks to the wonders of podcasts, I was able to ask all of my lint-related questions. You can listen right up there, or you can subscribe on iTunes.
Before we really get going, just so you believe me, look at this close-up of that first piece above:
Lint!!! Mind. Blown. Ok, moving on. This next piece is the colorful portrait that Tonya was talking about:
Just imagine collecting and organizing that much colorful lint? It makes me want to wash a bunch of red socks so I can send her a ball of pinky/red fluff! Now, not that I want Tonya to ever feel terrified, but I kinda love that this piece scared her so much. See, brilliant artists are humans too.
Ok, so here are some of her portraits. The first guy below, Freddie, was the first lint portrait she ever did, and is titled “Your Friend Freddie”. This piece is 5’x3.5′ and took months for Tonya to finish… which doesn’t surprise me at all:
She quickly embraced negative space which saved a lot of time… and lint.
Oh, and these! These are the mirrored pieces we talked about. STUNNING:
Right? Sigh. So gorgeous. Up next, the writing from the back of these nostalgic found photographs… some mirrored, some with a bit of a linty shadow:
Again, gorgeous. Speaking of gorgeous, here is a shot of Tonya in her studio. I love seeing where/how artists work, and this photo is particularly great because you can see the scale of a few of the pieces from earlier in this post. Also, I love that she’s surrounded by bags full of dryer fluff:
Lovely. Thank you so much to Tonya for taking the time to tell her stories, thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting episode 75; thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book – it’s officially available now – and thank YOU so much for listening every week! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.
Other links:
Very Interesting and absolutely Amazing what she does with dryer lint! wow! I loved the “speed” round questions about meeting either ancestors or future family- great question- I agree, I would choose ancestors as well. My current work involves re-imagining my own ancestors.