Creativity has sparked two Stockton individuals to spread their creativity to the community with a lot of determination and pretty junk
By Aaliyah Gonzales
Patti Crowder and Teresa Morales, have found a way to pass time and love through what they call “junk art.”
Junk art relieves the mind and helps the environment.
“I absolutely love to make something pretty out of something that somebody was going to throw away,” said Crowder.
It’s about recycling garbage that people typically throw away. These materials have some type of value and are just waiting for an opportunity to be made into something beautiful, according to Crowder.
“If you do some research and see how much stuff is in a landfill, of course you’ve got all that garbage but then you got all those sparklies, that’s a lot of jewerly, that’s a lot of metal, a lot of plastic, that is just thrown away, why?” asked Crowder.
Why, indeed.
Making something instead of throwing something away can really benefit a lot of life outside of the city
and if you think about it, it can make the community grow as well through creativity that all of us have inside of ourselves.
Most people wouldn’t dare to do something that is so different from their lifestyle, but Crowder thinks otherwise.
“Like I always say, dare to be different,” said Crowder.
Being different is all the rage nowadays as everyone tried to express themselves to show individuality.
Junk art can be the beginning to this different change.
Crowder said doing this sort of art work is fun and interesting, particularly in how she takes everyday objects and turns them into something someone wants and she can make a profit from. Junk art hasn’t been her first creative endeavor, she said.
“Yes, always creative, we painted rocks, we did everything, cut up magazines, and modge podged onto rock and sold them. Oh yeah, we’d go door to door selling things!.” Patti exclaims.
Teresa Morales is another creator who takes a junk approach to creating art, including making sugar skulls from items found at thrift stores. Morales has even worked with feathers provided by Crowder.
Morales works with feathers that she comes across on the street and makes all sorts of things, even more than skulls.
“You always find a feather when you walk down the street, you never know what to do with it. And one day I just got inspired and just started creating things out of feathers, hair pieces, headbands, hat feathers, and it just took off from there,” said Morales.
When inside of Morales’s home you can feel the inspiration from the paintings she comes across that are so colorful, along with her big colorful skulls with beautiful and radiant feathers in shiny glass jars.
Morales has been doing this type of art for a decade now and she seems to keep those creative juices flowing.
“I’ve always been in artwork since I can remember, but usually with the feathers, it started maybe back in 2012? So, it’s been going about 10 years now,” said Morales.
Doing something for so long can really be inspiring to others, especially for those who have been struggling to keep up with how much their mind can come up with.
People like Patti Crowder and Morales can make such a difference in everyday lives by blessing people with something that can make you smile or feel fabulous with just a touch of vision and mind.
