Turning Trash into Beautiful Art Treasure

During my seashell art phase, and shortly after finishing my mixed media mussel shell piece, “True Colors,” I had an idea while cracking open some pistachio shells. I mentioned in my previous blog entry that I wasn’t fond of painting over the natural beauty of the small scallop shells. So, while I was eating the pistachios and observing their shells, I realized that the size and shape of them were like the seashells but with a few advantages: they had a neutral color which would be easy to paint over and they were lighter in weight than the seashells.

Coming off the dragon concept of “True Colors,” I decided I would use the pistachio shells in a similar vein by creating a lizard-like skin texture with them. I used an almost identical process as I did with “True Colors”:

• First, I painted the lizard eye in oil paint at the center of the canvas.
• Next, I applied the acrylic molding paste to the canvas and arranged the pistachio shells around the eye.
• After that was dry, I painted the shells black with acrylic paint and then over the black with a variety of metallic colors.
• Once everything was dry, I applied several layers of glossy varnish to give it a wet-looking texture.

I usually name my pieces after they’re finished, and this one was appropriately named “One Eye Open.” I should also mention that it takes A LOT of pistachio shells to create a piece like this, and no, I didn’t eat all those pistachios! My parents have helped quite a bit by being my main suppliers😉 . I’ve since created several other art pieces by using pistachio shells in a variety of ways, which has given me other ideas of how to use discarded objects, aka trash, for artistic purposes (stay tuned!)

You can see the process of how I made this piece by visiting my Instagram or YouTube channels. If you’re interested in purchasing this original piece, please click here or contact me for further information.