We covered Chris Fennell in our Green Issue last July. Here's a look back at the article on the creative artist who makes sculptures out of only discarded materials. Pictured is one of Chris's new sculptures called Barn Pine Cone at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia. Check out more at www.cfennell.org.
Green Hero: Christopher Fennell - Published in July 2007 Blue Ridge Outdoors
Christopher Fennell sees the beauty in everything—literally. His sculptures are all made from recycled materials. He takes demolished barns, broken bicycles, and downed trees and turns them into large-scale recognizable objects, and he’s managed to turn the innovative approach into a successful career, as his work is being displayed in cities all across America.
“Discarded materials are beautiful,” says Fennell. “They’re interesting in that they have a past. In taking things that would normally be going to a landfill and turning it into something that stays around for years, I can hopefully engage people’s creativity to think about using materials differently.”
Fennell built a series of wave sculptures out of wood salvaged from barns that were about to be torn down. Waves have been displayed in Charlottesville, Va., and Chattanooga, Tenn. The University of Georgia in Athens holds Bicycle Tornado, an intertwining storm of a sculpture that was welded out of hundreds of old bikes.
His ethic comes from growing up on a farm, where he says everything was reused, be it dinner scraps or cow manure. He got the idea one day when he passed by a barn that was falling apart. He saw something in the structure that most wouldn’t.
“When I see someone burn an old barn down or throw a dead oak tree in a wood chipper, I realize those things can used,” he says.
His work has also been used for more practical purposes beyond artistic appreciation. He just finished constructing a bus stop shelter out of old school buses for the city of Athens.
Fennell just moved his studio from Washington, D.C. to Birmingham, Ala., but his work really requires him to leave a transient lifestyle, usually making him traverse the country in his old pick-up. His latest project finds him working with high school students in Rock Island, Illinois. With the group, Fennell is removing driftwood from the Mississippi River and using it to build an entranceway to a local museum.
“People think to be a sculptor you have to have bronze, marble, and an expensive studio, but I make art out of things that fit in the back of my truck and a chainsaw.”
-J.F.
