I was talking to my friend, Lin, this evening, (yes Lin, I am going to blog about you.), and I was telling her that I have to think of something to write about today. I told her how much comfort I get from blogging every day, because it makes me aware of what is going on around me. I can focus on the positive things in life and the wonderful people who have become a part of my crazy mixed up world.
So, I know you won't be looking at dryer lint in the same light anymore, and I bet some of you are going to see what fantastic artwork you can create. Be sure to share and keep me posted on your lint art. Really! I'd love to see it.
Sometimes art can help overcome life's difficulties.
That's the case with Heidi Hooper, 52, an artist from Pennsylvania whose work created from dryer lint will debut at Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Richmond Road.
Trained as a sculptor at VCU, she made a name for herself with jewelry and costumes created from metal. She also made dolls.
She's right-handed and had to have much of the muscle in her right arm removed, leaving the hand too weak to work with metal.
She found her new medium by accident. "When I was very sick with cancer, my mother-in-law was staying with us to take care of me. A lot of people had sent me these multi-colored chenille throws to cheer me up," she said.
One day the dryer broke down.
Later, she was looking for a way to continue her artwork.
"The first couple of years, they were horrible," she laughed. "I was just relying on my own dryer." Now she gets dryer lint in the mail from all over the country.
Although her work looks to the eye like painting, it's actually a kind of sculpture since the lint is placed by hand. "I've never really thought of it like that, but it is sculpture," she said. Just in a softer material.
Want to go? Heidi Hooper will be at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum 3-5 p.m. Thursday, April 7. She usually donates a quarter of the profits to a local "no-kill' animal shelter.