Thursday, Alden Cole and DoN drove to Bethlehem to drop off one of Alden’s fabulous luminaries at Home & Planet, an extraordinary art gallery featuring art created from recycled materials. The gallery was getting ready for First Friday, so we got to see a preview of the featured art which includes some really creative metal constructions by artists Ben and Kate Gatski and welder Lana Garner. Gatski’s installation includes works created for the garden as well as moo-valous steer heads, cows and giant flowers all made with found metal. Quite a-moo-sing.
Metal cow and flowers by Gatski @ Home and Planet.
Lana Garner creates signature cityscapes from steel dumpster doors, car hoods and drum barrels – a true dumpster diver. Gritty and bleak, the works portray the urban landscape with humor and inventiveness. Garner was a member of a women’s welding collective called Accoutrements and now lives in South Carolina where she has an old gas station for her studio and an old church renovated to be her home. DoN is fascinated with the scale and scope of these monumental works which are extremely heavy and required industrial strength mountings to hang in the gallery. DoNwas also pleased to see the Philly skyline portrayed in welded metal. Since Bethlehem used to be a steel town, the works by Gatski and Garner are particularly poingnant.
Cityscape on a car hood by Lana Garner @ Home and Planet.
Cityscape on dumpster door by Lana Garner with Alden Cole luminary (left) @ Home and Planet, Bethlehem, PA.
