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From hub to hip

Saved from the trash bin, used hubcaps become artwork in the hands of creative artists

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer

hen local businessman Ken Marquis invited Leigh Pawling to decorate an old hubcap any way she chose, the Kingston artist painted a wolf with its head thrown back to howl.

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Eric Lankford of Tennessee transformed his hubcap into what looks like a college ring.

DON CAREY/THE TIMES LEADER

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Melanie Clark of Orwigsburg turned her hubcap into a rose.

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The wolf, which Pawling described as inspired by the book “Women Who Run With the Wolves,” follows a simple code of eating, resting, showing loyalty, caring for the young -- and howling often.

“She’s in that groove where you call forth your natural talents,” Pawling said in a telephone interview. “All people have that need to create.”

Pawling said she’s excited about lending her own natural talent to Landfillart, a project Marquis developed with plans to collect 1,041 “rusty, old hubcaps that no one would want” and transform them into pieces of art.

Already, some 600 artists – local as well as international – have agreed to donate a piece.

Why is Marquis aiming for 1,041?

“I happened to be looking at old rusty hubcaps last August at a car show in Macungie,” he said. “I thought, this could be recycled into great art, and I bought all 41.”

Three weeks later, he had a chance to buy 1,000 more, “so 1,041 became the magic number.”

Marquis has sent unadorned hubcaps to willing artists, and when the finished pieces arrive via return mail, he’s noticed each reflects a unique style.

Eric Lankford of Tennessee, for example, added metal to make his hubcap resemble a gigantic class ring from “Opossum College.”

Melanie Clark of Orwigsburg used folds of red fabric to make hers look like a rose in full bloom.

Shirley Brauker of Coldwater, Mich., decorated hers with leather fringes and painted a bear on it.

“I’m a Native American artist, and I use a lot of images of bears because I’m part of the Bear Clan,” Brauker said.

“The bear is a symbol of introspection because he sleeps in winter. He gets to know his inner self.”

The green aspect of the Landfillart project prompted many other artists as well to use images from nature.

“I love animals, and I wanted to show it isn’t just our world,” said Sue Sponenberg of Nescopeck, who painted a panda, tiger and butterfly as well as greenery and an hourglass – to show time is running out. “I looked online and found a lot of information that surprised me as to how many animals and plants are endangered, even algae and coral reefs.”

Mary Lou Steinberg of Kingston bought some yellow caution tape and used No. 13 knitting needles to knit it into petals for her hubcap-turned sunflower. “I love sunflowers,” she said, explaining she plans to grow some in her yard this year. “It’s so symbolic of art. Van Gogh, you know.”

Rubin Cukier from Kibbutz Adamit in Israel also looked to floral images, painting desert plants onto his hubcap, which happens to be the only plastic one – so far – in the Landfillart project.

“All hubcaps (in Israel) are made from plastic, at least those ones that can be found aside the road or in the garbage,” Cukier wrote in an e-mail. “The only place you can find metallic hubcaps is in a car collection.”

Puppets, a fishing net, a piece of a broken fan – anything, it seems, can dress up a hubcap.

Some might end up looking like a roulette wheel, a birds’ nest, you name it.

Hilary Ross of Shickshinny turned hers into an interactive game. Spin the spinner, and it will point to a suggestion, such as “take a friend to dinner” or “hug the person next to you.”

“It just popped into my head that I should make a game out of a circle,” she said.

“I remember playing games as a child where there was always a loser. I thought I’d like to make a game where everybody wins.”

If Marquis has his way, everyone will win as the Landfillart project inspires people to take care of the environment.

Eventually, he expects to send 200 of the hubcaps on the road as a traveling exhibit.

And after that?

“Someone asked me what would happen to the collection if I died,” he said. “It’s a reasonable question. I had to put something in place that would outlive me.”

Marquis’ solution is to partner with The Carbon Fund, an entity that, if something happens to him, will sell the art and use the proceeds for reforestation. Marquis believes every participating artist would approve.

“No matter what continent a tree is planted on,” he said, “it helps the earth.”

VIEWING THE ART

You can see the Landfillart collection online at www.landfillart.org or in person if you visit Marquis Art & Frame, 122 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre during business hours.