Corky Pointillism

My mom has gained a recent obsession with corks as an artistic medium. (Largely due to a Pinterest-inspired addiction to recycled crafts).  Past projects have ranged from water bottle sunflowers to ceramic tile coasters. The cork craze has been one of the more interesting mediums and has produced some of the nicest art. Oddly enough, many of her projects have involved minimum effort over a long period of time. At least so far. It takes more than a few weeks to empty dozens of wine bottles to obtain an ample cork supply. Many of these corks have ended up in glass vases of varying shapes, among which she has sprinkled glass bulbs or tied complementary ribbons. The corks have an unobtrusive color to most any decor, plus a subtle shading of red or purple from the wine, rendering each cork marginally unique. This snowflake affect serves well to projects that capitalize off consistent difference. One such example is pointillism.

As a traditional painting technique, famous in works such as Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Un dimanche après-midi à l’Ile de la Grande Jatte) by Georges Seurat, pointillism embodies the idea of consistent difference. A collection of numerous similar pieces forms an image out of the pieces’ minor differences. As the name suggests, pointillism is the use of points in a work of art. Like pixels on a television set, the points are colored (or not colored) dots of similar size and shape that work together to form something larger. Traditionally, it has been used in painting, but has since been appropriated to ink drawings, soup cans, and even corks.

While my mom’s current project is not a pointillistic mosaic (she’s currently working on a wreath), there are some great works of corky pointillism on the Internet.

Like any art form, the beauty lies in the process of creation. Since it would take years to collect the corks and a good deal of time to assemble them into a whole, the dedication to assembling these works is impressive. But let’s hope Scott Gundersen, the cork artist pictured above, didn’t drink all that wine himself. Perhaps the process of creating this art is something that could celebrate community? A local winery where visitors can have a bottle and contribute their cork to something bigger. It may be a cool project. And if people don’t feel motivated to create art together, maybe they could donate their corks to someone who could?

I don’t know about you, but I’d love some cork pants.