See A Penny, Pick It Up. Or Paint It, If You're Jacqueline Lou Skaggs.

above: Venus Dreams, 1963

13 pennies are used as miniature canvases for oil paintings titled "Tondi Observations" by Indiana artist Jacqueline Lou Skaggs.


above: The Plastic Magician, 1984

In the artist's own words:
"This small body of twelve works consist of images painted on found, discarded pennies. These pictures pay homage to, not only, the binding ideologies that define our family, religious, social and political worlds- but also to the resonating mythological powers of traditional painting and miniature picture making- much like the Dutch oils on copper from the 17th century. Paid tribute no less on the face of discarded coins these iconic images transcend the coins value while, to some extent, defacing it.

"Abe's Millennium" is a portrait from a found thrift-store photograph (regrettably sold at a yard sale). The title comes from my knowing that we still have a long way to go.

above: Abe's Millenium, 1973

"Kisses and Ghosts" is from a portrait of my mother as a child standing next to a bird bath with her brother. I once read a report in which children were asked what they feared most. The two most popular answers were "kisses" and "ghosts".

above: Kisses and Ghosts, 1951

"Four Witches Stand" is a line in the Pledge of Allegiance.

above: four Witches Stand, 1978

"The Unburning Bush" is a bush that never burned.

above: The Unburning Bush, 1992

"The Field of Sleeping Peasants" is waiting for Picasso.

above: Field of Sleeping Peasants, 1971

"The Baptistery" honors the rain Gods for suburban birds.

above: the Baptistry, 1980

"Through carelessness..." is a random line chosen with my eyes closed from the Chinese book of chance, I-Ching.

above: Through Carelessness He Loses His Cow, 1944

"A Pile of Burnt Wood" is just that, in the approaching evening light. "A Still Life" is too still... and so on.

above: A Pile Of Burnt Wood, 1983

above: A Still Life, 1976

Initially these coins were going to be spent- nestled with other coins in an exchange of goods. Or tossed back to the sidewalks from whence they came. Nice thoughts. However, these works remain hoarded as art rather than currency or discarded, valueless copper."

above: The Last Supper Table, 1990

Jacqueline is currently represented by SUGAR, 449 Troutman St #3-5, Bushwick, Brooklyn #718.417.1180
jacquelinelouskaggs.com

brought to my attention by the Global Art Junkie

Johnny Swing Turns Cold Hard Cash & Currency Into Furniture & Textiles. Literally.

A trained sculptor and licensed welder, 49 year old Vermont-based artist Johnny Swing, an alumnus of Skidmore College and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture uses found materials and objects to repurpose into art, furniture and more.


above: artist and welder Johnny Swing on his Nickel couch

With a vast amount of work to his credit, it's his American coin-soldered furniture and paper currency printed objects I want to share with you today. Below are several angles, images and information pertaining to his soldered coin furniture followed by some of his textile objects made with dollar printed fabrics.

The Nickel Couch, 2006:


His second in his series of furniture made from coins, the nickel couch is comprised of 7,000 nickles, 35,000 welds, and a substructure of stainless truss work utilizing 350 feet of stiffening rods. 80"wide x 42"deep x 28.5" high and weighs 125 pounds.




above: Swing's Nickel Couch, 2001, fetched over $100,000 at auction at Sotheby in December of 2009.

Quarter Lounge, 2008:

Quarters and stainless steel, 96 x 47 x 28 inches



Half Dollar Butterfly Chair, 2009:


The third in his series of coin furniture, the Butterfly chair, reveals an exposed substructure and is made of 1,500 half dollar coins and 7,000 welds. 46"wide x 32"deep x 34" high and weighs 58 lbs.




The Quarter Chair:


The fourth in his series of coin pieces, the Quarter chair has an hourglass shape and is made from approximately 1,200 quarters. The shape and proportion are that of traditional diningroom furniture. 21" wide x 24" deep x 36" high and weighs 28 lbs.





The Loose Change Chair:


The fifth in the series of coin furniture, this was inspired by the childhood game Booby Trap. The substructure is created from technology shared from airplane wing design; it flexes to the ground but is torsionally rigid to accommodate thousands of pounds.




The Quarter Stool:


Nickel Bowl:
His bowls are an effort to play with other shapes that force the constrained circular coin into complex forms and patterns similar to mosque screens and Native American woven baskets.


All The Kings Men, 2010:


One of his most recent pieces, All the Kings Men is a curved settee with soldered open framework underside made of half dollars and stainless steel and measures 97" x 52" x 28" inches.






As Kiera Scholten reported for Artworks Magazine about his Coin series in 2008:

When he began using coins, Swing says it wasn’t simply about money as a material-”it was about taking what was a useless piece of money and kind of making it special again.” With this idea in mind he constructed his first piece out of pennies. What many consider America’s most disposable piece of coinage suited his purpose perfectly. Swing was happy with his first piece, which he modeled after a Bertoli chair, but using the pennies became a problem. After 1981 pennies were made with zinc, which caused them to disintegrate when welded together. Finding thousands of pennies dating before Reagan took office made an already labor-intensive process even more of a chore.
So he moved on to nickels. He’s now created 20 nickel couches, each assembled using about 7,000 of the Jefferson coins-that’s $350. His half-dollar chair utilizes about 1,500 coins, or $750. The price of these pieces, though, is much more than face value. You would have to save a lot of five-cent pieces to afford the couch made of them. An original Johnny Swing Nickel Couch can be had for upwards of $50,000. But the price pays for a painstaking process; for one couch it takes more than 300 hours to complete the 35,000 welds that hold all the coins together.
Welding coins together simply to sit on them may seem like a strange concept, and some critics are quick to classify Swing’s work as “bad boy art” under the assumption that he’s defacing money by using it in this manner. At first, even Swing wasn’t sure if his art was illegal, though his original answer was that “the government doesn’t care if you use their objects in art; they’re sort of flattered.” He soon thought he had better check it out to be certain, so he called the Secret Service, which at the time was a part of the U.S. Treasury. “They said, ‘It’s your money, do with it what you want,’” says Swing. “The agent told me the rumor that destroying money is illegal is just an old wives’ tale to keep kids from putting coins on the railroad tracks.” Swing could breathe a sigh of relief and move ahead with his work.

In addition to using coins, he has also created the following pieces using fabric printed with US Currency.

Piggy:



Teddy Bear:


Throw pillow:

By the way, you can purchase the Dollar Teddy ($1,250.00) and the Butterfly Coin chair ($59,000.00) here at Vivre.

all images courtesy of the artist

Funky Find Of The Week: Banpresto's Face Bank

The Banpresto Facebank is a delight for kids and grown-ups alike.
A little tabletop bank that actually 'eats' pennies.
Don't believe me?
I have video proof:



Available in red, blue or grey.

So, where can you get this cute little guy?
Yes, he's made in japan but he's available to purchase for only $30 bucks here.

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? If So, Here's 20 Great Places To Put It.

Around this time of year, people start thinking (and worrying) about their money. The holidays are coming up, year -end deductions and expenses are taken into account and chances are, most of the world is pinching their pennies.

So, If you're not gonna spend it, at least put it in something cool. Above are 20 beautiful places in which to put that spare change- if you've got any.

There's no longer an excuse for keeping pennies in a ...gasp...jar!

Just click on each piggy bank above to purchase.

Wanna see more cool and modern money boxes/piggybanks/coin boxes? Go here.