Over the past several years I've touted a number of rather weird art media from ice and snow to fire and water. Obviously, on the weirdness scale, tin cans kind of fall somewhere in between those. I should point out that tin cans today are not made of tin but steel, or in the case of beverages, aluminum. Thus, when I refer here to "tin" cans I'm speaking generically, and not actually referring to cans made of tin. However, sometimes the steel is still tin plated or features a plastic coating on the inside, depending upon the acidity of the contents and other factors. Quite apart from the metal, insofar as the artist is concerned, there are two types of cans, the painted ones (aluminum beverage cans) and the ones with paper labels. Unless your name is Andy Warhol, it's best to remove the paper labels before utilizing the can as part of your artistic endeavors. (Be sure to rinse or wash out the inside too.) Once the can is stark naked, the result is a shiny surface that, with a little elbow grease, lends itself to polishing. If, on the other hand, you wish to go in the opposite direction, there are chemicals coatings available which produce an accelerated rusting effect (by accelerated I mean several weeks outside exposed to the weather). Laura Jacoby's tin can tops (below) is an outstanding example of this effect.
Tin cans are a very humble, plentiful, virtually free art material allowing the artist to feel noble in preserving our environment through recycling. However, though an inexpensive means of creating long-lasting sculptural art, very often the materials necessary to mount, bind, color, and preserve the metal don't come cheap. Nancy Adams (below) works on a rather large scale, using an oxyacetylene torch to create and decorate her various metal containers. If you're drawn to this rather "macho" type of tin can sculpture, you might first want to check out the prevailing price of such a torch, then the cost of the gases needed to have some fun with it. Speaking of fun, don't try this at home without adult supervision. Get someone who knows to show you how to use the damned thing before sparking it up. To the other extreme, the tiny, pin-cushion rocker (right) requires only needle-nose plyers, some glue, fabric, a cotton ball or two, and lots of patience--perfect for Barbie's playhouse.
In that tin cans come in quite a variety of sizes up to and including 55-gallon drums, the same is true as to the scale in which a tin can artist may choose to work. Deb Cohen's My Garden Helper (left) might require a garage workshop, while the delicate, Latas Dedinho (finger cans, below right) or Jill Porter's Coke can earrings (below) could be considered kitchen table art.
And while we're on the subject of Coke cans, in addition to fine jewelry, the Coca-Cola company makes a damned fine automobile too, at least when Jo Sanderson of Sandy's CanCars (above) gets done sipping their fine carbonated beverage. Wouldn't you just love to cruise "the strip" in a machine like that?
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that not all tin can sculptures require some form of bonding. There is a whole genre of such art which has come to be known as "stacked can art," (above), probably first pioneered by a bored stock boy at Safeway (an American grocery retailer). Best of all these art gallery installations do not require the emptying of such cans...just a good, sturdy floor and a ban on shopping carts.
You know you've come upon an important, legitimate, art medium when you see magazines and how-to books published on the subject (above). Major art galleries and museums have also added legitimacy to tin can art. Hundreds of thousands of viewers have no doubt seen Jeff Koons' Michael Jackson and Bubbles. Now Sunland, California, artist Seaton Brown has created a 144-square-foot portrait of the King of Pop using 1,680 empty soda pop cans (below). The contents, bubbles included, have gone down the drain. Brown doesn't drink the stuff. Normally, the 40-year-old artist likewise doesn't dabble in "Pop" art or other alternate media. He earns his living from oil paintings and as a freelance illustrator. Yet the whole concept was too good to resist--Pop as a style, pop cans as a medium, the "King of Pop" as the subject. Brown says about 20% of his raw materials came empty, purchased from a recycling station. For the rest he paid retail, spending, he estimates, about $600 on soda cans both empty and full, and another $400 on other materials. The tricky part, he notes, was finding good skin tones. The solution came in the form of the cream soda, root beer, and cherry-vanilla flavors of the Whole Foods brand. Whole foods?
If it is hard to hear, people won't listen. Preparation is key to the art of public speaking, so when speaking in public you must have an excellent sound system because some of the time you will be speaking while your audience is laughing. Stand-up comics need good sound too, but they are a little different because they tell a joke, then people laugh (they hope). They tell another joke, then people laugh. A good public speaker will be rolling right along making points, showing product features, telling stories, and dropping one-liners and must be heard all the while.
A humorous speech demands a better sound system than a serious speech. In the art of public speaking you learn that a serious talk, words can be missed and the main message can still be very clear. In humor it doesn't work that way. If key words are missed in a joke or story, it will ruin the humor. No one will laugh and you will look like a giant goober.
As a "pro" in the art of public speaking, the need for a thorough sound check is another good reason to be in the room early. You need to check the microphone to make sure it works. You need to check to see how far your mouth should be from the microphone. You need to know how loudly you should talk.
Make sure the sound system is carrying to all parts of the room. If someone is speaking prior to you, try to go to the back of the room to see how he or she is coming across. If you have someone at the presentation with you, have them signal from the back of the room if changes are needed in the public address system after you have started. Controlling the environment where you are to paint your word pictures in the minds of your audience is an essential function in the art of public speaking.
If the amplifier controls aren't handy after you have started, you can adjust the sound by changing the distance between your mouth and the microphone and/or increasing or decreasing the loudness of your voice. Try not to use the latter method too often so you don't strain your vocal mechanism. Remember that your voice is the brush - and the colors - that are painted on the canvas of the minds of your audience in the art of public speaking.