When it comes to art, anything can be a canvas. That's why artists nowadays come up with the most brilliant ideas, especially when they combine it with engineering or design concepts. One man from Detroit, however, has chosen a very simple canvas to create extraordinary art with aluminum cans. It's a great idea, given that about 1.5 million tons of waste are created worldwide just from throwing away aluminum cans, Marck Recycling wrote on their website. According to The Aluminum Association, there's a 67 percent recycling rate in the aluminum industry right now, which costs about $800 million yearly.
The good news is that aluminum is 100 percent recyclable. The problem only lies in proper disposal and collection. One man in Detroit would appreciate those old cans, however, as he's an artist who uses these old cans as a canvas.
Artists creates with his bare hands
Meet artist Noah Deledda, a Detroit-born man who creates amazing patterns on aluminum cans with only his thumbs. According to Insider, the idea came to him when he was playing with a can in the back of a car, beginning what would be a career simply by molding a Red Bull can. Today, his method begins by sanding down the can to remove the label and polishing them to make them shiny again. Deledda told My Modern Met that the process of removing the label "reveals a brilliant raw material of the otherwise ordinary consumer item."
Winner of the Red Bull art competition
Noah Deledda's artistic aluminum can creations have long been recognized.
Business Insider reported that he won Red Bull's annual "Art of Can" competition back in 2010. Since then, he's been creating his fascinating artworks, which he stores in acrylic boxes. His artwork goes for about £1,400 for each can. Deledda explained to My Modern Met, "Through sculpture, I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object."
The artistic process
Over at Noah Deledda's official website, he details his creative process, which involves crushing, denting, and creasing, which he calls his "method to create design, precision, symmetry and balance." He admitted that it's not something that came easily to him, as it took years of practice to perfect his art that now sells for as much as $2,350 per piece.
Deledda's pieces were showcased during Art Basel in Switzerland and in Miami, Florida in 2017. They were also on display at the Illsol Gallery in Tampa, Florida in 2017 and the Audi Boundary Gala Exhibit in 2016 in Vancouver, B.C.