Annual Deja Vu Art and Fine Craft Show Nov. 12 to highlight repurposed creations

Noblesville artist Indre Pralataviciute-Mineikiene speaks with Don Nissen at a past Deja Vu Art and Fine Craft Show at The Commons.

Submitted photo

Bob Blum hardly had boarded the artistic piece train 13 years ago when he purchased enough boxes of sequins to make Liberace jealous.

Their sparkle had been hidden for some 70 years in a San Francisco dress factory’s warehouse basement when Blum fancied a second-chance stance for the thousands of jewels: The Cincinnati resident would take them from waste to wonder in the form of his one-of-a-kind necklaces.

All for the sake of worn-again art — all the while being a good steward of the planet.

“The colors,” Blum said, “were just incredible.”

Buyers say much the same about Blum’s works, most of which sell for $60 to $80.

That greatly green, trash-to-treasures perspective is the hallmark of the free Deja Vu Art and Fine Craft Show scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 12 at The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus. Blum is one of two featured artists among 45 total for the event that normally attracts an estimated 1,000 people over the course of the day. The other is Indiana artisan and Decatur resident Jim Brune, who paints breathtaking bird and other nature-oriented imagery in watercolors on wood.

The event, the brainchild of Columbus artist and Indiana artisan Marilyn Brackney, celebrates America Recycles Day. It does so by highlighting a broad range of artists using scrap wood, fabric, metals, wristwatches, you name it, and turning those pieces into new jewelry boxes, jackets, coasters, clocks, candleholders, tables, fanciful figures and other items.

Call it the death-to-life approach to art. Or a renewed Renaissance of sorts.

Brackney points out that many of the 45 participating artists are members of prestigious organizations such as the aforementioned Indiana Artisans or the Louisville (Kentucky) Artisans Guild.

“This continues to be a favorite show for people shopping for unique Christmas gifts,” Brackney said.

Blum calls it the most unusual show he participates in, and even attendees wh0 are artists have marveled at the overall quality of the pieces in the juried event. Brackney believes there is no other such offering that she knows of in any nearby state.

“I work on this all year long,” she said.

It shows, with enough variety and whimsy to make Dr. Seuss smile.

But even the funny pieces, such as Brackney’s own doll assemblages, are seriously crafted. Besides, why would an artist save pieces from the trash if a work featuring a new lease on life would quickly end up there anyway?

For highlighted artist Brune, tinted epoxy sometimes helps his scrap, wooden pieces hold together. Brackney understands.

“It’s not a matter of what you’re working with,” she said. “It’s a matter of what you do with what you have.”

Many local attendees this year probably will be familiar with first-time participant Lydia Burris, a Columbus native now living in Chicago and boasting a substantial following with colorful, unconventional, multimedia pieces mixing painting with assemblages that she unflinchingly calls “oddball creations.”

“My driving force is to carve my own winding path,” she wrote on her webpage at lydiaburris.com. “I can only hope that others may follow along and discover with wonderment, the unexpected things I uncover.”

Some of the unexpected things that show attendees uncover in their kitchen catch-all drawer make it to the event as gifts to Brackney.

“They sometimes will say something like, ‘This was in my mother’s kitchen drawer, and I thought you might be able to use it,’” she said. “And we don’t turn it away.”

For her and her artist husband Larry, also addicted to the repurposed-driven life, such trinkets soon can enjoy life again — a second time around.

About the show

What: The Annual Deja Vu Art and Fine Craft Show, featuring art highlighted by recycled elements and pieces.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 12.

Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus.

Admission: Free