User:Artfarts

Wild Flowers is a public artwork by American artist Rachel Tolkan, located on Santa Monica Boulevard, in the suburb of Fox Point, which is near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Rachel Tolkan's Wild Flowers is 7' long and 10" high. It is made out of wood, recycled aluminum and acrylic paint.  The artist constructs these recycled sculptures in her home studio, and goes on site to install them.  Wild Flowers was constructed and installed in 2011.

Description
Wild Flowers is a series of eight unique aluminum can flowers. The sculpture is 7’ long and 10” high. The flowers are mounted on top of a wooden board that is painted with a rich milk chocolate brown finish. The flowers are made from recycled aluminum cans. The cans are layered on top of one another, and spray painted different vibrant colors. This particular sculpture is outside and is hung above a doorway. The reuse and recovery of the cans in this sculpture is lively and fun.

Historical information
Wild Flowers is a sculpture that was inspired by an artist named Ted Degrazia. Ted Degrazia was an artist with many talents. He painted, sculpted, and composed music. He also designed and built his home and art gallery in Tucson, Arizona. Ted Degrazia is known, in part, for Gallery in the Sun, which he began to build in the 1950's. Much of his life's work is displayed there. He liked to use natural and recycled materials in his artwork, as well as in the construction of his gallery and home. In 2009, Rachel Tolkan visited Ted Degrazia's Gallery in the Sun, and was inspired by the recycled can flowers that were on display throughout the artist's gallery and home. Tolkan was also inspired by a local artist in Tucson, who had begun recreating the can flowers in his own vision. Tolkan worked with the anonymous local artist and learned how to construct the flowers. She has since returned to Tucson and Ted Degrazia's gallery several times. Wild Flowers is the only sculpture by Rachel Tolkan that is currently on public display.

Location history
Wild Flowers is on permanent display on the 7300 block of Santa Monica Boulevard in the suburb of Fox Point.

Artist
Rachel Tolkan is from Milwaukee, WI, and was born in 1986. She grew up in Milwaukee and continues to live there today. Tolkan has a masters degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She works as a social worker full time and enjoys doing her artwork recreationally. Tolkan has created different kinds of artwork starting as a young child. She briefly studied at Rhode Island School of Design during a summer pre-college program. Tolkan also enjoys taking classes around the city and learning new forms of artistic creativity. Rachel Tolkan is a gifted in the art of crochet, and is able to navigate a sewing machine like a pro. Tolkan's preferred style at this time is hanging sculptures, in which she chooses to incorporate natural, found, and recycled materials.