Old Pennies Made New
Everyone wants to do something different for the new year — start fresh, like a shiny new penny. If you’ve collected a lot of pennies over the years like I have, here’s a way. Try gluing to the floor to get that shiny new look.
Mel Angst, of the Artisan tattoo and coffee gallery in Garfield, Pennsylvania, decided to take on this task and glued nearly 250,000 pennies. I think it came out stunning.
Speaking of pennies, an interesting thing happened to me over the holidays. Carl Myers, the artist who created the Penny Portrait in my Panama post, contacted me. He had not taken pictures of the installation in the Trump Tower and wanted to know if he could use mine to update his website. Sure! I felt like they were his anyway. I had just had the pictures but didn’t create the art and the picture wouldn’t exist without his spectacular artwork.
Floor or face, it takes a lot pennies and saving them for a rainy day but what can be created is worth the wait and work. Carl was kind in the email exchange to give me a little insight into his work. I hope he doesn’t mind me posting here, for it’s quite a feat to think of how many pennies were needed and then used. Each has a hole drilled into the top and is fixed with a protruding nail.
The other coincidental discovery was that Carl attended the University of Virginia, where my oldest son went. Small world, indeed, to have so many newly discovered connections through blog posts. You know what they say about, “find a penny, pick it up; one day you’ll have good luck.” I guess the new year (and 2013, with unlucky 13 at that), is starting off right in finding that unexpected new penny.
casart
I'm an artist, wife and mother of two boys. I started my illustration business, The Occasional Palette over 35 years ago, when my oldest son was an infant. Once my children were in school, I began painting decorative, faux finishes and murals through my second business, Casart, now over 30 years old. My third business, Casart Coverings, is a springboard from my second. Click on the link on the sidebar to see innovative, custom, designer wallcovering, removable and reusable wallpaper and coordinating decor.
2 Comments
Daina B
My 5th students and I are trying to figure out what the number 250, 000 looks like. I have yet to explain that’s the number of COVID related deaths the US has reached, but I am blown AWAY by what I’m seeing with just your artwork! Thank you for making math approachable all of us!
casart
Hello Daina, many thanks for your comment! I’m never sure who reads AIE but I’m most pleased when a teacher does and can use the post for visual reference. I have to clarify, however, I’m not the artist of these beautiful and creative copper-penny pieces. Meg Angst created the penny floor and Carl Myers created the penny portrait. I’m just the artist who discovered their work and decided to write a post about their talent. I’ll give another shout out to The Lincoln restaurant in DC, since all restaurants are having such a tough time during the pandemic. They also have Lincoln-heads-up pennies inserted in their floor (nearly 10,000 pennies, sadly removed in 2016) but they still have them in their backsplashes and counters, carrying out their theme with a fantastic decorative look: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7MLjm-Hu5B/…Lesson: Save those pennies! They have many uses — beyond a raining day. Many thanks for all you do, Daina!