Discarded items are getting a second life from artists embracing the past but creating a valuable new product. Upcycling – creative reusing of an unwanted object or material to produce an item of higher quality or value than the original – are modern designs that tell as much the stories of the collective pasts as they inspire new narratives through the eye of the beholder.

This year’s Eastside Culture Crawl (ECC), happening Nov. 14–17 in open studios across the Eastside, is full of surprises and shines a spotlight on local talents, promoting “art for Everyone.”

Different life backgrounds and choice of eclectic material creations allow artists – such as Arnt Arntzen, Corinne Leroux, and Sei Campbell – to showcase their thrills of creative discovery and stress the deeper meaning to them when choosing to work with upcycled or locally sourced material.

Fragment of stories

Arntzen (Paneficio Studios, 800 Keefer St.) uses a lot of reclaimed wood and upcycled aeronautical pieces found on his treasure hunts. The fragments of metal and wood found in Vancouver allow his own artistic crawls to feel like he’s fishing for new inspirations, and stories to tell through his craft.

“Looking for inexpensive materials to build metal furniture, [I] went to the scrap yard where I found many unusual objects that informed my pieces,” the artist recalls. “I found my first aeronautical pieces like heli blades and propellers from a scrap yard near the airport.”

From his 1980s artistic beginnings in Los Angeles up to the present in Vancouver, Arntzen has created and told many stories through his work.

This year’s standout studio piece is “Adrift” – a challenging piece which forced the artist to make the best use of his problem-solving skills and his creativity. Made of reclaimed mahogany and salvaged marine hardware – including an aluminum fishing float and stainless-steel standing rigging – this unique hall table marries the rich mahogany wood to shiny aluminum and steel.

Arntzen developed new techniques and honed some boat building techniques to complete this work. But the challenge of working with those unique materials is always rewarding, according to the artist.

“I want [the public] to learn one of the most sustainable things you can do is to design and build objects that will last many generations and not become dated,” he says. “Because I use reclaimed materials they can continue to be recycled.”

He invites others to join in the thrills of upcycling, giving a new breath of life to materials carrying stories of the past.

Creations of joy

Leroux of Awesome Sauce Designs (MAKERLABS, 780 East Cordova St.), makes pieces of art using stained glass, and a lot of colours to bring joy to others. For her, the challenge of telling new stories from fragments makes working with stained glass fascinating.

“I like that it’s both technical and creative,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed puzzles. And it’s like you’re building a puzzle, but making the pieces.”

She adds that the limitations induced by this common material – glass– makes the creation more interesting. It is like pushing the mind outside of the box to adapt to what material is available, and appreciating one’s own creativity to make new works out of it.

“This can either be in the way that some of my work is cutesy and happy, and literally meant to bring a smile to your face,” she says. “Or it can be in the way that the colours of the glass reflect and dance in the light to make beautiful images.”

With a background in design and illustration, Leroux puts her experience, as well as her eye for colours and patterns in service of her passion. Getting into stained glass after taking a new class, she never looked back and now wants to share the bliss of this gratifying work with the rest of the city.

One of her recent works, on display during the 2024 Eastside Culture Crawl is also a tribute to the great city of Vancouver. “Majestic Leap” depicts an orca in front of the north shore mountains. The orca is pictured jumping in front of the mountains commonly referred to as “The Lions” on this colourful window panel.

“The glass used to depict those mountains was donated to me, and came out of St. Andrews Church in North Vancouver,” she explains. “I think it’s kind of neat how the glass depicting the north shore was returned to the north shore in a way.”

Newfound purpose

Campbell (432 Columbia Street) mends the past, giving it a newfound purpose, and sews together cultures and inspirations in wearable works of art. With close to ten years of experience designing and making clothing and accessories, Campbell found a new way to work on leather during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Around the same time I started getting a lot of my grandparents’ kimonos,” he says. “I couldn’t really do anything with them but wanted to celebrate them somehow.”

Cambell took to his sewing machine and decided to line all the leather jackets he had made for himself with the inherited kimono materials. This unexpected opportunity was the seed for his new venture: custom leatherwork.

“I’m a bit of a storyteller and that naturally translates to clothing that’s been preloved,” he adds. “How it ended up in your hands is an interesting thing to think about when you’re getting dressed.”

Campbell finds inspiration in both his daily life and his Japanese heritage, particularly the qualitative and simple methods of Japanese design. The designer wants to inspire other Vancouverites to pick up sewing again and find appreciation for this rewarding life skill and the work that comes into it.

“Chinatown has some cool places. I know we’re rough around the edges, but there’s cool stuff happening down here,” promises Campbell, noting how the community is also very supportive. “There’s a cool mix of merchants and people of all ages that bring a special vibrancy to the area.”

This is the 28th edition of the cultural event, and over 500 artists and designers will take part.

For more information on the Eastside Culture Crawl, the artists, the studios map and the hours visit: www.culturecrawl.ca