Remember the Three "R"s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

On America Recycle Day we feature an artwork made from found objects, Bottlecap Figure with Mirror.

Chicago artist, Mr. Imagination (Gregory Womack), has a knack for using cast-off materials. "Mr. I," as friends call him, explains his fascination with recycling materials:

"I like to make my art out of things I've found, … because they're there and they're free. When I'm walking through the alleys and on the streets, my eyes are always moving like a radar, looking for anything that I might be able to use. Sometimes it's like these things call out to me so that I'll notice them, or something will just appear in front of me."

Source: Tom Patterson. "Manifesting the World of Mr. Imagination," Reclamation and Transformation: Three Self-Taught Chicago Artists (Evanston, Ill.: Meridian Printing for the Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1994).

Pictured: Mr. Imagination, born 1948, Bottlecap Figure with Mirror, 1991, bottlecaps and mirror on wood, 59 3/4 x 24 x 11 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.