Artist Marty Molinari’s gorgeous folksy chairs might inspire you to try upcycling
Talk about a win-win situation.
Upcycling is all the rage these days. Imagine taking something that’s been forgotten, giving it a little TLC (maybe even a fresh coat of paint), and turning it into something not just useful again, but even more stunning than it was before.
Sure, upcycling is all about design and sustainability, but in the right hands, it can also become a true work of art.
Enter Marty Molinari, a talented Italian artist and illustrator living in Carrigaline, who’s turning salvaged chairs into stunning, vibrant pieces of art.
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“I recently moved to a new home with my partner and neither of us liked the chairs we had in the previous house, so I started looking to see what was available secondhand,” Molinari told Yay Cork.
“I found a few people getting rid of chairs that had small damages, most of them old countryside kitchen chairs. I found them beautiful and I got two of them for free. They were badly chewed by a puppy, so it was a challenge. But they came out nice and I felt like I have done a very good action for the environment.”
Using bright colours along with simple shapes, patterns, and repetition, Molinari’s style orientates towards folk art:
“I like to say that I draw like a child,” she laughs, “although I still have a long way to go, to really go back to that spontaneity. In some way, it is taken away from us with formal education.”
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Molinari explains that her chairs — which range in price from €100-€150 — are a way of giving new life and meaning to an object that is essential in our everyday life.
“Imagine a house without chairs. It doesn’t exist,” she says. “And so, to fix them, paint them, and decorate them is like I am giving the body that will rest on that chair an exciting and cosy place.
“Many times we think something is gone — whether it’s broken or we don’t like it anymore — and I get that, it happens to me too. But most of the time what these objects need is just a new life, paint, and imagination.”
