• Old satellite dishes and license plates inspire whimsical designs

By Rita Cook     

East Dallas resident Cynthia Daniel says she started out creating her art with used metal because it was less expensive than buying new metal, but now it is her material of choice.  

“That was the start and now it is my preference to repurpose metal,” she said, adding she recycles just about anything that is metal for her art projects.

(Photos: All art and images (c) Cynthia Daniel)

From discarded satellite dishes to a variety of old wheelbarrows and tools, the list goes on to any metal that a magnet will stick to. From that, she says her art is then turned into an array of wall hangings and outdoor items for the home.  

Her most popular items include the discarded satellite dishes that become flowers. She also says that customers can’t seem to get enough of her shovel birds and license plate butterflies either.

“These items are definitely hard to keep in stock,”  she said. 
 

At her home near White Rock Lake, her yard giraffes also garner a lot of comments.

Daniel says she believes she stands out as a recycle artist because of the fact that she sees art in objects that other people consider junk and "throw out for bulk trash." Over the years, this has certainly turned into a lucrative business too. She now sells her work anywhere from $20 to thousands of dollars.

Since turning to sculpture in 2005, she has found herself coming up with a bevy of ideas -- all being inspired by the metal which seems to talk to her.

“My ideas come from the found metal itself,” she explains. “I study the metal off and on and eventually I know what it's next life will be.”  

She then transforms the piece, often into larger than life objects that she says are sometimes difficult to move when completed. 

“My major challenge is transporting large sculptures,” she explains. “When I visualize a piece, I must take into account how it will be created in parts to be re-assembled later onsite.”

Daniel added that her work is also inspired by nature. Eco-friendly in her studio, she is equally green at home by recycling, reading books and news online and being water wise with her yard plantings. 

You can see her work in person when she participates in the White Rock Artists Studio Tour, which will be held Oct. 12-13.

For more information about Daniel and her art, visit www.cmdaniel.com or email cyndaniel@hotmail.com.

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Rita Cook is an award winning journalist who writes or has written for the Dallas Morning News, Focus Daily News, Waxahachie Daily Light, Dreamscapes Travel Magazine, Porthole, Core Media, Fort Worth Star Telegram and many other publications in Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago.  With five books published, her latest release is “A Brief History of Fort Worth” published by History Press.  You can contact her at rcook13@earthlink.net