Lawrence Agnello

My art was inspired by an eight month trip around Africa in 1990. The African people are truly unforgettable. The poorer they are, the more resourceful they are. They use found, broken pieces of metal or wood or scrap material to create their tools, their clothes, and their home goods. I often saw children playing with toys they made from scraps of metal or wire. They play soccer with soccer balls made from bundles of cloth. And even the poorest people, who are struggling to survive, still have the need to create art. And again, they use whatever they can find. Many of their carved wooden masks contain rusty old screws or nails, old copper wire, or whatever else the artist could find.

This resourcefulness lead to my development of sculptures and mosaics made from broken machine parts, broken glass and stone, old wood, and found objects. Even these discarded pieces can still make beautiful objects. Lasting objects that could be from the past or future, old or new.