Some History
Recycled metal oil drum art was born in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, a town not far from the capital Port-au-Prince. Around mid-century, Georges Liautard, an ingenious blacksmith, used the metal from oil drums to fashion crosses for the local cemetery. In the 1950s, DeWitt Peters, an American artist who was working with Haitian artists, saw these crosses and encouraged Georges to create decorate art. From this collaboration, an art form was born.
The Process
Fifty-five gallon oil drums --just like the ones on the background of this page--are first cleaned, by burning out residue. Then using a lot of strength, they're flattened. Using the flattened drum a a canvas, an artist then traces an existing stencil--generally cut out of a used cardboard box--with chalk. Using a hammer and two or three sizes of chisels, the design is then cut. After that, the piece is polished with a wire brush and given a coat of clear lacquer and left to dry in the sun.
The videos below to show you parts of the process. The first video shows Jean Claude stenciling the "people peace sign" piece.
Recycled metal oil drum art was born in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, a town not far from the capital Port-au-Prince. Around mid-century, Georges Liautard, an ingenious blacksmith, used the metal from oil drums to fashion crosses for the local cemetery. In the 1950s, DeWitt Peters, an American artist who was working with Haitian artists, saw these crosses and encouraged Georges to create decorate art. From this collaboration, an art form was born.
The Process
Fifty-five gallon oil drums --just like the ones on the background of this page--are first cleaned, by burning out residue. Then using a lot of strength, they're flattened. Using the flattened drum a a canvas, an artist then traces an existing stencil--generally cut out of a used cardboard box--with chalk. Using a hammer and two or three sizes of chisels, the design is then cut. After that, the piece is polished with a wire brush and given a coat of clear lacquer and left to dry in the sun.
The videos below to show you parts of the process. The first video shows Jean Claude stenciling the "people peace sign" piece.
This next video shows Jonas using a hammer and chisel to begin to tweak out a design.
Finally, here's a young artist, Jean, polishing one of our almost finished "peace" pieces.
We work with many different artists in the metal art village in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. Below are pictures of several of the artists we work with frequently. There will be more to come.