This “green” artist has a rainbow palette.
An eco-conscious Bay Ridge homeowner has transformed her garden into an outdoor art gallery by lining her yard with thousands of colorful, recycled bottle caps. Artist Julia Im hopes her collection will encourage onlookers to find creative ends for seemingly useless junk.
“We need to appreciate everything in our daily lives,” said Im. “I want people to reuse things in a thoughtful and beautiful way. It’s not just recycling — it’s turning trash into treasure.”
The creative conservationist began sprinkling drink tops in her front-yard flower beds on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 76th Street in 2005. The idea to upcycle the lids struck when Im was teaching a ceramics class to New Jersey grade-schoolers. After one session, students left the room littered with bottle caps and trash, and Im put her thinking cap on and came up with an idea, she said.
“I thought, ‘Here is an opportunity to make them recognize that small things are important — to show them that they can take creative responsibility for the little things,’ ” Im said.
Since then, Im has emphasized to her students the importance of reusing everyday materials and points to her bottle cap abode as an example. Her collection has grown to more than 10,000 lids from at least 25 different countries, she said.
Im deemed her project complete in 2008, but it continues to swell with drink covers of various colors, shapes, and sizes. And she is so familiar with her creation that she notices when people contribute their own caps — it is something she actually encourages.
“I want to share my philosophy, so I tell people to add their caps,” she said. “I think it’s great when people do, it’s for everyone.”
Im is currently developing recycled art workshops for pre-K students that she hopes to host in Bay Ridge.
