This article was previously published on EloraFergusToday.
FERGUS – A Fergus resident’s colourful upcycled art is soaring to new heights, but Graeme Chalmers is mostly just having fun with it.
Chalmers, an experienced artist, has been building birdhouses, but not just your average wooden box – ones splashed with bright colours and using upcycled items like chess pieces, checkers, salt and pepper shakers, and spoon racks.
He’s exhibited his work locally at Elora Centre for the Arts or in the window of an Elora lawyer's office but recently opened his show in Southampton at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre which runs until the end of April.
Originally from New Zealand, when Chalmers first moved to Fergus he said he began by painting the local landscape and what was happening to it like the loss of farms or things closing down, but decided to move on to less “heavy things.”
“I didn’t want to do more of that and I just wanted to have fun with art so that’s what led me to making birdhouses using bright colours, going up to my studio spending the day and enjoying it rather than sort of worrying about whether I was making sense or not with the painting,” Chalmers said.
He became inspired to use upcycled items by joining his wife Millie, a quilter and fibre artist, at the thrift store when she was looking for old fabrics or clothes to cut up.
“I sort of started to go with her and think, you know, I’m bored – what will I do?” Chalmers said. “I started to look for things like old chess sets and candlestick holders and the wooden sorts of things that I use. ... Once people knew I was doing that, people started to give me gifts when they went to thrift stores.”
While the birdhouses are decorative and used that way by some, Chalmers said they are functional.
“They have little stairway things inside so that the fledgling ones can get out, you can take the bottom off to clean them out after their season,” Chalmers said.
Chalmers said he’s looking forward to seeing the guest book at the Bruce County Museum after his birdhouses have been there for a few months.
He’s nearly cleaned out of all birdhouses at the moment but plans to get back to work on them after Christmas.
