Apparently, saw blade paintings go way back to the 1700s, around the same time folk art was popular on pieces of tin or other metal. It was a form of art related to, or even part of, something called tole painting. Tole painting took folk art back to its roots by taking place on tin and wooden utensils, household objects and furniture. This was real detailed stuff, transforming ordinary objects like utensils, coffee pots, tables, chairs, etc into small works of art. Rico Solinas is famous for applying this form of art to saw-blades (which we found to be particularly cool). His work is actually on display at the ASU Art Museum in Arizona. He has a collection called “100 Museums: Paintings of Buildings That Have Paintings Inside” which is made up of architectural portraits painted on old hand saws. It’s beautiful stuff and something to be enjoyed.
Solinas, an Oakland, California native started painting saw blades in the late 80s, beginning with trucks and service vehicles. The first series tipped its hat to the American work ethic, His latest saw blade paintings show off 102 paintings of photo-realistic scenes of the world’s museums, painted over a 13-year period.
We loved the way these old tools are used to display some extremely modern-looking buildings. It’s a pretty neat contrast that wasn’t lost on us.
