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Everything old turns new in her two hands

An East Lake woman epitomizes the old saying "One man's trash is another (wo)man's treasure" as she creates works of art from everyday throwaways.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published November 27, 2005

EAST LAKE - Maybe you didn't hear about it. On Nov. 15, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency celebrated its ninth annual "America Recycles Day."

Not much to celebrate, really.

The amount of waste each person generates has risen from 2.7 to 4.4 pounds per day in 35 years, reports the EPA. And most of that could have been recycled.

Only two things beat recycling: using less to start with and reusing what you have. But you don't need to tell Dorothy Boynton of East Lake about that.

An exhibit of her crafts made from things most people throw away is displayed on the second floor of the Oldsmar Public Library through Wednesday. She takes ingenuity to new levels by using raw materials that range from toilet paper rolls to neckties, dryer lint to newsprint. With string, flour, water and a little paint, she transforms trash into art.

"I really like this because it's made of things you would find in your house," said Oldsmar assistant reference librarian Ruth Staffa. "I think she's extremely imaginative."

Boynton's hope is that others will be inspired to share in the fun.

"There's no limit to what you can do," she said, "out of nothing!"

Born in 1929, Boynton, 76, was shaped by the Great Depression.

"I felt very rich," she said, "but we were very poor."

As a child in Plymouth, Ind., she remembers longing for a pack of colored clay she couldn't afford. But her creativity transcended a lack of store-bought clay.

Her father was a newspaper printer and he would bring home newsprint.

"I couldn't draw all that good, but there wasn't anything I couldn't cut using scissors," she said.

When her mother made pies, Boynton and her two sisters got the leftover dough. The sisters would bake theirs with sugar and cinnamon on top. Boynton considered hers clay and shaped it into things until it turned black.

As a young woman, she continued to explore inexpensive crafts. Eventually, she taught classes like "Glitter your garbage" at the YMCA and YWCA in South Bend, Ind.

In the 1960s and '70s, she worked for a craft store, demonstrating crafts to garden clubs and often teaching a class in Christmas crafts from around the world. She also made guest appearances on a television show in South Bend called Homemaker's Time. Once, she showed how to make earrings from dog biscuits.

* * *

Opening the door to her home in the Anchorage subdivision in East Lake, Boynton wears a pair of men's khakis someone gave her.

They fit, she said, and besides, she never turns anything down. Shiny red suspenders help to hold them up. Cutouts from men's ties flutter down the sideseams and three-dimensional paint on the pockets looks like embroidery.

Dorothy and Donald Boynton have been married for 52 years and have a son who comes down from South Bend each year for the winter.

The couple moved to Florida after Donald Boynton, also 76, retired in 1989 from managing shipping and receiving in a plant that made surface-to-air missiles. Glaucoma has taken most of his vision now, but he is still enthusiastic about his wife's creations.

"She does real good things with bread dough," he said. "She really has a talent for that."

In the living room, a row of Santas with bread dough faces and hands attest to her skill. She pushed dough through a grater to make beards, hair and eyebrows. The eyes are peppercorns. The bodies underneath the gowns are bleach bottles with some sand in them to make them stable. One Father Christmas wears a special gown she made from a patchwork of her husband's ties.

When she moved to Florida, she made an effort to use what Florida offers, and experiments with whatever comes her way. In almost every room, projects are in process and materials wait for her muse to strike.

"This is something I've been doing that's kind of crazy," she said, lifting up a group of faces she made from citrus peels. The dry skins have cutout places where the features would be and some are darkened with shoe polish.

"This one, of course, is a grapefruit," she said and smiled. "He's a character."

Look in any direction and her arts are evident: note cards printed with many techniques, some decorated with a cartoon she has cut out and saved. There also are papier-mache bowls, beads made from strips of rolled-up painted paper, tiny, decorated shopping bags that she leaves tips in, dolls, lapel pins and sculptures made by filling balloons with plaster of Paris and working the dough, then maybe carving or painting it.

"Did you tell her about melted crayons?" Donald Boynton asks. "I like that one."

She places aluminum foil, sometimes crinkled, in the bottom of an electric skillet. She heats it up and drops crayons on top or draws a crayon design, then presses paper into the melted wax.

* * *

With each mail delivery, junk mail replenishes her paper stock.

Every piece is an original and her ideas, like her materials, come from far and wide. Her favorite artist is the playful master of many media, Paul Klee. But she admires many others, including local artists. And she figures she's looked at the craft books in every Pinellas County library.

First, she reads the directions, even when she doesn't want to, then finds an easier and cheaper (often free) way to do it. Something or someone inspires her, and she makes it her own.

Her reward is a sense of accomplishment.

"I say to myself, "Well, this is just stupid, dumb stuff,"' she said. "But I have other people tell me that it's a little more artistic."

[Last modified November 28, 2005, 01:04:15]