REUSE ART GALLERY
What Is The Reuse Gallery?
Join us in celebrating creative reuse by submitting your upcycled art to our community gallery! Help inspire others, share your story of transformation, and be part of a movement that reimagines waste as art in Austin’s thriving creative ecosystem.
Abraham Neiswinter
Reuse Rocket Ship, 2025
My name is Abraham Neiswinter. I am a Designer and Musician. I enjoy constantly challenging myself by experimenting with new ways of creating art. I mainly create music, but drawing and prop making are things I have been exploring recently.
Materials Used: Pen caps, aluminum cans, game pieces, hot glue, cardboard tubes, foil paper, wires, cork, and spray paint
Alisa Pronovost
Pine Tree, 2020
Making helps to keep one sane, and I have been using it as a life tool since birth. And in the rural Maine hippy household I grew up in, reuse was the name of the game. Creative reuse in practice gives me so many treasures. I learned macrame during the pandemic, and found it very meditative and soothing. It also allowed me to incorporate some of the many beads & trinkets I have collected.
Materials Used: Cord & beads from ACR. Driftwood from Maine.
Careen Vaughn
Seagull in Port Aransas, 2025; Bittern Perches on Lady Bird Lake, 2025
My first love is drawing, then I fell in love with printmaking and then I was introduced to textiles. My artwork has definitely evolved from drawing on paper to multiple mediums combined with embellishments. I love using reuse materials as it appeals to me as totally unique since it not a supply that is trending and in mass quantities at a box store as well as I like the challenge of limitation of size, color and availability. Reuse is also in my family tradition since I grew up with thrifting, garage sales and scraping from discard. Besides creating, I enjoy family time, socializing and exercise. I also have a creative job as a decorative painter/ faux finisher!
Materials Used: Fabric samples, fabric scraps, thread, paint tea stain, fabric markers and beads.
Clint Cross
He broke my heart, 2017
For years, a mixed media piece I created—featuring clowns crafted from a recycled Apple computer box—hung proudly at Top Drawer as a staple of their collection. It wasn’t for sale. Knowing it was on display, donated from the heart, meant the world to me. Even as they eventually had to relocate, the fact that it held a place of honor for so long continues to inspire me.
This piece was inspired by my marriage that is now over. He got me the musical mechanical piece as a gift. He broke my heart and that is the title of this piece.
I’m a self-taught mixed media artist whose journey began in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has flourished in the vibrant community of Austin, Texas. Born in Tulsa, my early experiences in the diverse cultural landscape of my hometown laid the foundation for my artistic exploration. My work is a testament to my ability to blend various materials and techniques, creating compelling pieces that resonate with viewers on multiple levels.
Materials Used: Vintage music box mechanism. Recycled card stock. Pastels. Colored pencils. Ink, Glue. Used frame.
Corrine Pierce
Fabric Dino, 2025
Howdy! I thought I’d just throw this idea in the ring. I made this dinosaur for my daughter out of fabric that I had with a fabric panel I got from ACR. I thought it would be fun to make another with completely reused materials- fabric from ACR and whatever stuffing you may have available (I think even plastic bags for part of it would work.) Staff members could even pick out which fabric they’d like for their little Dino mascot! I’d be happy to donate it and it can live in the fabric section! The pattern is still in tact too, so other people could make the same dinosaur. I know this isn’t quite the prompt, but thought it was a fun idea!
Materials Used: Will use fabric from ACR and used pillow stuffing
Gabrielle Clemente
Untitled (Study For Can You Confirm The Last Four Of Your Social For Me?), 2025
My work can be primarily described as archival. Through my practice, I am documenting personal history and my family's lived experiences. Flattening years of documentation and conversations into one drawing, a photograph. I aim to create an experience with my work that breaks down a traditional gallery space, an environment entrenched in academia and largely inaccessible to many. My work isn't intended to be read as a series of paintings on a wall. My body of work is a space, a memory preserved in a room.
Materials Used: Envelopes
Kenneth Zeigler
Buzzing Bee, 2025
I first made a dragon fly for my sister and everyone loved it so I made more and started to sell them then a customer was a bee keeper and asked if I could make a bumblebee. I make flowers to now from ceiling fan blades. I reuse materials to keep them out of the dump. Put hard wood handles on knives and rehandle old knives too.
Materials Used: Ceiling fan blades, bed post, and zip ties
Lynn Stepanenko
Time is Now, 2017
This application helped me recommit to using found objects and reclaimed materials in my work - thank you. I’m a self-taught painter who took up abstract painting in Brooklyn, NY in 2017. My style is abstract expressionism, and a painter whose style I admire is Willem de Kooning. I like to apply paint with materials other than standard paintbrushes, often with kitchen utensils.
Melissa Bonwell
Autumn Spoons, 2023
Growing up in school was always more for social interaction and art. I may have skipped a lot of academic classes, but never art class. That was my escape and art still is on a daily basis. It is the only thing that quiets my constant wandering mind. I always wanted to draw, but taking a couple painting classes at ACC changed that medium quickly. The way the paint glides and blends is just is so relaxing and there is a moment when you know you hit that mark when the noise just stops and it's you and the paint. And you have to have music....always! At 53 years old, I now have an full upstairs bonus room that is just mine to go to "escape". If only it had concrete floors!! The highlight for me is last year I actually was honored to get to paint a manhole cover portal along our park walkways in my new small town of Taylor. First time to put myself out there. It was simple, colorful, whimsical, happy, cheerful, and all me.
Materials Used: Wooden spoons, paint, hot glue, mod podge, construction paper, buttons, beads, ribbon, strand of bat lights, halloween glow-in-the dark spider webbing, and misc small trinkets/items all displayed in planter.
Melissa Rothrock
Fantasia Inspired Fairies And Mushrooms, 2024-2025
Melissa is a local Austin-based reuse artist whose creative practice centers on transforming discarded materials into imaginative, thought-provoking works of art. Specializing in papier-mâché sculpture and mixed media, she breathes new life into everyday items that would otherwise end up in the landfill—such as wire hangers, plastic packaging, broken umbrellas, and cardboard. She also revitalizes old, painted canvases by repurposing them as fresh surfaces for new creations.
Materials Used: Plastic food packaging, wire clothing hangers, newspapers, masking tape, a broken umbrella for the mushroom head
Mikie Taylor
1, 2, 3, 4, 2024
In 2020, I needed a new hobby and came across Bargello needlepoint. I was hooked right away! I began stitching for hours every day. I eventually quit using patterns (I now make it up as I go) and began to experiment with different fibers and types on canvas. I love using second hand materials because it provides a limit I can work inside of, and I am able to get more variety and find things I wouldn't normally choose myself. I also use secondhand and discarded photo frames for finishing, which saves me money and gives the art more personality. I really enjoy weaving on my rigid heddle loom and do other crafts here and there. I also love to hike and travel.
Materials Used: 10-count plastic canvas, secondhand yarn, secondhand frame
Preeti Agrawal
Heart Of Texas, 2020
Preeti Agrawal is an enthusiastic Austin-based watercolor artist, an avid crafter, and a social media blogger. While she enjoys painting a variety of subjects, her passion lies in depicting antique objects, particularly doors from different times and places. For Preeti, these doors are not just entrances to buildings but represent the physical embodiment of diverse people, times, andplaces. Each door, in her view, has its own personality and history, and through her paintings, shefeels she is able to unlock their world and pay homage to their lives and histories.In addition to doors, Preeti also finds joy in creating Madhubani paintings – an ancient style of folk art from India. The bright and colorful palette of Madhubani art not only appeals to her aesthetic sensibilities but also helps her stay connected to her Indian roots and heritage.
When not engaged in painting, Preeti indulges in sewing, crafting with crepe paper and wood, and upcycling old items into new creations. She believes that in recent times, the value of handmade goods has diminished, and she is dedicated to reviving the art of handcrafting. This commitment led her to start a craft blog five years ago, where she shares DIY tutorials on crafts that anyone can undertake.
Materials Used: Used wine corks, fallen twigs, found pennies, sand plywood.
Seespriya Jakowlew-Dahlhaus
Sewing New Seeds, 2024
I'm a graphic designer and fiber artist inspired by the colors and textures of the materials I work with. I discovered creative reuse in 2020 and it completely changed my artistic practice and my career trajectory, allowing me to see the value and potential in all objects and pushing my creativity into new realms, all while helping to limit my environmental impact. Now, I use reuse materials in nearly every piece I make and am thrilled to be able to create new things from old things and continue the lifecycle of these otherwise unremarkable objects.
Materials Used: Cotton fabric, linen fabric, eco-dyed cotton ribbon, rick rack, lace trim, glass beads, buttons and butterflies, felt, metal washers and screws, ribbon flowers, embroidery thread, bamboo embroidery hoop.
Vernon Berger
Camera, 2024
Volunteering at ACR is a true delight to see so many possibilities. I like photography and I like and play around with clocks. I have a lot of these parts. It just seemed like a good fit.
I was given the opportunity to be creative and observe. I got a BFA in college and a career in graphics/advertising. I grew up having to fix something if it broke, so I always see if something can be repaired. Also, reuse and recycling need to be a part of our environment. There’s beauty and art in our surroundings and I enjoy and try to capture the beauty.
Materials Used: Wood, metal, plastic, stone