Junk turns artsy in sculptor’s hand

Amiot said he loves startling people with his sometimes deliberately garish creations.

An assortment of auto lighting parts and chrome line the shelves of a storage unit offering sculptor Patrick Amiot a wide selection of parts for his artwork. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)

“They’ll see it, and then they’ll squint and look again he said. “Then they’ll go, ‘Oh my God, it’s just junk.’ But there’s no such thing as junk. There no such thing as obsolete materials. It’s all good.”

Originally a successful ceramic sculptor from Quebec, Canada, Amiot (pronounced “Ammy-oh”) settled with his wife and artistic partner, Brigitte Laurent, in Sebastopol in 1997.

When Amiot found he couldn’t sell his clay sculptures in his new hometown, he began making sculptures out of junk, which Laurent painted in bright, bold colors.

Cast-off farm implements and rusting propane tanks became towering figures of surfers and baseball players, soon taking over the front yards of eager neighbors up and down Florence Avenue near Amiot’s home. Now Amiot estimates he has some 200 sculptures scattered all over Sebastopol.

“Sebastopol welcomed this eccentricity. Anyplace else would have kicked me out of town,” Amiot said. “It’s all about the timing. When I started doing this, Sebastopol and California were open to the concept of celebrating art made out of recycled material.”

Now the concept has caught on elsewhere, and Amiot’s fame has spread.

“The rest of the world always catches up with California,” he said, “so all of the sudden, dealers back East, who are used to selling much more conservative stuff, are showing this type of work.”

To Amiot, the goal is not only rescuing discarded hot water tanks and applesauce jar lids from the trash heap, but also sparing the raw wood and metal he otherwise might have used up while creating his work.