Check out the video of TWOvital’s Dwayne Bass in partnership with Historic Macon Foundation’s Josh Rogers talking about our latest project in Macon, Georgia.  Bass, a Macon native and his Team will be creating a canine obstacle course and play areas with sculptures for dogs of all sizes to enjoy made from recycled and repurposed building materials for the Tyler’s Place Dog Park as part of the Knight Foundations’ 2010 Neighborhood Challenge.  A key objective for this project is to utilize waste materials found within a quarter mile radius of the dog park.  Discussions with the developers of the new Mercer University Bookstore/mixed use construction site have been very positive and we are very excited and proud to be a part of such a visionary revitalization program.

Click here to watch the video of Dwayne Bass and Josh Rogers

The Class of 2009 at South Carroll High School in Sykesville, Maryland used real ingenuity in gifting a lasting memento to their alma mater.  They commissioned TWOvital’s Bass to create a symbol for the Cavaliers’ new Fine Arts Building which is due to be completed in early August, 2010.  Bass arrived the first of June on the construction site in Sykesville, Maryland and began dumpster diving to retrieve materials to be used in the recycled sculpture.  Upon discovering Bass in dumpsters construction workers were overheard laughing and teasing.  As the scavenged sheet metal, rebar, and copper wire gave birth to the 12 foot sword; the crew was soon so engaged with the artist’s project they were regularly offering contributions left over from that day’s work.  Once school starts back in the Fall, Bass will speak to students about environmentally friendly art and it benefits.  Stay tuned to find out when the Fall Art Show will be held at the New Fine Arts Building.

“It was a pleasure having Dwayne create a piece of “green” art for South Carroll High School’s new fine arts addition. The sword he created from the construction scrap was perfect for our lobby. Dwayne provided us with a unique piece of art work that will look perfect in the fine art addition for years to come. Thank you Dwayne!

Eric A. King, Principal South Carroll High School

Special thanks to Hess Construction, Grimm & Parker Architects, Bob Porter Co. and the Carroll County Board of Education.

Click here to see The Making of The Sword part 1

Click here to see The Making of The Sword part 2

Washingtonian Magazine’s 2010 Green Award Winner, GREEN DMV, hosted their fundraising event called “GREEN NIGHT OUT” to support programs targeting environmental literacy and small disadvantaged businesses on July 13th located at the fabulous Longview Gallery on 9th Street in Washington, DC.
Dwayne Bass of TWOvital presented Van Jones with the inaugural “Green DMV’s Van Jones Award” that he created from leftover building materials from a local DC commercial build by Skanska.  Tenfold Fair Trade Collection’s owner, Martha Ehlman, sponsored Bass to create this environmentally friendly sculptural award which Telford Shepard accepted for his outstanding service.

Here are the images of some of the creations by TWOvital for the Williams Family in Georgia this past Winter.

I was camping a good bit over the past month in Maryland. I stay at a few places near the Bay and then along some rivers. I had a lot of fallen barn wood and then some wire and such from some commercial new construction.

One place I camped was Elk Neck State Park , there I decided to have a mini art show at my campsite.  I first pulled my truck up to the site and unloaded all of my gear and set up my site with tent and tables and work benches.  Several people walk by and stared at me, I even heard one say “What the heck is he doing, is he going to build something with that wood or burn it?” I just laughed to myself.

The next morning after some coffee by the fire, I started seeing all of the materials I had in front of me and began to create.  I made some progress on several different ideas but had not really nailed down anything complete by dinner time.  So I had all of these random pieces of parts of sculpture ideas laid out by the trail.  Lots of people stared and no one would say anything afraid they would offend the artist I guess.

The next day I began working and by that time certain neighbor campers and I had struck up conversations and they were curious to see what I was going to create.  After I finished the first complete piece I placed it out by the trail a little further from where I was working to see if it would attract some visitors, and it did, KIDS.

Then the conversations started a lot more with these elementary children and teenagers.  All asking why I was doing this and who hired me what was I making.  One kid even asked if I was trying to make some money for the campsite fees, haha.  I of course said, “Yes, tell your parents to come buy some art!!”  After explaining my process of reclaiming building materials for my art and telling them that I climb in dumpsters at construction sites, they thought I was very cool.

I keep making pieces as the day went on and more and more walked by and questioned me.  It was fun to see the guys that walked by at first with the weird stares to now see them with smiling and intrigued looks on their faces seeing my new creations.

Sunday came and the weekend was coming to a close and campers started exiting one site at a time, all driving by waving and some even asking for business cards.  I really felt special when this one certain couple came by from Delaware and asked how much I was charging for the sculpture.  I told and then gave them a TWOvital card, the lady looks at the card and says, “Hey, your that guy from Atlanta right!!”  I said “Holy Cow, how do you know that?

She said “I read about you before…..”  Made my weekend!!!!!!!!!

Here are some images of the experience