While substitute teaching in a local school for an art teacher, I came across junk art. I had heard of it(1), but I had never really looked into it. Actually, elementary school art often involves items that are for recycling, like boxes, bottles, or packages. However, there is a difference  between using recycled objects for art projects, and junk art. In junk art, the object used is not disguised by colors, shapes, or textures. Pablo Picasso was the first well-known artist to include junk in one of his pictures, in fact, he stuck a piece of a chair onto a painting. Later, junk art was practiced and perfected by(2) Marcel Duchamp. As I looked around the art room where I was teaching, a red glow caught my eye. The color was coming from(3) a string of fairy lights that had been placed inside empty, red cartridges that had been used in a shot gun. Usually, these are just thrown away. However, someone must have had the idea of saving them for a creative reason. I think that the idea of using shot gun cartridges as a string of lights is delightful. Its use in art is so different from its original intention; it's a great contrast.

1. 'I had heard of it' and its variations can be used in conversation to increase the impression of your fluency.

a. I had heard of him, but I had never met him.

b. I had heard of the book, but I had never read it.

c. We had heard of them, but we had never met them.

2. To have something 'perfected by' a person.

a. My grandmother created the recipe, and my mother perfected it.

b. He came up with the idea, but you perfected it.

3. '....was coming from...' is used in this podcast to add a bit of description to the text, and is good to use in conversation.

a. The noise was coming from next door; I don't know what was going on.

b. There's a strange smell in the garage; it's coming from one of the storage boxes.

c. What beautiful music! Where is it coming from?

 

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