Joe Dragt

Arizona artist Joe Dragt is recycling old technology with a creative twist. His on-going circuit board series started in 2011, when his full-time job was about to send more than thirty old computers to a local company for recycling. A seasoned professional graphic and web designer, as well as a technology geek at heart, Joe is familiar with the inner-workings of computers. “Seeing the stack of old computers, the idea just struck me…the motherboards can make for a really neat canvas. The complexity and patterns of all the circuits could make for stunning backgrounds. I asked if I could take one computer home for a trial run, and it just blossomed from there.” Joe recycles 100% of the old computers. He meticulously takes out every screw and separates pieces into categories such as circuit boards, scrap metal, plastic, and any other eye- catching parts, and then plans accordingly. He sends the plastics to standard recycling, the metal to a scrap metal recycling plant for pocket change to purchase more oil paints, and he saves the motherboards for “canvases.” He uses the parts he considers “cool looking” to create sculptures. As for all the miscellaneous parts stripped from the back of the circuit boards that may possibly contain harmful elements for landfills, Joe takes those to a proper computer recycling company in Phoenix. This is not the first time Joe Dragt has used alternative canvases. In 2010 he started a wooden hand saw series, and in 2011, he began dabbling with painted vinyl records. When asked why he only has two saws in his series he responded, “I guess I am a little A.D.D. with my art. Ideas hit me all the time. Sometimes they hit the back burner, and sometimes everything gets dropped and I start something new. That is how the circuit board series has started for me. At any given time, I probably have six or seven art pieces in progress.” Joe says that his alternative canvas movement will be on-going. Not only is he saving items from the landfills, he says that in the current economic crisis, “it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than going out and buying a new traditional canvas to work on.” Please check out his artwork at: www.tomorrowandbeyond.com/