On Saturday, Jan. 27, renowned, local, self-taught artists Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent opened their doors to a small group of locals and gave them an hour-long tour of the Florence Avenue home and studio where they together make “junk” sculpture art. The tour was a joint endeavor between the couple and Chimera Arts and Maker Space. The experience was nothing short of delightful, and the extraordinary sculpture/junk art displayed in the couple’s backyard was superseded by the wider array of paintings, paper and clay art, and signs and sculptures found within the house.
The next tour is scheduled for March 2 at 7 pm. Sign up here. The tour costs $95 and is a fundraiser for Chimera.
Patrick Amiot, local “junk” artist extraordinaire, greets the tour group and explains how he recycles scrap metal to make the signs and sculptures he’s renowned for. Canadians by birth, he and his wife, fellow artist Brigitte Laurent, arrived in Sebastopol in 1997.
One of many sculptures found on site, the Mandalorian greets visitors in the couple’s backyard.
Strewn with a multitude of welded scrap-art signs and sculptures, the Florence Avenue backyard has the whimsical, cartoonish ambience of a child’s imagined junkyard paradise. Patrick builds the art and Brigitte paints it.
One of Patrick’s many creative pastimes is rebuilding old business signs. With new lights and paint, they take on lives of their own.
Patrick spent many years filling his junkyard on Hwy 116 to capacity with scavenged scrap metal. He now has an endless supply to choose from when building his whimsical sculptures.
The tour group takes in the grand, majestic clutter of Patrick’s backyard workshop, where cutting, fitting, welding and painting take place, and sculptures are brought to life.
A completed Jerry Garcia sculpture, intricately detailed and painted, adorns a workshop shelf. Sculpture size dictates neither effort or cost—all of Patrick and Brigitte’s art requires time, effort and exacting attention to detail.
Even the outdoor furniture in the couple’s backyard is, unsurprisingly, made from an amalgam of repurposed scrap and junk. Chairs include visible elements of truck grills, wheelbarrows, theater seats—and even snowmobile skis.
It is difficult to tell which art is for sale in Patrick and Brigitte’s backyard, and which is intended for their personal use. But it never hurts to ask, and at least one member of the tour group inquired about a sculpture they were interested in.
Brigitte and Patrick’s children caught the art bug, too. Their daughter Mathilde’s whimsical monster paintings can be found throughout the house.
Brigitte Laurent pauses in her magical kitchen. She painted both images on the wooden floor.
One of Brigitte’s stunningly vibrant floor paintings. Sometimes she switches things up and replaces them.
Brigitte Laurent and one of her many beautiful paintings—in this case a moon tapestry that serves as a curtain.
No part of the couple’s Florence Avenue house is devoid of creative whimsy. Even the bedroom is an art gallery, with a bed made out of car parts, an antique gas pump that serves as the dresser, and paintings and knick-knacks adorning the walls.
The bedroom’s bookshelf, accented by mismatched walls and any number of art pieces.
A gallery of daughter Mathilde’s delightful monster paintings adorn the bedroom wall.
Patrick Amiot, in the blue shirt on the left, regales the tour group in his living room. Each piece of artwork has history behind it, and many tell complete stories of their own.
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Gteat article!
Love it!