Couple reuses items to make their art

ZANESVILLE – Upcycling familiar things into whimsical and functional art pieces for any home-sweet-home, Joe and Lisa Murphy of Box of Sugar are always creating new from old.

As the ArtCoz First Friday Artists of the Month for the art walk the pair re-imagine wood, repurpose furniture, lamps and artwork into something entirely different and new. Their gallery, located at Gallery G II at the Masonic Temple building at 38 N. Fourth St., will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. for the First Friday Art Walk.

As collaborators, the couple began in different areas, Joe explained.

“Lisa did a lot of clothing designs and we both had stores selling our stuff. I started doing some painting a long time ago. We got together and we really liked upcycling and reusing materials. We liked painting and rustic design and street art. We combined all that and put it into what we are doing now,” he said.

Both have a background in art so they thought it was a natural progression.

Asked if bringing their different backgrounds and views to a collaborative vision creates conflict for the couple, both shake their heads and smile.

“Like this fox,” Lisa said indicating a painting of a fox on a printed fabric canvas. “I have tons of fabric and I told him he should try painting something on it, something unexpected. I came home and, he knows I love foxes, there was this great painting of a fox.”

“We team up and work together on everything. One of us will say ‘here’s my idea’ and the other will add to it and we collaborate and design things together,” Joe added. “We both have very similar tastes. If we get stuck, we will work together and one of us will come up with a different way to do things or how to use things differently, but we have yet to have anything where we are at odds on anything.”

The couple is passionate about reusing and making fun new things out of older things.

“People are quick to throw things away that could have a new life and a new purpose,” Lisa said. “This desk was put out by a neighbor. I love spray painting old things to give them new color. That’s so much fun.”

Their current projects include rustic signs, wine racks and pallet shelving.

The cold weather has been a challenge for the couple to get to larger projects, but they have plans for when spring arrives.

“We do a lot of things for festivals like the Y-Bridge Arts Festival and Comfest in Columbus,” Joe said. “In addition to making things we like, we will do a lot of clothing design and other things that people can use.”

“It is people that you wouldn’t expect that fall in love with things,” Lisa said. “We’ll look and someone and think that they aren’t the kind of people who would like having dinosaurs on their walls. But those are the people who get what we were going for.”