Artist Spotlight - Jessica Drenk

How can we turn a pencil like this into art?

No, I'm not talking about drawing!

I'm talking about Jessica Drenk's crazy awesome pencil sculptures!

It's so amazing to me when someone can take something as common as a pencil and turn it into an intricate, beautiful sculpture. 

According to her website:

In 2009, Drenk received an Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, funding the installation of Archaeologica at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona.  In 2006, Drenk was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her work has been pictured in Sculpture, Interior Design, andCurve magazines and seen in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the International Book Fair of Contemporary Creative Books in Marseilles, France, as well as galleries and art fairs across the United States. 

I love this picture she posted on her website, because it really gives a good look into the process of making her sculptures. You can see at the top that she starts with regular pencils and then sands them to create a beautiful form. It does look pretty messy though! I wonder how long it takes for her to get the graphite out of her hair. 

Really inspiring! I wonder what other common objects people have turned into beautiful forms.