Wire Portrait Sculptures

Make Together

Lonnie Holley makes majestic sculptures from everyday objects he finds traveling across the country. He takes things usually seen as “junk” and makes art from them, giving them new meaning. 

Check out this work titled Memorial at Friendship Church (2006).

• Follow the lines with your eyes. What do you see? 
• Can you make out any features of a face?
• What emotions do the faces have? 
• What did the artist use for hair?
• What other materials did he use?
• Where can you find these in your house?
• What does this artwork mean to you?
• What questions do you have about Lonnie’s art? 

Look around the house and yard and collect objects to make a sculpture of your face!

1. Go outside and grab some leaves, flowers, and twigs from the ground. Don’t rip plants from bushes or gardens!
2. Hunt around your house for found objects: beads, string, fabric, ribbon, feathers, pipe cleaners, etc. 
3. Grab a wire hanger from the closet. 
4. Bend the wire hanger to the profile of a face. Make sure the wire is bent securely to not poke you. 
5. Wrap around twigs, strings, rubber bands, and pipe cleaners as hair. 
6. Use rubber bands to tie leaves as the mouth and flowers as hair accessories!
7. Add other objects to your creation until you are happy with your portrait design. Not all portraits have to look just like faces. What does your portrait look like? What colors did you use? What objects stand out?
8. Go outside and hold your creation in the direction of the sun. Take a picture of your portrait’s shadow. How does the shadow look when compared to your portrait?
9. If you can, print the picture and hang it up where you can see it. 
10. Hang your found object portrait sculpture up on the wall for everyone to see!