To me, art is about experimentation. Playing with materials and pushing the limits of what your mind can dream up is an adventure worth having. If you find yourself, as an artist, stuck in a creative rut then set your paint brush aside and look around for materials to experiment with. I even made an outdoor installment to cover a TV box on our deck.
Look how cool it turned out!
The past two years here are just a few materials I have enjoyed using:
Plastic bottle caps
Aluminum can tabs
Plastic bags
Computer keyboard keys
Wires, both encased and stripped
Self-drying clay
Tea leaves and tea bags to make pigments
Branches and pine fronds
Dirt and sand
Floeteral