Art and music go hand-in-hand, so it only seems appropriate that art and music can join together in more ways than one.
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Mount Franklin artist Nick Carpenter has merged the two for a unique exhibition of his works which is scheduled to run out of the Wildwood Instruments Workshop next month.
The works combine Carpenter's love of making musical instruments and a recent passion of turning instruments - no longer used by their owners - into art of their own.
"The instruments are an art form in themselves," he said.
"I've been an instrument-maker for 30 years, but I guess a lot of these creations have come from the dark recesses of my mind, through all my wild and crazy thoughts.
"I've been doing this as an art form for about 18 months now.
"I use a whole range of different things such as sculpturing old instruments and making creations that have never been seen before."
"I use a a lot of guitars, ukuleles are handy because of their size, I've got recorders, clarinets, bass guitars and other things that don't even have names yet."
WHAT ELSE - OTHER THAN CORONAVIRUS - THAT IS IN THE NEWS
Carpenter said it was a way of stopping old instruments - particularly pianos - being placed in landfill.
"This is my first public exhibition and I've got about 40 pieces all on show, and all available for purchase," he said.
"The only other showing was the Piano Transformation Challenge (held in October and November last year).
"Over 2000 pianos get thrown out every year, In eight years, there's enough to fill the MCG that goes into landfill.
"The brief was use piano parts to create something new.
"My side of things was that I created a horse out of a frame and other parts, the other piece was a 'piano guitar', a very large guitar reaching 1.7m high. I was fortunate enough to win two categories."
The exhibition is scheduled to be held at the Wildwood Instruments workshop, the very space where three creations have come to life.
Carpenter said he encouraged anyone looking to support local artists and businesses to attend - government regulations permitting - and to also visit the region over the Easter weekend.
At this stage, Nick Carpenter's Instrumentation is at 11 Phillips Road Mount Franklin from April 10-19.
Importantly at this time due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibition will also be available to be viewed online at wildwoodinstruments.com.au
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