Baltimore cyclist finds joy in collecting lost hubcaps and stringing them into art
BALTIMORE AP Cyclist Barnaby Wickham has collected more than lost hubcaps mostly on bike rides around Baltimore They have inspired a quest to turn litter into art including Christmas wreaths a giant fish and a large head of Snoopy It is a hobby that developed nearly two years ago from his love of cycling and the bliss of making something out of the junk he has collected I think it s sort of the excitement of the hunt for one thing Wickham noted I love to cycle I love Baltimore I love to go out in Baltimore and there s just enough hubcaps and other things like car grills to be stimulating but not so several that it s too easy Wickham says he can t quite explain it but one day while cycling in early he decided to bring home a lost hubcap Since then he has started stringing hubcaps he comes across to his backpack I keep track of them and I have a Google map he stated I pin locations where I find each of them Others in his society who have taken an interest in his projects let him know when they see hubcaps by the road Now Wickham keeps a list of them that he refers to as hubcaps in the wild He wants to do the collecting himself That is part of the enjoyment Wickham also gets a hand from his wife Kate who helps hold materials during construction and offers opinions I m just assistance company and occasionally the cautious person who says you can t drive on this road you can t bike on this road or whatever So I m just more kind of supporting his love of trying new things she mentioned Baltimore a center of quirky art It might seem like an odd pastime but Baltimore has been known to celebrate its quirky side The city is known for director John Waters whose offbeat films earned him the moniker of the Pope of Trash Baltimore is also home to the American Visionary Art Museum which is nationally recognized as a repository for the work of self-taught artists and intuitive art Wickham who works in marketing for a defense apparatus company stores his finds in his garage and works in his front yard He uses expanded metal as a framework with sheet metal with holes and wiring to hold the sheets in place He uses zip ties to link the hubcaps on the sheet metal It s all held together with zip ties he commented Hubcaps are filled with slots or holes and so it s easy to get a hold of them to hold them in place His works are big The head of Snoopy is feet meters tall and about feet meters wide He picks up hubcaps on his travels While the majority of the hubcaps he uses were discovered in Baltimore Wickham expands his range when he travels Visits to see his son at Kent State University have added a limited hubcaps with Ohio origins A business trip to Italy which included a bike tour in Rome yielded a find Wickham had to explain to his guide why he bothered to pick it up And I was like oh I collect these I m just going to take this back with me And I presented her a photo of the wreath and she was like Oh OK Whenever anyone hears about it and understands it they re onboard Wickham revealed Wickham donated two Christmas wreaths he made last year one to the city and another to a nonprofit Wickham declared the hobby has led to interactions with city residents On one ride a man who saw him pick up a hubcap insistently signaled for him to come over to him He demanded to let him know there was another hubcap nearby It was clear to him that I was collecting these things and all he craved to do was help to point one out for me And there s a lot of that Wickham declared It starts a lot of conversations and it s just something that people love to talk about he announced Source
