Monday, December 29, 2008

The Beer Can House!

Yesterday, I spent my Sunday afternoon (Dec. 28) taking in two "hot spots" in Houston's expanding art world! Images from one of these places are worth sharing with my readers.

Last April I posted some pictures from Houston's annual Art Car Parade. This event is sponsored by an organization called "The Orange Show". Turns out T.O.S. recently purchased a Houston icon located near downtown called "The Beer Can House". This little bungalow got its name for reasons that should become obvious once you examine the pictures below. The building was originally a simple little home but after the owner, John Milkovisch, retired, the place took on a new appearance - to say the least! Have a look below ......

The Beer Can House is now covered with the shells of empty beer cans and the front porch and fence are adorned with many, many cans and parts of beer cans.

A close-up view of the fence out in front of the Beer Can House.

A close-up view of the siding which completely covers the house (except for the roof). The owner meticulously cut up beer cans, rolled out the beer can body into small strips of aluminum which he then nailed onto the exterior surface of his home.

The former owner - John Milkovisch -and his wife. Sadly, John passed away in 1988 but thanks to "The Orange Show" art organization, the home was purchased and preserved and is now open to the public an Saturdays and Sundays.

A quotation from the former owner and artistic creator of The Beer Can House.

If you have patience, you can zoom in or print out the above and read the complete history of The Beer Can House. FYI: There is NO CHARGE to enter and inspect the inside of this place.

Actually, my first stop for the day was at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Currently featured was an exhibit entitled "Hot Glass". On display were some absolutely amazing works of art made entirely out of glass. Sadly, the gallery does not hold the copyrights to the works of art in the gallery and hence I was unable to take any photographs and so I cannot share any images of the artwork on display. Then I went to The Beer Can House (above) where, thankfully, there were no restrictions on taking pictures!!

7 comments:

Ron said...

Now I've seen some pretty weird and interesting stuff thru my travels, but nothing as cool as this! Cheers!

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

re: Beer Can House
Somebody had way too much time on their hands.

Searching Soul said...

This is awesome!

I can imagine all those people who drank all those beers and forget about it in the morning. John Milkovisch really made a statement and left us a message that we can always create something worthwhile out of mundane things.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Liza said...

I'm so ashamed, I didn't know about the beer house. I will have to see it soon.

John said...

Wow! Mr Milkovisch must have drank lots of beer to have that much of beer cans to do all that!

Thanks for sharing this with us :)

PS# At least he didn't change his name to Beerkovisch, a version of Berkovich.

Anonymous said...

That is just awesome. I love creative people.

Anonymous said...

What was his total capital outlay in creating this work of art?