Member-only story
Treasure from Trash — The World of Upcycling Artists
Where everything old is not only new again, but better
Leaving his life-long Cleveland roots was just too much to ask. Facing a job-mandated move, Mark Langan abandoned his two-decades-long career in transportation. In 2003, he left behind the world of motor carriers, managing teams, and working with a Taiwanese-owned steamship company. Mark made the head-spinning decision to “switch gears” and “give art a shot.”
Afterall, Mark came from a family that included a watercolorist, an illustrator, and a cartoonist. He himself knew his way around a camera, could oil paint, and silk screen. He’d even been a competitive carver. So maybe it wasn’t such a surprise to have Mark look to art for his new career.
But no one could have predicted his chosen medium — cardboard boxes. Breaking down boxes one trash day, Mark became captivated with the creative potential held in the structure of corrugated cardboard. The pattern of the wavy flutes, sandwiched between flat heavy paper, inspired him with its “kinetic energy feel and patterns.” A world of possibilities for play beckoned. Mark thought he could “do something a little different.”
