”What are these things that I make? I usually refer to them as lamps, but I have to show people pictures so they`ll understand.”
Chet Geiselman is referring to the delightful anthropomorphic constructions that he assembles from old cameras, tea cups, radios and clocks. Geiselman had the idea for his creations, fittingly enough, in a classic light-bulb-going-off-over-the-head epiphany.
”For years, I had been collecting these little Brownie cameras,” he says, ”but I never knew why. I guess I liked the shape. Then one day, as I was driving home from a trip, it just popped into my head: `I know what I can do-I`ll make lamps out of this old stuff.` ”
In 1987, while earning a master of fine arts degree in metals at Southern Illinois University, Geiselman began welding and bolting together such fancifully titled pieces as ”Mr. Pepperoni,” ”The Gambler” and ”Mr. Duoflex Takes in Another Stray.”
Geiselman, 31, continues to haunt garage sales in and around his hometown of Elberfeld, Ind., where he lives with his wife, Anita Powell, a ceramicist. ”I have just piles of stuff around me; a lot of times, that`s what gets me started on a new lamp.”
His work is available at Masterworks Gallery, 1874 Sheridan Rd., Highland Park (708-432-2787) and at the North Halsted Market Days next weekend.