From Grocery Cart to Crafted Art

Sturdy, clanking, and common — these are words that describe your typical grocery cart, but when it comes to artist Crystal Schenk’s stained glass sculpture, the words fragile, beautiful, and extraordinary are more like it.

Of all things to adorn with stained glass, why a grocery cart? “I like to work with materials that have their own built-in significance and histories,” says Schenk, who remodels homes part time. She was inspired on the job, in upscale houses using high-end materials including stained glass, and then returning home, where “homeless people walk

through the neighborhoods with shopping carts, collecting cans and bottles to return for deposit money.” The contrast between these two “lifestyles” made a lasting impression on Schenk.

A 30-year-old MFA student at Portland State University, Schenk spent three months on the fully functional cart, which she calls Have and Have Not. “I really enjoyed taking a commonplace object that is often overlooked, and turning it into something extraordinary that couldn’t be ignored.”

Extraordinary indeed. —Carla Sinclair