COLLEYVILLE, Texas — Between the blades of grass in Gregory Arth’s backyard, bits and pieces of circuit boards are everywhere.
The 62-year-old heads to a recycling plant in Watauga every few weeks to dig through our digital trash, bringing home various computer parts to make masterpieces.
“They seem to enjoy putting things aside for me,” Arth said. “I’ll come over and they’ll go, ‘Hey Greg yeah, we have this box for you.’”
From robots to skylines, to flags—anything you can think of—Arth recreates on a canvas using circuit boards and computer parts.
“It started in 1989, I was looking down at a circuit board and I thought that it looked like an aerial view of a city,” Arth said. “It’s such a unique idea, that it gets a lot of attention.”
It all starts in Arth’s backyard behind his workshop. He uses a wet saw to cut up and paint numerous computer parts that will fit best what he’s trying to convey on canvas.
“It’s like putting a puzzle piece together with different pieces and finding the right part to fill the right texture or the right look,” Arth said.
The reward comes when Arth takes his work to art shows, both locally and around America.
“As they walk up they kind of give that ‘Aha’ moment. I love the Aha moment,” Arth said. “Once they come up and start looking at it, they’re like, ‘Hey, Bill! Come over here it's circuit boards!'”
But Arth also gets a sweet financial reward too, his pieces usually sell anywhere between $3,000 and $15,000.
He recently sold a piece conveying the Earth for $18,000.
“It’s just another medium,” Arth said. “It’s like oil paint, or acrylic paint, or a collage. You know you’ve touched them when they’re bringing their friends over to look.”
“We call it trash to treasure.”
Arth will be at the Cottonwood Art Festival October 6 to 7 in Richardson.