Martin Sanchez's found-object house
Folk artist Martin Sanchez transformed almost an entire city block in Riverside, California into an art installation/house/chapel built from, and filled with, found materials, curiosities, and oddities. Seen here is the exterior of the chapel, with beer soda bottle "stained" glass, and the interior of the sanctuary. Marlow Harris has plenty of exterior and interior photos at Unusual Life, a terrific blog of "unusual homes, amazing architecture, and strange places." Link (Thanks, Kirsten Anderson!)
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Folk artist Martin Sanchez transformed almost an entire city blog in Riverside, California into an art installation/house/chapel
Haha - you typed "an entire city blog". I think you might need some offline time!
Cheers
Why do the people who do these things tend to be religious? Just once, I'd like to see a huge junk art piece like this not have to do with Jesus.
I think it takes a certain dedication that might be described as religious fervor to undertake, much less complete, a project of this type on this scale..
Amphetamine users and paranoid schizophrenics do this sort of thing all the time...
Gnosis (#2), good call. "Step away from the blog, sir."
Phasor, it's not exactly a paranoid schizophrenia or amphetamine thing. Some call it a mania. Others classify it as a variety of outsider art.
I don't think that there's really much of a link between religion and these kinds of structures. The first example of a similar structure that springs to my mind is Watts Towers, which doesn't have any particularly religious significance, and the second is Carhenge, which may point in a tongue-in-cheek way to a religious monument, but definitely was not driven by religion.
On the other hand, my favorite junk art experience of all time was the 24 Hour Church of Elvis in Portland (alas now defunct), so maybe there's something to this religious angle after all.