Toast of the town: Technician turns toasters into art

PHIL DWYER - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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For Eric Brown, the humble toaster is much more than a means for browning bread slices and bagels: it's his passion and medium of creative expression.The electronics technician collects old toasters and turns them into works of art, displaying them in the Toaster Museum in the Dreamspace Studios in downtown Bellingham.

The Toaster Museum is open during the monthly Gallery Walks and by appointment.

"I've been here about three or four years now. It seems to be a fun place for people to stop. It's just an unusual place. I put up my collection of toasters as a source for my art. I like the old technology. I like the curves of the old toasters. I like the care they put into them. So I'd like to make them into something further and make a lamp or an object of art out of it.

PHILIP A. DWYER | THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Toaster Museum

"When people ask me my medium, I do tell them toasters. My legacy, I hope, will be the toasters that I turn into art. I grew up with a nice chrome one. I just do like the curves and the chrome. It's technology that seems to fit the human situation. Its the chrome and the electricity. And the curves. My art isn't so much electronic as it is electric.

"Last I tried to count, there was 225. I started collecting them at Value Village and Good Will. In the early days I was a little anxious about destroying a working toaster to make something else. I think I am over that. And then I got on E-bay and that grew my collection easily by twice. I was actually in England once and brought back a British toaster.

"This Toastalater is great. It walks the toast through from one side to another and just drops out. The one closest to my heart is the one I grew up with. The Sunbeam T-9. Because that is the real classic. It seems like all the old stuff is nicer then what they do today. More class. There is a mechanical esthetic to the old toasters. "The best response I;ve had was once a woman just stuck her head in the door and saw the toaster oven with a toaster inside cooking. (She) laughed and went down the hall laughing. A good laugh, I appreciate."

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POSTED: Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008

Toast of the town: Technician turns toasters into art

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