Man Takes Recycling to Artistic High

CREST HAVEN — Some artists work in oil and some work in clay. But John Simpson has taken recycling to new heights – he works in trash.
The 76-year-old artist creates elaborately detailed model airplanes from cast off aluminum cans, Popsicle sticks, and any other medium he can find. But finding items from which to create is part of the challenge for him because Simpson is a resident at the Crest Haven Nursing Home.
His room is filled with finely crafted replicas of World War I German biplanes as well as more modern propeller planes. “I make them in the morning, after lunch, and at night,” he said. “It kills time.”
Some of his planes are wooden. By using bamboo skewers and Popsicle sticks from the home’s kitchen, Simpson creates the skeleton of the plane. Then, using paper wipes, he painstakingly applies the outer “skin.”
“I get the bamboo and Popsicle sticks here,” he said. “And my brother supplies me with glue. I use Elmer’s Glue-All.”
Simpson explained that his ‘new-found’ talent is actually rooted deeply in his past. Growing up in Southwest Philadelphia, he would often walk to the airport where he would look at the planes.
“Those planes were propeller planes,” he said. “Not jets like today.”
“I used to make the gas models when I was a kid,” Simpson shared. “In those days, gas was 27 cents a gallon. Those were the good ol’ days.”
“I started picking it back up at 70,” he said. “It’s a hobby.”
Simpson worked for General Electric in Philadelphia for 35 years before retiring. A veteran, he was stationed in Korea while a member of the US Army. Neither his job nor his military service involved airplanes.
In addition to wooden aircraft, Simpson also creates planes from aluminum cans that he finds in his travels throughout the facility. He does not follow a schematic, rather he works freehand.
“It just comes to me,” he said. “I get the idea in my head and I try it and if it looks good, I glue it.”
In addition to his wooden and aluminum airplanes, Simpson’s talent has branched out into making robots.
He explained that after a light bulb had blown out in his room, “I took a tomato juice can, put a light bulb on it and it looked like a robot.”
Working as an artist while living in a nursing home has taught Simpson to be adaptable. In addition to having to keep a constant eye out for materials, he’s also become adept at obtaining the tools to mold those materials into art. He cuts his aluminum cans with a pair of household scissors. “It’s like tissue paper,” he said. He obtains paint for his creations from the Activity Department at the facility.
Simpson’s room in the nursing home is filled with his flights of fancy. “My brother takes some home, some are in my room, and some I give away,” he said. Several of his works of art are hanging in Crest Haven’s storeroom, where they are suspended from nylon string to give them the appearance of actual flight.
“I think he can take anything and make it into something,” said Deborah Olson, Assistant Director of Activities. “He doesn’t brag and he doesn’t tell us how creative and talented he is.”
While Simpson may not personally share how talented he is, others have recognized his gift. Two of his pieces won prizes in Cape May County’s 37th Annual Senior Art Show.
With 60 artists submitting 112 pieces, the competition was keen. Simpson’s works garnered a first place ribbon for an airplane and third place ribbon for a robot.
“I didn’t know I was going to win,” Simpson said of his first art show. “There was a lot of good stuff there.”
“The day we came back from the show, I said ‘We’re doing this again next year,’” said Chris Hagan, Simpson’s social worker.
“So many people think when you’re in a nursing home, that’s it. He looks at something and sees art,” added Hagan.
With the next art show almost a year away, Simpson has time to think about what he will create next. Boats? Houses? Jets? The sky’s the limit when it comes to this sculptor’s imagination.