Jamaica Bay Pen Project: Artist Restores Old Pens

Willis Elkins, the unique artist known for collecting cigarette lighters off of New York City’s shores, has launched the Jamaica Bay Pen Project, which not only involves gathering old objects, but bringing them back as well.

Elkins performs this task by gathering pens at Jamaica Bay, cleaning them up, and changing their ink cartridges. By doing so, not only does Elkins help clean up the environment, but he assists the conservation and recycling efforts.

Original art it its finest form.

The images of restored pens on Elkins’ website suggest that he has been collecting pens for eight weeks. Over these past few weeks, he has collected pens, highlighters, and markers, and turned them all into fine-point pens.

More information about the Jamaica Bay Pen Project can be found here.

Elkins’ previous project involving cigarette lighters was a huge success. Over 10 months, he collected almost 2,000 lighters from the shores of New York City. He also took pictures of each, and documented the locations at which they were found.

If this current project includes the restoration of 2,000 pens from the seashore, it will be considered more successful than the previous project, for thousands of pens will be not only be collected, but also restored.