An aspiring Picasso in Baltimore specializes in an unusual medium — instead of bronze or marble, the scrappy sculptor uses lost hubcaps.
An avid cyclist, Barnaby Wickham, 54, has collected more than 700 orphaned hubcaps as he rides around the city. He’s also picked up a few from visits to see his son at Kent State University and even found one on a business trip to Italy.
Proving the old adage that one man’s trash is another’s treasure, he uses them to create masterpieces, including Christmas wreaths, a giant fish and a large Snoopy head.
“I think it’s sort of the excitement of the hunt,” the maestro of road rubbish told the Associated Press. “I love to cycle. I love Baltimore. I love to go out in Baltimore, and there’s just enough hubcaps and other things like car grills to be interesting, but not so many that it’s too easy.”
It all started when Barnaby, who works in marketing for a defense technology company, spotted one while on a bike ride in early 2024. He strung it onto his backpack … and a new art form was born. He constructs his pieces using expanded metal as a framework, then adds sheet metal with holes in it so he can wire the hubcaps in place. Zip ties are then used to attach them to the sheet metal…