The Piano Projects started with my wife’s family baby grand piano. It took up too much space and cost too much to maintain. We tried to sell it, and then to give it away, but no one wanted it. One night my wife was drinking wine with her lifelong friend who told me I should turn it into a bar, and I was inspired. The next day I assessed the piano and started disassembling it piece by piece. Within 2 months the piano bar was finished and hanging on my wall where our guests now gather to take selfies!
I had so many parts left over, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. Shortly after my piano bar was finished, a woman reached out to me to take her piano. She was downsizing, and none of her children wanted to it, but it was a family heirloom. She was adamant about it not ending up in a landfill. When I picked it up, she cried, thinking of memories of her mom, her children, and herself playing this piano. It was being carted off forever, but I told her I would create something for her out of it.
As I unscrewed the first batch of components, I looked at the wires in my hand, and they looked like flowers: seed planted. A friend’s husband passed away in 2023, and as my wife was leaving one night to visit her, I picked up some piano wires and told her I could make a bouquet of flowers for her to bring. After that, I made a bouquet of flowers for the woman who gave me her piano, and hand delivered them to her. I explained how I was inspired to create the piece in her hands, and she was moved to tears. At the time of writing this, I have saved 3200 pounds of pianos from the landfill and have created multiple pieces of art: bouquets of flowers, furniture, sculptures, and piano bars, and there is so much more to come!
