Best of 2000: Best Recycled Art

Cecil Ogles's Recycle Flyers

Cecil Ogles turns old aluminum cans into art with his Recycle Flyers. He displays and sells can-constituted seaplanes, tail-draggers, helicopters, blimps, and (recently) submarines three times a year through the Alpine Art Association; occasionally, on the first and third weekends of the month, in front of the Sports Museum in Balboa Park; and sporadically on the second and fourth weekends of the month in Mission Bay at the corner of Ingraham and Vacation Isle. The colors of his creations vary according to the cans -- from Budweiser and Coca-Cola to Tecate, Heineken, and Arizona Tea. "Coors Light, MGD, and Diet Coke are probably my best-sellers," says Ogles. "But I've learned a peculiar thing. Ladies will come up and say, 'Oh, my husband drinks Budweiser,' and so I'll reach up to get one. By the time I've reached it, they say, 'I'll take this other one. It's pretty.' They go for aesthetics." Prices range from $40 to $128 for planes; you can pick up a Budweiser blimp for $60.