It ’ s a windy day and the sun is beating down on Paula McCullough as she sands a collection of metal pipes outside of her downtown studio . She ’ s dissected them into smaller pieces , cutting through the words that once graced the sides to make new ones . They ’ ll be turned into pencil holders , one emblazoned with “ LA ,” another with “ Doc ,” destined to find their way to Hollywood or a doctor ’ s office , respectively .

“ I like functional art much better than just a blob on the wall that serves no purpose ,” McCullough said , walking into her darkened studio .

It ’ s a sea of metal and rust . Piles rising and falling like the cold dark waves of an ancient ocean . To some , it ’ s all garbage , items that have been discarded to be slowly metabolized by the earth and forgotten , out of sight and out of mind . It ’ s a hoarder ’ s paradise for others , an endless treasure trove for the especially curious , but to McCullough , it ’ s puzzle pieces to put together and expel from her life .

For someone who claims to be a minimalist , the 15 to 20 tons of metal that surrounds her seems to suggest otherwise .

“ For me , the joy was always in getting things more than even making it , because there ’ s just possibility , it ’ s stimulating and it ’ s just like thinking of a solution to a problem that I ’ ve created because I ’ ve bought all of this crap ,” she said , picking up and setting down random pieces of

hardware .

Her eyes roam over the expanse before her , pure chaos to some , but a methodically organized mess for her .

“ When I get stuff , it ’ s ratty , oily , gross and rusty , and by the time I ’ m done with it , to me , it ’ s like a jewel ,” McCullough said .

She salvages the most minute random objects that the average person would overlook in everyday life , like the supportive base of a street sign or a rail road plate , and pushes herself to reimagine them in new ways . Each piece is sanded smooth and cleaned up , leaving behind the unreplicable wear and tear of chipped rustic paint that makes the metal interesting .

Her bread and butter is making the small simple things that can compliment a desk or wall , like a stoic pencil holder made from metal pipes or card stands , clocks , lights , mirrors , small tables and bud vases .

“ It makes me feel good because we all want purpose and meaning and it means more to me that someone can have something unique on their desk that not everybody else has ,” McCullough said , sharing a piece that she ’ s currently working on , a keepsake box with a weight plate collar for the lid and a hammer head for the handle .

“ I like to force things together in a way that surprises me ,” McCullough added .

But the spark doesn ’ t seem to be there anymore . She feels frustrated

because she ’ s filled her warehouse with supplies that she ’ s looked at for years and now nothing seems to feel new anymore .

McCullough ’ s always led a nomadic life , tinkering with new mediums before scrapping and starting over somewhere new , and as she bleakly looks out around her warehouse , she feels her next frontier may be coming .

At 42 years-old , McCullough was burnt out after a 27-year career as a masseuse in Arizona . She decided she couldn ’ t do it anymore and felt drawn to pursuing a life as an artist , following her passions of the time of drawing with a calligraphy pen and pastel chalks to create abstract works .

“ A wise person suggested I get rid of everything and get in my car and go and just live ,” McCullough said , and so she did .

From there , her journey began .

She camped , worked in Yellowstone , traveled and spent some time in Minnesota , but eventually she had to return to her work as a masseuse for income . She met an artist and they made “ bake on paint ” projects , glass and pottery tile works together , thinking she would become a ceramic artist . She made contacts in Florida and South Carolina to set up trips , but she got stuck in Vermont , enamored with its beauty .

She traveled every inch of the East Coast , but said she constantly felt drawn back to Vermont for its lush forests and picturesque farm land . She met another artist there who encouraged her to pursue her photography , which she did for a while , using found objects like railroad plates to create a mixed media piece with her photographs and was eventually finding her work in galleries , while care taking on the side . But as the care taking business she