Barney Smith is an artist with a peculiar medium that's made him somewhat famous. He was inspired both by his career as a plumber and his father' taxidermy work to begin making art out of toilet seats. And he's been doing it for 50 years. That work has grown into a collection of 1317 decorated toilet seats displayed at Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum. The museum is in his garage in San Antonio.
He didn’t make his collection viewable to the public until 1992, when another artist saw Smith’s seats during a garage sale. After Smith showed off the the full collection, word got around. His phone started ringing off the hook.
“People demanded to see it,” he says. “It’s the people’s museum.”
It’s also the only museum of its kind in the world. His visitors come from all over that world, usually leaving behind a memento for Smith to place on a toilet seat. He has commemorative toilet seats to mark guests from Israel, Brazil, Greece, Japan, and several others.
Smith is 96 years old now, and is looking for a buyer for his collection. Not just any buyer will do; he wants someone to keep the collection together in a museum. That doesn't mean Smith is ready to retire. When the museum is gone, he will still be painting toilet seats. Read about Smith and his toilet seat museum at Atlas Obscura. You'll also see some closeups of the artworks.
(Image credit: Flickr user juliegomoll)