Junk bonds

By KIM YEAGER • kyeager@startribune.com | Photographs by JOEL KOYAMA • jkoyama@startribune.com Modus operandi: Ritter uses other people's stuff, mailed to him through his de-junked.com website, to create personal art collages. He sends a picture of the finished piece. Customers can choose to keep for $50; if they don't, Ritter keeps the piece for resale. Pieces done with his junk start at $200.

Got started: In 1990, as a poor college student. "I literally started picking things up off the floors."

Evolved: "I started out more painterly, now it's more sculptural. I'm trying to be clean. If you want to hang it in your house, you don't want it to fall off the wall. Art professors will tell you that's not important, but it is."

Getting there: Heavy-duty hot glue, liquid nails and "I screw things on and tie them down."

Partial artist's statement: "As a product of America's plastic, throwaway culture, it seems prophetic that I'm best at making art from stuff that people don't want -- stuff they no longer need, but don't quite throw away. As the world becomes more polluted with this type of refuse, I see this process as a type of alchemist pursuit. This transformative activity can also be seen as a metaphor to how we as humans interact with the earth. The residue of this process is sometimes called art."

Then again: "It's kind of a sickness, because once you start with garbage, you really don't want to throw it away."

Background: Grew up in Brookings, S.D. Bachelor's degree from South Dakota State University, MFA from San Francisco Art Institute; undergraduate courses at University of Minnesota, School of Arts in Philadelphia. Teaches night classes in design, general education and English composition at Rasmussen College.

His other life: Writes and performs music as "P. Skunk." His album of "experimental-low-fi-folk-rock," "Meat Synapse Radio," can be found on iTunes.

Workshop: The garage next to the house. There's no room for cars, but rearranging happens "when we know hail is coming."

Simultaneous art: "I have four projects going because I have four stools. If I had six, I'd have six."

Influenced by: "Star Wars," "Star Trek," Beat poets, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart.

A piece is "done" when? "It's always kind of a work in progress. If I can live with it, then I'm OK. There are others that hit a note ... like a tuning fork, it hits a note. I don't ever get tired of looking at it."

Most unusual item used: "Someone's ponytail. It's on [a] piece in San Francisco. Bought by the people who owned the Fairmont Hotel, that was in the TV show 'Hotel' " during the '80s.

Indispensible tool: Hot glue gun.

Occupational hazard: Getting stabbed while rummaging through junk bins. "I have a set of fondue forks that I poked my finger with three times."

Next project: "I'm trying to make a short film about an article I read in Esquire. Really, my hobby is film. If I won the lottery, I'd start making movies."

Advice for budding recyclartists: "Don't," he said, laughing.