For this boy, the whole world is filled with artistic opportunities

By James Beaty
Senior Editor

May 10, 2008 01:27 pm

— Most people who look at a two-liter bottle see ... well, a two-liter bottle.
When Eddie McAusland, a fourth grade student at McAlester’s Edmond Doyle Elementary School, looks at a bottle, he sees something else — a rocking chair, perhaps.
While most empty two liter bottles end up in a junk heap, the one that inspired young McAusland has been on display at Edmond Doyle School.
Sure enough, he’s transformed it into a replica of a rocking chair.
Spotting a soft drink can, he thinks of a way to fashion a miniature guitar. Creating the design in his mind, without using notes or writing down his plan, he works until — sure enough — he holds what must be one of the world’s tiniest guitars.
It even has keys.
While it might seem amazing to others, the youngster’s creativity seems natural to him.
Asked his age, he didn’t reply that he was 10.
“I’m 2 times 5,” he said.
Asked about his artistic talents though, he gets right to the point.
“I can look at something and make it,” he said.
The child’s artistic and design ability is a little more difficult for his dad to explain.
“I’m not really sure how to describe it,” the boy’s father, George McAusland, said of his son’s abilities.
“He can take a random object and make it into something artistic. He can take a soda pop can and turn it into a train or an airplane.”
His son first exhibited his unusual pendant for creating things when barely 1-year old, McAusland said. He progressed rapidly.
One of his first works had been a rocking chair created entirely from a soft drink can and a few pieces of tape. Even the intricate scroll work between the runners on the chair and the seat came from the single can — not from adding other materials.
Eddie may have absorbed some of his ability for detail from his grandfather, the late Floyd McAusland.
“My dad used to hand him a screwdriver and tell him to take something apart,” George McAusland said.
As for Eddie, he’s been creating things for almost as long as he can remember.
“I just started by myself — that kind of thing,” he said, shrugging.
Eddie once fashioned a birdhouse from the cardboard left over from a 12-pack of soft drinks. He and his dad found a place outside under a roof eave where it would be sheltered from the rain.
“We put it out and a sparrow came and lived in it,” George McAusland said.
Eddie made another birdhouse, this time out of soft drink cans — and this time he made sure it had an occupant.
“I made a bird out of a soda can, too,” he said.
His proud grandmother, Ruth McAusland, hung it up outside.
As for the future, who knows how Eddie McAusland’s abilities might progress? He’s currently working on a five-foot tall robot made from soft drink cans.
“He’s got an artistic talent I would like to develop,” George McAusland said — although he’s not sure exactly how to go about doing it.
Eddie, though, seems to be doing alright on his own.

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