85 year old man inadvertently donates his pens

This box came to me me wrapped in blue wrapping paper all the way from Sweet Home Oregon with a great story. The box came wrapped in blue paper and once I tore open the box I found this great note sent in by Jill.

"Dear Pen Guy,

A good friend of mine who is 85 years old recently had to move away from his home to go stay with his children. Once he was moved out I was asked to clean the house to get it ready for its new owners. In the back corner of a closet I found this box, and when I opened it I saw more pens than I had ever seen before in one place! It was amazing! It seemed that for the past 10 years or so he had kept every pen he had ever owned, even after it had run out of ink.

I hope these can be used in your artwork. I know my friend will be happy to know that all his old pens went to a good place:)"

Thanks for what you do!
-Jill W.

Wow what a great story, I think that has to be the first one of its kind. I was thinking about it the other day and I realized that every pen has a story to tell. Imagine if you could capture all the things that were written, from the mundane shopping list to the life changing invention. I think it would be great if people started sending their pens and a story written about it.

Donated Pens - Silver Spur Elementary and The Green Team

Donated Pens From Silver Spur Elementary

These pens came a couple of weeks ago from Merin D. a parent from Silver Spur Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verders, CA. Merin is also part of The Green Team an interactive educational program to help students and teachers to help the environment through waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting. These are but a few of the pens she collected last year but Merin volunteered to incorporate collecting old pens at Silver Spur as part of her crayon and glue stick recycling program. Merin thank so much and may you be the first of many around the country who are willing to take the time to collect and send in their old pens for the million pen project.

Pick of the Litter Silent Auction with Debbie Abrams & Brent Farris - June 28th, 2009

Video of my trip to pick pens up from the Pick of the Litter Thrift Store


I really can't say enough good things about Pick of the Litter, a thrift shop dedicated to getting feral cats off the streets and finding loving homes for the forgotten felines of the Santa Rosa community. They have a spay/neuter program for tame, stray cats and formerly feral kittens pulled from the wild; Then they give them the opportunity to go through "Good Samaritan" clinics. There is a nominal fee for this service, but for the most part it is subsidized through a bequest left by Jean Mekemson.

To make a long story short Pick of the Litter has has basically adopted me the Pen Guy and have now for over two years collected stray pens and given them to me for the Mercedes Pens Art Car Project. I went in there one day looking for old dead pens and now go there every couple of weeks to collect a big bag of recycled pens that would otherwise get thrown in the garbage. The video I did was on one of those days when I went to pick up some pens.

They are having a fundraiser this Sunday June 28th from 11a.m - 4p.m, called Pick of the Litter's Rollin' out the Red Carpet & Puttin' on the Ritz! a Celebrity Silent Auction featuring donations by Debbie Abrams, Guy Fieri, Levi Leipheimer and Odessa Gunn "What does Debbie do?" Luxury Silent Auction. There will be Music by North of Malibu and special guests Debbie Abrams & Brent Farris of KZST. Pick of the Litter was voted Sonoma County's Favorite Thrift Store by KZST Listeners and so KZST is promoting the event all week. Hope to see you all there, go an support a great cause, and don't forget to bring all your old and unwatned pens.

O'Reilly Media Recycling Pens for the Pen Guy

O'Reilly Media Tarsier Sculpture by Patrick Amiot

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

O'Reilly Media just agreed to collect old pens for me the Pen Guy for my million pen project that I will be working on in the next 5-10 years. My plan is to collect millions of pens to create works of art that will then go on display at various locations around the country, and that's just to start with. My other big goal is to begin exploring other pen possibilities in solving future problems such as affordable energy efficient housing. Would it be possible to build an entire house from recycled pens and markers or at least a big part of it??? Who knows what is possible right now, but we will never know unless someone starts asking questions.

Having O'Reilly Media on board with such big project is a big deal to me and an example to other business who might want to join in the Green Pen Revolution and help keep a few million pens out of the dump in the coming years. They collect old batteries and have a Goodwill donation drop off, why not pens? My contact within O'Reilly told me that she sent out a company wide email letting everyone know that old pens are now a wanted commodity by yours truly. I can't wait to pickup my first batch of recycled pens. To all of you at O'Reilly Media thank you for dreaming big with me, because without dreamers the world would be a boring place.

Jason Winshell - "Creating Sanctuary" with the Mercedes Pens

This is what joy look likes to me

The Inside of the Pen Car on the Road Again.

Last weekend at Maker Faire I had the pleasure of meeting some really interesting folks and one of them happened to be Jason Winshell, an amazing Photographer from San Francisco. During the event Jason approached me about letting him photograph the Mercedes Pens and me as part of his latest photo essay project called "Creating Sanctuary". Jason is on a journey to explore the things that we do in order to create sanctuaries around us as we deal with the day to day stress, demands and routines of everyday life. Basically a world in which we rejuvenate and recharge our batteries, by looking into our passions, interests, and vices.

Jason came up last Saturday and he spent about four hours driving around with me in my Mercedes Pens Art Car and taking photos in different settings in order to capture what it is that I do. He managed to capture my every day sanctuary on wheels on a sunny Saturday afternoon in my front yard, Walmart, the gas station and on the road. I love the picture of the inside while I am driving, because It's a perspective I have never seen before.

Frame of Mind Pen from Forestville

Frame of Mind Pen from Forestville on the trunk of the Mercedes Pens

I run into Leslie Zumwalt owner of Frame of Mind in Forestville Ca Today. She is this years Forestville Parade organizer and asked me if I was going to be in the parade tomorrow. I don't think I can make it since last week was Maker and next weekend I am going the Harmony Festival 2009 in Santa Rosa Ca. Anyways Frame of Mind is local frame shop and art gallery right down town and features some of the most interesting local art you can imagine. Actually one year they entered a motorized couch with a frame around it to promote their business, and that same year the parade was so small they went around twice.

Pen Donantions from Arizona - A Million Pens here we come.

Pen Donantions from Arizona

These donated pens where mailed in by Michelle from Peoria Arizon, thanks to her the search for a million pens continues. Keep sending them in:)

Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 Video Montage

Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 Video Montage


Here is the best video montage I found of Maker Faire 2009 so far, that gives a good flavor of what the event was all about. The guy playing the snow shovel guitar is Isaac Frankle the 'Shovel Man' a Guitarist, Singer, Lyricist, Percussionist, Harmonica Player Instrument Inventor Artist/Scientist & Sound Sculptor. In the video you can also see the Hennepin Crawler, Whirlygig Emoto, Neverwas Haul a three story Victorian house on wheels, and the famous Radio Flyer Art Car. There is also the giant metal wings and of course the Mercedes Pens makes a brief appearance.

Pen Guy wearing the NOKIA Lanyard at Maker Faire

During maker faire I also met some of the folks from NOKIA one of the sponsors of the event. I met DuCharme who works at the Nokia Research Center (NRC) in Palo Alto "chartered with exploring new frontiers for mobility, solving scientific challenges to transform the converging Internet and communications industries." Sound like fun and a mouthful to explain so I quoted what they do directly from their site. DuCharme took this picture of me wearing the NOKIA Lanyard that all the Makers had to hang their badges from. DuCharme also sent me a picture of her '79 Volvo station wagon dashboard Moose Art Car nice work.

Amazing Fisheye lense Photo of the Pen Car Hood

by stargazer95050
This amazing photo of the Mercedes Pens Hood was taken last weekend at Maker Faire by Andy with a Sigma 8mm Fisheye lense. So far its the most dramatic photo I have seen making the hood looking pretty darn cool. The only problem is the missing pens on the right side, maybe I could photoshop them in. That's what happens when pens go missing while I am driving and especially the cheap black ones that tend to bend and pop off when they melt in the sun. Andy did a great job and if you are interested he has many more photos from Maker Faire.