Turning Luck Around: When Used Lottery Tickets Become Art with Ghost of a Dream

When you think about the lottery what comes to mind is a huge jackpot won by one or very few people and a multitude of players who strive to get a chance in the race. And what makes it or breaks it is a lotto ticket, a mere piece of paper with some numbers on it, but one that has the potential to change your entire world around.
On one hand, lottery tickets are the symbol of hope, but on the other hand, they become worthless if they do not have the winning numbers for the big pot. However, there is one art project that has managed to turn all of this around. Sculptor Lauren Was and painter Adam Eckstrom are “Ghost of a Dream”, and they turn old lottery tickets into amazing art. But the most fascinating aspect of this project is the immensely positive idea it gives out.
Alone, used lottery tickets have no value whatsoever, but when they become the source material for an art project, they have a newly-found direction. Moreover, when the art project is meant to represent the collective dreams that we associate with the lottery, it gives an entirely new meaning to those lottery tickets.
It all started when Adam Eckstrom and Laurent Was began picking up old lotto tickets whenever they saw them on the street. They said that these appeared to be “someone’s lost wish”, which initially had a nostalgic feel to it.
But the two artists have found a way to give the people back that ounce of hope that they have thrown out along with their tickets.
“We started thinking about what those dreams actually meant and what happens if you collected enough of those to make that dream into a reality,” explained Adam.

So, they began thinking what lottery winners usually do with the money they win because they wanted to find those collective goals that people have for their windfall. The project released by Ghost of a Dream was a life-sized car entirely made using old lottery tickets.
To be more specific, the artists have made a Hummer H3 that is the full scale replica of the real model, recreated to the smallest detail. And while their creation is astonishing on its own, when put into context with the lottery, its significance becomes even more impressive.
Since the Hummer was a roaring success, Ghost of a Dream decided to take their idea even further. And their second project was their masterpiece.
Meant to represent yet another popular purchase among lottery winners, this was a life-sized dining room, complete with artwork hung on the walls, a carpet, a decorative cupboard, a mirror, and many other minute decorations that would fit in the upscale dining room of a lottery winner.
The sheer attention to detail that went into this project is absolutely breathtaking, which made Ghost of a Dream’s dining room an even bigger boom in the art world. This gave way to the artists continuing their work with a third project, which has kept on the main principles of the project.
Their third installment was a life-sized palm tree at a luxurious beach, where the lucky winner had set up a stereo and an umbrella. The exotic holiday representation was displayed in New York and it cemented the group’s unique take on art, life, and hope.
After touring with their palm tree project, Ghost of a Dream went on to bring to life some very different kind of projects, but that had the same heartwarming feel to them. Whey they were done with lottery ticket projects, the artists began working with pages from romance novels.
Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was are now one of the best-known duos of the artistic world because they have sensitized their viewers beyond their wildest expectations.
So, can hope be recycled? Does all hope fade when the numbers you have up for that big lottery jackpot are not the winning combination? As masterfully represented by Ghost of a Dream, redirecting hope is only a matter of perception.