Rigid interest.

Mark Langan has a rigid interest in the fine arts.

Langan lives in Brunswick Hills, Ohio, and creates works of art in a variety of media, including wooden sculptures and carvings, colored pencil and ink drawings and oil paintings. But the medium he's focusing on these days involves corrugated boxes or, more specifically, the crenulated medium that is sandwiched between the box's linerboard.

Langan, who quit his job in the transportation industry more than two years ago to pursue his artwork full time, found his inspiration when he ripped apart a box, revealing the wavy layers within. "I liked the way the flutes looked," he says. Langan likes working with the fluted medium because of the dimension it offers. "The artwork changes depending on the angle you view it from because of the tiers," he says.

He started out by creating abstract designs, but since has moved into making commissioned pieces that include corporate logos for companies such as Van Dyk Baler Corp., Berg Mill and Freedom Metals Inc., as well as recent commissions from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. and International Paper.

Langan is also planning to move beyond the corrugated medium into metals, reusing aluminum cans in future projects.

Langan's corrugated pieces typically range in price from $350 to $1,000. Additional samples of his artwork, as well as contact information, are available on his Web site at www.laganart.com.