I delight in turning trash into treasure. When most people say that, "trash" means a perfectly good chair that needs a new coat of varnish or a re-upholstered seat cover. When I say it, I mean serious muthafuckin' trash. The kind of stuff where you have to chase down the janitor at work and say "Actually, I was saving that" as you lift it gingerly from his cart. It is in this moment that you become aware that you look like a crazy person.
I see potential in discarded and found objects. As a child, I would save treasures I found on the playground or the sidewalk; a broken necklace, a single earring, a token from an arcade that has long been out of business. I felt certain I would find the right purpose for these odd bits. If you look closely at my masquerade costumes, you'll see that many of them finally found their fabulous destiny years later as pieces of a Burlesque Unicorn or Jaguar Priestess.
Last week on Craft Wars, contestants were challenged to make a bird house using bits and pieces from "the junk drawer". I don't have a junk drawer. I have a junk dining room. This seemed like a great opportunity to share the ways I've repurposed junk on a large scale, and a chance to justify to myself why I save all this shit..
2009: TikiLand halloween display! Co-built by Harry Sabin, so is master of lighting and derailing my nervous breakdowns.
Materials used: Astroturf (discard from an old freelance project), black garbage bags and plastic sheeting, broken bamboo blinds, scrap foam core, old party decorations (palm trees), fake flowers from the dollar store, scrap cardboard (tiki statue), foil, paper mache, reflective sheet plastic I got off craigslist for free, cheap Ikea lights, blacklight reflective paint, and Harry's favorite...dry ice.
We made this for our office's annual Halloween decorating contest, but then they cancelled the contest because nobody would even bother competing with us anymore. UNDEFEATED, BITCHEZ!
2008: Haunted Pet Shop. Interior paintings by Harry.
The concept was to build a home for my puppet, the WeoPup. The other pet shop inhabitants are also monsters or mutants. Materials used: trashed cardboard (house facade), plastic table cover, black trash bags, scrap foam core, scrap bin fur, dollar store spider webbing, black light reactive paint, discarded foam inserts from computer boxes.
A peek inside the window:
2007: Space Console for an alien creature themed gallery environment. Probably my crowning achievement as garbage art goes.
Materials used: Scrap cardboard, poster tubes, ribbon, paper plates, foam inserts from computer boxes, dollar store windshield wiper covers, broken memory card, buttons, circuitboards, and wiring from trashed computers (our IT guy let me go to town), sculpey, tinted cellophane, battery powered touch lights, pill bottles, and an old map. I made the custom screensaver using photoshop and after effects.
Close up of some faux gadgets:
We also built space shelving for some of the artwork out of foam and computer pieces. Here are two of my Wumphants doing a balancing act:
So there you have it. All of this awesomeness brought to you by the letters J, for junk, and B, for budget. Glory does not come from pre-packaged materials at the office supply and craft stores (except Michael's, the proud sponsor of Craft Wars). Glory comes from making something out of nothing, and coming up with an impromptu yet convincing explanation when your neighbor finds you digging in the dumpster. Now get on it!
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