Blog Archives

Gleaning at the City Dump #8

4/30/2012

I've never really used electronic kinds of materials in my assemblage work, but I'm going to try to incorporate some of these items into a few of my boxes. With the help of another artist on our gleaning team (we work at the Metro Transfer Station...the city dump), I'm now the owner of a big box of "electronic stuff," the likes of which looks very interesting with lots of potential. I've finished sorting through everything, getting it all into a few smaller boxes so that its visible and easily accessible. The five of us artists in this program are learning how to glean for each other (as well as for ourselves), discovering the kinds of materials in all that trash that each of us might be able to use in some way. Many thanks to Andrew for pulling these things for me !

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Gleaning at the City Dump #7

4/28/2012

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This was a great day for gleaning at the city dump. Saturdays, in general, seem to be the major day of the week that people want to off-load trash, although I've found some pretty nice artsy treasures on other days, too. There are five of us working on this art grant, gleaning for art materials, creating art with what we find, etc., and it just happened that four of us showed up to work today...something that has never happened before. It was a nice "reunion" of sorts, and nice to be able to chat with the other artists to see how they are coming along with their own individual gleanings and projects. It is also nice to be able to connect personally so that we can glean for each other...we all seem to be scavenging for different kinds of things.

This was another PIANO DAY (there have been three pianos so far)!! I found this upside down piano just as a large truck pulled away:

I asked one of the regular workers if she could lift this monster over to our work area (office) at the other end of the bay:

I had only an hour left to work on this beauty, so I got right to it. I do pack my own box of tools, so I come prepared for projects like this:

This is the piano after I finished pulling the parts from it:

A little sampling of what I took home with me:

I'm kinda' liking piano days ! I'm getting pretty good at pulling pianos apart. I wish that I had actually learned to play the piano as a kid!

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Gleaning at the City Dump #6

4/22/2012

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Our gleaning program at the transfer station here in Portland, OR., is patterned after a very similar artist-in-residence program in San Francisco...artists applying for and receiving a grant to glean and scavange in the city dump, creating art with the found materials, etc.
Have a quick look at their work:

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Gleaning at the City Dump #5

4/20/2012

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There seems to be no end to the amount of wood that circulates in and out of the transfer station/city dump. If you are an artist who uses wood (wood scraps/lumber), etc., this is the place for you. It appears that these massive piles of wood don't go to the landfill, but rather are eventually piled onto a large truck and taken somewhere else for further recycling...I'm not exactly sure where that might be at this point. I've already grabbed several great pieces of wood for myself, as well as some of the vintage window frames (with the glass already broken out)...I may use them for additional "framing" for our art show in Sept. It was in these piles that I found the second set of player piano parts last week.
For more information about this gleaning program/art grant for local artists, check out my Gleaning at the City Dump #1.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #4

4/19/2012

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We (the five artists) actually have this little "work area" in the bay of the transfer station (the city dump). It truly doesn't look like much, but it's a "safe" area at one end of the bay where we can stash our gleanings, sort the materials, and take things apart. We find wonderful treasures in the trash, leaving them here for each other to find (we all seem to come in at different times of the week). There are three large plastic carts on wheels which we move around with us to help carry any loads of "stuff" that we might find. I always bring a small box (the green plastic box on the cart) filled with some tools from home, including a case cutter as well as a cordless drill, etc. A funny (not-so-funny) thing happened the other day...someone who was off-loading trash "stole" something off of my cart !! Avoiding any confrontation, I just let her have it...it seemed that she maybe needed it more than I did. I will watch my cart much more closely from now on!
For more information on this gleaning program/art grant, check my "Gleaning at the City Dump #1.
Information about me and the other artists involved with this grant can be found here.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #3

4/18/2012

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I just completed another assemblage piece from materials gleaned from the city dump (see City Dump #1 for more information). I've been quite amazed at the number of old (some new) tools that I'm finding in the mounds of trash...this being one of them. Again, I've also incorporated some of the green felt pads (I love those things) that came from one of the player pianos that was off-loaded several days ago. The top part of this assemblage is covered with glass.
As part of our contract, we are required to have ten pieces completed for our art show (at the Disjecta Gallery) in September.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #2

4/17/2012

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I generally work about two days a week at the Metro Transfer Station (the city dump). I stay for about three hours at a time. My collection of found "stuff" continues to grow. I've found several vintage glass doorknobs, and have been looking for a way to use them in one of my pieces:

The Second Piece

Glass doorknobs:

Some other misc. hardware including the green felt pads from a player piano:

The wooden box covered with pages (maps) from the old encyclopedias:

The finished piece (partially covered with glass):

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Gleaning At The City Dump #!

4/9/2012

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I applied for and received an art grant (along with four other local artists) a few weeks ago. The grant pays us each a stipend, and allows us to glean materials from Portland’s Metro Central Station (aka “the dump”) for six months. We are each required to create at least ten pieces of art from the materials that we find. Our work will be shown at a group show at a local gallery (Disjecta) in September 2012. After the application process and interviews, the five chosen artists met for the first time in mid March to review all procedures and safety issues relating to our new “gleaning” jobs in the bay...that area where the trash is off-loaded on a continual basis each day.

You can get a quick look at all the artists here who are involved with this year's gleaning project.

First day on the job...me in the yellow hat finding my way around the work area.

On one of our first days, someone had dropped off one of those old player pianos, which was moved over to our work area to tear apart for parts...great fun !!