Another big day of treasures at the dump yesterday...woo hoo!! A couple of people came in to the bay to off-load several framed pieces of art...black and white photographs with matting. I saw them toss the first one from the back of their pick-up, heard the glass break, and then hurried (ran!) over to them to see if there were more of the same, and if I could have them before they all met the same fate of being damaged.
They handed me several beautiful frames wrapped in bubble wrap. I left the one damaged piece in the rubble...it was no longer in very good condition (thus, the need to make these kinds of trashy discoveries "before" they leave the back end of an off-loading vehicle). After unwrapping everything, this was the bounty:
I've been studying the black and white photos...for the most part they really don't hold much interest for me. I'd rather remove them from the frame, and insert my own collage work...or combine these photos with some of my own collage elements.
The lady from this off-loading pickup, while giving me several of these frames, found it all quite interesting and amusing that she was handing everything over to me. She said, "Only in Portland would one find artists working in the city dump," which kind of confirms our city's slogan (among artsy types)..."Keep Portland Weird." I informed her that she'd also find artists working the dump in San Francisco. We are the only two cities in the U.S. (possibly the world) that have this kind of artist-in-residence-in-the-city-dump program in place.
A little later, I celebrated getting these cool frames with the finding of my sixth bottle of "unopened" wine (the five other bottles I found earlier in the season), and it looks like it happens to come from San Francisco...what a coincidence!
I also found this nice collection of wooden cigar boxes, all of which will come in handy down the road, since I've now completed all my work for this art grant.
A week from TODAY...Friday, Sept. 14, we are having our opening reception at Disjecta Gallery (8371 N. Interstate Av.), 6 to 9 PM. If you live in the area, please join us that evening! I do plan to document the event as much as possible with photographs, and will get them all posted here on my blog.
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