I’m surrounded by bones,
I have no social obligations,
and every wall is white.
I’m in dreamland.
If you told me two years ago that I’d be in a tiny cow town near the pan handle of Oklahoma, I would have laughed in your face. But that’s exactly where I am, and content. My ceiling drips during heavy rains, I have one friend, I have no vehicle, and feel like !’m living the dream! Everyday I get unrestrained time to explore artistic ideas, hone artistic skill, and peacefully dwell within my creative environment. My stomach, my bladder, and my brain are the only ones making demands. From all others I am free.
Caring for the Castaway
So great, I have loads of free time, but what am I doing with it? Well, have you noticed how regularly you encounter film plastics? You buy groceries — plastic bag. You order from Amazon — plastic packing material. You need to paint your house — plastic drop cloth. You eat chips — plastic bag. You get my drift. We encounter film plastics on an almost daily basis. We may try to recycle or reuse them, but often their final destination is the trash. From there, some make a jail break for the environment but most are buried alive in landfills. And they don’t die for a very long time. They shrink and shred into increasingly pervasive and insidious particles. So with all this free time, I’m investigating an artistic use of film plastics. It’s challenging and riveting, and weird. I have a studio full of trash! But my hope is that if I start caring for the castaway, others will too.
My plastic yarn.
My plastic balls.
Transformed by heat.
Small
Experiments
My Plastic Soap Box
“Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.” ― Robert M. Pirsig,
I’ve been listening to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while slicing, tying, and wrapping garbage. It has been a perfect backdrop. The author’s exploration into quality and care have highlighted aspects of our culture I despise. It has highlighted an aspect of myself I despise. Carelessness.
Our culture takes great care with convenience, saving time, energy and money, but at what cost? When plastic first hit the market, did anyone imagine that in fifty years it would kill birds, fish, and contaminate oceans? Plastic is not at fault. We are. Consumers and companies alike are responsible for the reckless spread of plastic. Consumers choose what they buy and companies choose how they produce what. On both sides we should consider the end life for what we buy or what we create. Buy quality, not quantity. Learn to care for what you own. Buy from companies who do their best to close the loop on their products. Let’s bring some care into the world of plastics, because if we do, there’s a good chance we’ll increase our world’s quality.