Salvaged Beauty

Here's one of my favorite pieces ever. It's made largely from discarded objects I salvaged from a dump site on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. If you look closely you'll recognize a rusted sardine tin, bottle cap, glass jar lid and silver lining from chewing gum wrappers. What is so special about this piece is that I made it while on an art retreat with some of my most favorite people, surrounded by the stark beauty of the desert southwest.


Cindi Powell (aka "Piz") and I had so much fun scrambling over the discarded junk, gleefully pulling out treasures from the unstable, chaotic mound.

"Are you up to date on your tetanus shots?" Piz asked, her R.N. training taking over.

"Probably," I shot back, completely undeterred.

Her only response was her unrestrained giggle; we were having too much fun to let things like possible lockjaw slow us down.

And so we dragged back a huge pile of "treasures" to the communal room we used for making art. Adding just a few beads and some milagros I had purchased at a flea market, I let the beauty of the "trash" shine through.

Curtis Steiner plays with blocks

As I was using my new pink and green Midori paper (the one with the whimsical pea pods), I noticed it was designed by a Curtis Steiner. I remembered a Seattle artist by that name who has a funky cool store in Ballard named Souvenir. A few years ago, I went with a bunch of artgirls to the Seattle Art Museum to see an amazing exhibit he designed.

It was a vast assemblage, a sort of Cabinet of Curiosities, brimming with ornate and mysterious wonders, that he describes as "gently beautiful". Every single treasure was placed just so, and I could have looked at it for hours, and in fact would have done so, except the museum was closing and the artgirls were calling.

So I checked out his site to see what he was up to these days and it turns out he has a new exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum which incorporates 1000 walnut blocks. Each block is identical, with a different pattern on each of its six sides. This allows for an infinite number of astoundingly beautiful patterns to be created, and visitors are encouraged to play with the blocks to create their own designs. Check out this slideshow of 100 designs: