Bone Yard

[evaldart]

I would like to establish a place where we hunters and gatherers and collectors and accumulators and salvagers, dumpster divers can boast, discuss and complain about the churnings of our sacred piles. Reclamation is the preferred word in the artist statements - but we know its more than just that. Its a greed and coveting that goes beyond money and wealth, its an addiction and infection quite incurable, an obsession without appeasement and a yearning that only yields more yearning. In my dreams the streets are paved with scrap metal, shredding the tires of intruders and entangling them all in a tetanus'd grip - leaving me to the continuing adventure of trying to make all that stuff a little better than it was when I found it.

On that note, I traded a small sculpture last night for 1000 feet of 3/4 re-bar and some general pipes and beams. The grimacing overhead racks on the truck were "slapping-out a tempo, keeping perfect rythm with the song on the radio." The first dents earned by the new F-350.

Anyone else get hold of anything good lately?

[Duck]

a local piano store called and said I could have these, just come and get em
…oh yeah

[evaldart]

Thats how I got my piano, Duck. Good score.

The piano is a wonderful distraction when the pressures of deadlines from craftier projects get you down.

[GlennT]

How about this for literally sweeping the streets for raw material:

I need some sand for backill and for mortar in a rock wall. I could drive to a cement plant and buy a bunch of sand. However, living on the Anoka sandplain of former ice age fame (an awful era cured by global warming), there is sometimes an accumulation of sand after a good rain, along the streets that have curb and gutter edges. ( Many of them here do not, but some, like mine, do)

So, out goes Glenn with a wheel barrow and shovel to collect free sand from the street. No driving, no money spent, and doing some recycling and community service at the same time.

[Ries]

Funny, I have been doing the exact opposite- getting rid of scrap.
A week or two ago, we hauled off 1300lbs or so, just a pittance, really, but a third of that was stainless, so it paid for lunch.

I used to drag home anything that wasnt tied down when I was 19.
Now, 34 years and 9 studio moves later, I tend to be a lot more picky about what takes up psychic space in my junk pile.

I plan on slimming down by another couple of tons or so at least this summer, as scrap prices are at an all time high.

I will keep, of course a few tons of raw metal- but "raw" is the operative word here- metal in the biggest pieces, closest to its birth shape, with the least cultural baggage, is the only stuff I can see paying for storage space on.

the older I get, the more interested I get in intent and focus.
Intent, in terms of actually choosing my path, rather than just being drawn by shiny baubles in my scrap pile
Focus, in terms of doing what I do as well as I can. Which kinda means less of it, although what I do is often measured in tons.
I am more interested in machining these days, which requires a lot of both, and a lot less material. Its easy to spend a few days on a little thing that fits in my pocket.

The last time I moved, it was 75,000lbs of stuff, filling a 40 foot container and a 53 foot semi trailer- but of course, that was 13 years ago, and I would probably need 3 times that volume and weight at the least to move my shop now- but curiously enough, there is a lot less junk in my current 100 tons or so of stuff than there was in my then 35 tons.

I lie to myself, and say I dont collect anything.
(Except- machine tools, hammers, minature anvils, books, CD's, clothes, and kids shoes that light up- but hey, those arent really collections- with the exception of the kids shoes, I USE all that stuff)

So anyway, I am deaccessioning, not acquiring.

A wise man once told me-
"All gathering leads to dispersal".

[evaldart]

I had to give away twenty tons when I moved from my last studio...it hurt soo bad. And trying to re-accumulate is much harder now with the ascending prices of steel/scrap. My relationship to my boneyard is very much like my relationship to the studio, my little sculpture park, my truck, my little showroom/gallery and even my house (that building where the clannish things occur). All these places provide and nourish me in different ways - and they all want something back. I could no sooner sell-off a few tons of scrap than could I tear off a room of my house. And the Bone Yard, the roughest and crudest of all, has infiltrated all the others. And as my output goes, the Boneyard reaches-out internationally, my manglings spreading out by the ton with every new moon. The iron jungle that I have planned for the world may soon be reaching into your very nieghborhood, and it can all be traced back to that nasty, filthy, greasy, pile of crap that mostly hides the snakes and vermin out at the edge of my little piece of heaven.

This all can only be forseeably reversed by a middle-aged crisis of some kind that might having me playing guitar in a heavy-metal band or writing my memoirs for publication.

[Aaron Schroeder]

At this point in my life I should focus on making some money, that means doing deals and using my assetts to serve the interests of those who have it. A bone yard is essential towards that end......yet even more important is the empty yard or that place in the studio that is kept clear for the project at hand. Around that space I have my stuff sort of organized. When I'm not immersed in another deadline scenerio I turn my attention to editing what I have down to bare essentials, a hard thing to do. It often means letting go of cherished dreams or at least finding a way to tightly pack it away. I'm thinking more like Reis than Evaldart.

I really need two studios......one for me and one for my clients. But a bone yard has to happen .....which means a fence, a gate and some basic roofage.....all in good time. Until then I've been thinking about other peoples bone yards ( OPBY ), I'm surrounded by them. Making time to take inventory of the resources around me seems to make more sense, let it lay for another day. If it's gone when I need it....Oh well, something else will come along.

On a more opportunistic note, harvest to your hearts content.....then have an annual studio sale, let everyone know, at least then the bone yard can pay for itself.

Where I'm at, the Amish turn out in droves for a good auction. It's the only time you'll see 50 or more horse and buggies lined up down the road. It's a classic sight. Image all the bearded boys in blue talking with excitement about attending Evaldarts next blow out sale.

[wolff]

I went recently with a few friends who are also woodworkers to a wood dump in Yokohama (just west of Tokyo) where we traded a case of beer and some pastries for two two-ton truckloads of cherry and camphor logs (retail value here-probably close to $2000) that had been cleared from a construction site and were due to be chipped.

Riding back through Tokyo (the university and studios are on the East side) in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic in a rental truck seriously overloaded with logs, with four people in the cab and a driver who was (and still is) more used to fast motorcycles was at least equal in experience value to the score of all that good material.

It`s no F350, but the little white truck in the picture is as big as most people are comfortable driving here (and it is the same size as the one used in the stabbings in Akihabara last week). Some of the camphor logs-a fraction of the communal pile, and the preferred carving wood in Japan (no one but me wanted the cherry)- are in the other image.

It may not look like much, but one of the realities of moving internationally is trimming the bone yard, or dumping it all together. But, oh, I wish I could have brought all the live oak I collected while living in Louisiana to Tokyo with me, and the few small pear logs I have in storage in New York would very nicely complement the plum logs I`ll probably have to abandon here. I might even miss the overwhelming smell of camphor. Sigh.

Bill Wolff
www.billwolff.net

[ironman]

Hi, When I left N.Y. I filled up a 20' dumpster to overflowing and that REALLY hurt. I did keep some real treasures though and brought them to N.M. to start a new bone yard. That new bone yard is growing and as Evaldart said, that's where the snakes hide only in my case it's rattle snakes so I don't just reach down and grab a piece of steel but keep a (long handled) garden rake handy to pull pieces out of the pile.
Ahh, life in the southwest!
Have a great day,
Jeff

[Duck]

Originally Posted by evaldart

The piano is a wonderful distraction when the pressures of deadlines from craftier projects get you down.

…..or it's a miserable uncooperative frustrating piece of shit that needs to be dismantled slowly with large screw drivers and the biggest of hammers.

[StevenW]

"Intent and focus".. Good stuff. I take just what I need when I go digging or when I buy yule or black and my bone yard (more like a 7-11 than a Walmart) could just about fit in the back of Evaldart's truck. Like the Indian and the buffalo, I use it all. I've always lived a Spartan existence, carrying only what is most important to me and I never stayed in one place too long as the walls in my house can attest.

[grommet]

Plus you keep sending all your pieces to other people. We get the picture. If people start getting your recyclables-- old magazines and socks with no mates we're gonna get suspicious.

[StevenW]

Evaldart and I must have had a similar vision at some point, filling the world up with twisted metal in his case and me trying to turn a mountain of marble into a mole hill.

[grommet]

So far, my mom will take anything I make. Now if I can convince or pay someone else to take some. Or maybe they should be paying me? Heyyyy... you think people will BUY this crap????

[ironman]

Hey Grommet, If you stop denigrating the "crap" and call it "art", have some respect for what you do and get it (art) out there, YES, someone will buy it.
Or, perhaps it is crap in which case you should probably just go get a job.
But, I do recall seeing a photo of you with some large figure standing on a horse or something, forgive me, the image isn't quite clear in my head, yet I thought that was "ART", well done and creative, definitely NOT CRAP.
Have a great day,
Jeff

[evaldart]

Well, crap is 4/5ths of the word scrap. So I've always got an 80 percent chance of losing. It takes tremendouse wherewithal and warfare to get the damn Art out of it. I believe I do much better than the 20 percent I should be getting...and even when I lose, its still scrap...primed and ready for another encounter. In the end I am not actually Superman and the real steel will beat the imagined steel (my flesh), but not without having paid a heavy price of torment.

[grommet]

Sorry, was just being really sarcastic. Don't take it so literally.
The thing you mentiond was oversized acrobats, a prop. The wonders of cardboard & newspaper. Perhaps it's a bit more than the typical prop, but still a prop. Thanks for the votes though. My art was in a different thread.
We raided other folks' bone yards/dumpsters to make our props.

[ironman]

Hi Grommet, Well I still think it was cool (whatever that is), and yeah you're right as I used to (not any more) refer at times to my work as "crap" but have found that attitude carries over and is sensed by potential buyers and gallery owners. Sarcasm, as a former New Yorker I''m quite familiar with it!
What thread is your art in?
Have a great day,
Jeff

[grommet]

here's the thread
and here's the prop, arms and top acrobat removable for transport. 10' tall.

[evaldart]

Acrobats must be in costume or their impossible contortions will be misread as figurative wrongness. An opportunity to make the most of color, which is always secondary to line and form. Acrobats and contortionists and yogas are found in the bone-LESS yard. sorry

[ironman]

Hey Evaldart, What gives you the idea that color is secondary to line and form? Most people except most sculptors react much more strongly to color. I as a former and sometime painter love color and I think that's why I like my pieces painted. I know you were a painter at onetime also so I was a little surprised at your statement.
Have a great day,
Jeff

[Giotto]

In my earlier days I invented a process of manufacturing optical fiber. HP is a few miles away and I found their bone yard. I was able to put together hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment for pennies on the dollar. Here are pictures of 2- 20' distillation towers and a 12' long spectrophotometer (the longest in the Northwest that I know of) I assembled out of thrown away junk.

G

[GlennT]

grommet: when you orginally posted the acrobat picture, there was a dragon head of the same color scheme placed behind the lower figure, so I thought the upper figure was riding upsidedown atop a dragon. (not to be confused with the person atop the ladder)

[grommet]

Originally Posted by GlennT

grommet: when you orginally posted the acrobat picture, there was a dragon head of the same color scheme placed behind the lower figure, so I thought the upper figure was riding upsidedown atop a dragon. (not to be confused with the person atop the ladder)

NOW you tell me... that would have been cool. Dragon was separate with a 30' long body. Dang, now I want to re-do it...

[grommet]

Originally Posted by Giotto

In my earlier days I invented a process of manufacturing optical fiber. HP is a few miles away and I found their bone yard. I was able to put together hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment for pennies on the dollar. Here are pictures of 2- 20' distillation towers and a 12' long spectrophotometer (the longest in the Northwest that I know of) I assembled out of thrown away junk.

G

That's some fancy "junk", but what do you do with it?