Sir Richards

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Varg

I know waste mangement companies get a hard time in GNO but I have to hand it to Richards Disposal curbside collection. They take whatever I put out. And I have challenged them in the past with bins full of busted up concrete, huge branches of oak, all manner of scrap wood protruding from the top of bins… on an on. They always take it.

I remember when I lived in San Diego, they wouldn’t take the garbage for if the can wasn’t facing the right way or if there was too much sticking out the top.

Yesterday I did a little autumn pick-up in the back yard and created a lot of trash. The biggest monster was a ’50s era Formica table that had pop-out wings. This thing was so heavy. I busted it up a bit but basically just put the entire top in the bin in two halves. It stuck way out of the top. I also chopped down a yucca tree and justlaid that out on the curb in a disrespectful manner that said blatantly challenged them. I also just put out an old Ace garbage can that had yard waste in it knowing it was not in an official container. They took it all.

All the metal parts of the ’50s table I separated out and placed on the side of the road a little further up in hopes that Bubbles may come by and grab them for scrap. But I am pretty sure Richards grabbed them too.

And they didn’t even wake me up this morning when they did it.

3 thoughts on “Sir Richards”

judyb says:

September 28, 2010 at 11:45 am

I hope you make them goodies at Christmas!
JaneLane says:

September 28, 2010 at 2:22 pm

@judyb : For cereal. They deserve some treats and we derserve pics & a post!
JaneLane says:

September 28, 2010 at 2:23 pm

Yeah, I said it… derserve.

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.