One Person's Trash....

When we got the Dairy it was covered with junk. Five acres of junk. Seems the previous owner allowed people to dump stuff on the property (the going rate is $30 a load). Once we learned why all that junk was there, the 14 refrigerators dotting the landscape made more sense, as did the 25 TVs and 75 or so tires, swamp coolers, console stereos and so many other items of disintegrating wonder.

The thing about the desert, as we are learning, is that the most ordinary objects can look great if left out in the sun and wind long enough. Old wood exposed to the elements looks weathered and authentic. Old wired mattress forms become  thought out repeating sculptural patterns of rust and time.

With this in mind, it was not surprising that artist friends wanted to come scour the place before we hired people to come clean it up. We let a couple of friends pick out a few things that seemed worthless, but now that we are getting into the desert esthetic, we see that they were all gems.

Left on the property were 20-30 old bicycles, or at least the wheels. We hope there weren't stolen from some desert kid, but who knows? Also, we found picture frames and more picture frames. Seems the past owner's mom was an artist.

Anna and I split our energies. She took the circles and I took the  rectangles and we decorated the fence in front of the house.

Inside the house we hung old bent and rusted wire that has taken the shape of a beautiful flowing dress. We found old fencing with more metal around it and hung it on the wall and we made a table out of old propane container and trash can top, and placed on top of that, old bed springs. It is art, I tell you.

We found crate of old glass bottles still full of water. They are label-less now but might have been branded at some point. Beautiful when the morning light shines through them.

Another great find was a first class stash of trashy soft core paperbacks with such titles as "Orgy Office" and "The Sin Smugglers," along with a book from the 1860s.
​
Finally, the grassless front yard needed an upgrade. I’m not sure what you do with a yard that is just sand, but everyone else arranges rusted things on theirs, so we did the same.

In a few years it will all deteriorate and we will no doubt replace it all with more trash… that we grab from someone else’s yard. 
​-T