This morning I talked Cindy into coming along with me on my neighborhood junket of yard sales. I needed to fine some materials to make a Christmas Tree from recycled materials (a fancy word for discarded crap) for the Forever Green, GreenArt Eco-Tree show at Whitespace Gallery next month. Cindy had already fashioned a holiday creation out of old bamboo blinds and a reed footstool. I figured this morning was my last good chance to find something.Our fist stop was a sale on McLendon Ave. a few blocks from our home. Like nearly every sale within the neighborhood I had been to a sale here before. The small yard was covered in a variety of clutter ranging from a pet cage to women’s clothing to an unopened package of gummy bacon. Hung in a tree was a Fender Stratocaster and one of those plastic guitars used in a popular video games were next to it was a toy pistol and a wig. I figured I could not find enough toy pistols to fashion an entire Xmas display so we bought nothing.
Heading towards Decatur we stopped at a sale on Harold Byrd Avethat advertised in Craigslist that everything was free. It was kinda spooky when we got there for in the front driveway there appeared to be an abandoned garage sale. No one was in sight but the sale had a certain orderliness to it that made it seem as thought the sellers had just suddenly vanished. In the driveway was a recliner, some fireworks, an empty box that had once contained books, an orange pylon, a school desk, a beer stein and a guide for parents.I considered taking the fireworks but Cindy felt they might be tampered with.
I took a Pentel silver marker. Maybe I could draw a tree.
We briefly stopped by a very boring estate sale on Scott Blvd. I had been to a sale here last year and it was equally boring. How boring was the sale? All I can remember was seeing s a hot water bottle and a bible. We bought nothing.
We spent some time looking for sales in East Lake and Oakhurst. After driving around looking for an estate sale in East Lake we came to this small brick home that stank of mildew. Only two rooms were open and the mostly contained dresses owned by an elderly woman and a lot of ceramic geese and swans. I felt the air in the home to be dangerous to my health and left without so much as taking one photo of a ceramic swan.
A sale in front of a large frame bungalow in Oakhurst was more promising. I purchased an umbrella thinking if I found about six more I could fashion some sort of tree from them. I was most impressed that the seller still had ample amounts of Halloween décor in her yard.
Our journey continued into Virginia Highland and Morningside where we encountered a house with this massive dummy that was part of some sort of laser tag game in front of it. The dummy was wearing a witch hat. I considered adding branches to the dummy but that was too over the top even for me. A sale in nearby morning side had a lot of very overpriced décor items none of which I could afford to turn into art. But they did have a lovely pair of golden slippers sitting atop a brass table. Under different circumstances that alone could have been an installation.Our final stop was a house in Candler Park near little five points that I have been to at least three times in the past. The seller has come to recognize me as soon as I exit the car with camera in hand. There was really not much new here since the last sale aside from a wonderful painting of a horse. But as luck would have it I found a box full of sample floor tiles, each with a little hole in them. Cindy then insisted I by this wooden trellis which when inverted created the shape of a pine tree. I bought both took them home and fashioned the creation seen here. The show opens at Whitespace on December 3rd.
Golden slippers on a bronze table.
Equine portrait in Candler Park.
The finished tree adorned with floor tile samples.
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