A partner in crime, Jill had invited me along on her weekly back-alley junk come zen art project experience. Dumpster diving. Definitely a first.
As we dove our way through the dark, stormy, wet back alleys of West Broadway, we crossed paths with broken TVs, tons of cardboard, milk jugs and plain old garbage. No real canvass. Nothing of real inspiration...
That is until...
Until we spotted a lonely stool. Sitting there, hanging out behind a Japanese restaurant. Sad, old, rusty, dirty. It appeared more garbage than anything else. So we picked it up and carried it along with plans to repurpose it as a cool planter or something.
But as we made our way in the dark, it occurred to me that given it's position under an overhang and with a bucket of cigarette butts at its feet, maybe we actually just stole something?
This must be returned! And with that, inspiration was born!
What if we took it home, cleaned it up, decorated and returned it? Tonight.
Yes! They will be scratching their heads for the rest of time! ..."Remember that night when we came out to smoke and our stool was, well, kidnapped. And then returned. And painted. Who does that?!" Jill and I. And we cracked ourselves up the whole way home.
Now the purpose of these weekly projects is about the process and not the outcome. But who am I kidding, I wanted this thing to look awesome. That said, with only a 3 hour turn around time, and no real plan in mind, we didn't do too badly!
And the idea we were doing something kind of risqué, kind of hilarious, kind of artistic made me think this might almost be an opportunity to give back to the community. You know, go around and "improve" on people's sad outdoor furniture and stuff. Like that line from the movie A Chorus Line where "...break into people's houses and rearrange their furniture."!
Maybe next year's project? Or maybe not. I guess it would depend on people's sense of humour.... And that can be iffy. Ok, onto the next idea, then!
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