Citywide Sunday

Friends, I am pooped. If you ask me, the holidays are all about overeating, undersleeping, and travel overload. My wee little brain needs a chance to recover from a dangerous sugar megadose, which is why I am pumping up today's post with less talk but more pictures. Obviously, it will taste great and be less filling. On Sunday afternoon, Karly, the very fabulous Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club fame, and I kicked it frugal style at Austin's bimonthlyish Citywide Garage Sale. There were some definite steals and deals, and also just some weird crap. Check it, yo.

Karly bought this awesome Black Beauty tapestry for $3. Every girl needs a stallion in the bedroom, no?

Cubism and gnomes! They go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong.

She's awfully haughty for a baldie, dontcha think?

This, also, is unfortunate.

I hate to spoil it for you, but this was the best picture I took all day. Sadly, it's all downhill from here.

The dude that ran this booth sold killer vintage backdrops. If you live in Austin, some of them are at Uncommon Objects. He also runs Webb Gallery in Waxahatchie.

Texas = Armadillos

More dead stuff.

This was Alonzo Huxley, beloved security guard of San Antonio. Apparently Alonzo's nephew sold his uncle's 40 pound bronze head to the proprietor of this booth. Note to self: nephews are unsentimental bastards.

Peppers, popes and ponies. What more could you ask for?

Perhaps a phenomenal Peter Max piece...?

Here stands a groovy little screenprint.

Calling all anachronists and lovers of obsolete technologies. Hipsters, come in. There is now an alternative to buying your tech goods at Urban Outfitters. Over and out.

If you pray hard enough, maybe you can get this vintage nativity set for free. Ask and ye shall receive, right?

In case you didn't already know, vintage dresses are freakishly tiny. That fills me with rage.

Cool it now with some shell chair love and capiz on top.

Sunny swagadelic lamp action always makes me happy.

I have a paint by numbers problem. It's inexplicable and stubbornly incurable.

I almost bought this lamp, but didn't. I may live to regret that decision, or the sugar withdrawals may kill me first.

That's it for my Citywide Roundup. All you people who keep threatening to visit and/or move to Austin will surely be dragged by force to the Convention Center to check out the aisles of cheap goodies being offloaded by desperate proprietors. Times is hard, y'all. All the better to buy vintage.

Meet Virginia

Perhaps the most rewarding thing about blogging is meeting new, exceptionally awesome people. Case in point: the other day, Karly and I got a lovely email from Virginia Fleck, who had heard about our site from super pal Sanders while buying paint at Benjamin Moore. Karly and I just about went into convulsions of joy when we realized Virginia is the artist behind these amazing recycled plastic bag mandalas seen in museums and public spaces all over Austin. Plus she was nominated for the Texas Prize, which is a HUGE bling bling deal around these parts. Plus she won the Juror's Award at the 2007 Texas Biennial (another really big deal). Check plus she works with teenagers on beautiful ecologically conscious projects. Oh, and she's a really nice lady, to boot. What's not to like about Virginia?

Well, if there is anything, I haven't figured it out yet. And certainly her artwork is enough to make you a believer in her cause: to "[reveal] the hidden beauty of the overlooked, disposable materials that continually pass through our hands... by collaging pieces of detritus from a consumerist society."

There is a long tradition of art made from trash -- Claes Oldenburg, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, even Marcel Duchamp, to name just a few -- but rarely is art made from castoffs so seductive and meditative. According to her artist's statement, Virginia's "mandalas made from plastic bags analyze the activity of consumerism as a spiritual encounter." I find it interesting that she breaks the cycle of numbing, comforting consumption, while translating that feeling into a more sublime experience of color and pattern and movement. The pleasure of viewing and thinking is intangible, but very powerful. See for yourself.

Can you believe that these used to be castoff, mundane plastic bags? Do they make you want to rifle through your own collection of bags in hopes of making something snazzy? (You DO recycle your bags, right???) The titles are just as good as the visuals. Clockwise from top left: flower pop, allah, heartland, tween.

Let's take a closer look at some details, shall we?

Holy hours upon hours of work! The aptly titled, buymore, features bits of recognizable branding, like Footlocker, Target, and the like. Similarly, liberty co-opts familiar logos and subverts their original intentions to sell, sell, sell (or buy, buy, buy, depending on your perspective):

It's more than a little disconcerting to see Lady Liberty hoisting a shopping bag in her hands, ringed by blankly smiling happy faces. It's become pretty apparent in the wake of the recent economic collapse that our national identity is connected with the consumerist impulse, and that democracy can be bought in big box stores. As long as our capitalist society is vitally intact, then America lives to reign as Superpower another day. Ok, end of rant. Funny story: during the early days of the Iraq War and all of the anti-France sentiment, a certain person close to me I shall call "X" (no, not Hunny Bunny) refused to shop at Target because he thought it was French owned. It's not. X, you may have single-handedly killed the US economy.

Back on point! It's hard to see from the 500 square pixels on your screen, but Virginia's mandalas range from big to enormous, like 7 feet tall. Let's check them out in their natural habitat -- on the wall:

At Austin City Hall.

A groovy backlit version at the Whole Foods headquarters.

A smaller version featured in Western Interiors. Don't you feel like you need one for your own wall?

Just when you thought Virginia and her work couldn't possibly get any cooler, you meet her teen proxies, the Angsty Teenage Eco Warriors:

Virginia has been working with teens for the past five years on ecologically conscious projects rooted in recycling. At this workshop, she taught them to make hip totes out of colored bags, as well as plastic bag mandala clothing.

I would call them adorable, but if memory serves, that is not the proper term for an angsty teenage lady. So I will just say that their interest in the environment is rad, and that their handmade clothing is amazing! Look at that mandala skirt, and I love the plastic bag tank top with matching belt modeled by the pink punk princess. What a great group! Virginia, your desire to educate the next generation in ecological practices brings a tear to my sentimental eye. I used to teach high school, and I know how important it is to start teaching kids to be self reliant skeptics as early as possible.

Oh, Virginia, I have such a crush on you. Your work is pretty AND smart, and you don't hoard all your goodness to yourself. Talented people everywhere, let this be a lesson to you: Spread the Wealth!

Repurpose, Redesign

Despite an entire Monday spent extolling the many virtues of cardboard furniture (although dingy brownness was not one of them), I am still in a recycling state of mind, possibly because all the trash floating down our street is making me sick. No more Church's Chicken cups, beer cans and gross dirty band aids in my yard, please! While I haven't found a use for old band aids yet (and I'm sure I never will), I have found a veritable cornucopia of cool items designed from repurposed materials.

Clockwise from top left: San Francisco Metro Map Bowl by Etsy seller picapicadesign, Recycled wool blanket purses by designer Tieneke Beunders at Ontwerpduo, Recycled aluminum pop top purse by Brazilian designers at Escama Studio, and Recycled packaging lights by Anke Weiss seen at Yanko Design.

I am obsessed with maps (look for a future post devoted solely to their geographical goodness), so I adore the bowls by Picapica, and all the purse are very cute, wearable, and environmentally friendly. Yay trashless yard! The lamp made from recycled packaging is also a nifty idea, and it just goes to show that with a simple light kit (sold at Hope Depot or Ikea), many objects can be reborn as lighted sculptures. Par example, regardez Francois Legault's amazing spoon chandeliers at Unik:

I'm relieved that he used spoons instead of forks. I am not sure how I would feel about a million pointed tines aiming at my eyes as I gazed up at their splendor.

Meanwhile, Tineke Beunders over at at Ontwerpduo is busy building more pieces out of materials that make you wonder why anyone ever discarded them in the first place.

The chair (which, in real life, I am quite sure is NOT as large as the cupboard), is strung like Danish rope cord but with old telephone wires. Being one of the landlineless legions, I had forgotten telephone wire even existed, but then I remembered waaay back to my awesome clear Swatch phone and its colorful guts. It's a very surprising use of materials, I think. And the cupboard made of old metal file boxes really belongs in my house. I want it and its filthy industrial patina so, so badly.

If you're looking for something a little more classic, something that screams less "Hey, I am recycled!" and more "Hey, I cost a sh*tload of money!" then look no further than the Phillipe Starck designed Kong chair, modeled after the ubiquitous Ghost chair, but this time cast and welded with 88% recycled aluminum:

I've got to say that those are some sexy chairs. Unlike the other pieces I featured today (all of which I am still in love with), the Starck chair bears no mark of its original incarnation as a thousand common cans. It must have cost a small fortune just to get the base materials into a finished state, so I'm sure the $2000 price tag is somewhat justified.

Maybe they'll get recycled one step further and show up on Craigslist. Knock a zero off and those babies are mine.