Shortly after I arrived, Agness and Lawrence and I made a list of the things that we hoped would be accomplished during my residency. These included: teaching art classes, visiting neighboring schools and orphanages, meeting with interesting people connected to the arts, building a kiln, making my own art, taking trips to important local sights, and doing odd jobs to improve the facility, including putting up some storage shelves for Agness’s collection of recycled art materials. This last item was high on my priority list because I brought with me the gift of carpentry and handyman skills that have taken a lifetime to hone and are fading as I age.
Like most artists, Agness collects things that she feels will someday be useful. She has a large inventory of what most Americans would classify as trash. Since garbage collection vehicles and services are very limited in Livingstone, trash in outlying areas is taken care of by incinerating it or burying it somewhere on the property. What doesn’t get dealt with at the source, ends up accumulating in the public spaces and byways, like in cities anywhere. And, like anywhere, it is a problem that just won’t go away. So people like Agness think outside the (trash) box and try to do their part to make something that has negative value into something that can be cherished.
In her classroom, milk cartons become monsters, pop bottles become rockets or giant pencils, paper plates are transformed into tropical fish. Kudos to Agness for doing her part to transform trash into treasures.
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| cars form cans |
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| Masks from jugs |
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| Pig planter pop bottles |
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| cardboard houses |
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| milk carton minions |
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| detergent bottle fish |
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