Tossed & found

• Cracked Pots artists peruse our refuse for inspiration

By Nancy Hill

The Portland Tribune, Oct 19, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Inside the Portland Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland, the stench is overwhelming. Piles upon piles of discarded materials bake inside a metal building scorched by the sun. Dust clouds rise from the rubbish, and tire tracks crisscross the litter-strewn cement floor. Squawking pigeons swoop down to retrieve bits of refuse only birds could find palatable.

“Isn’t this amazing?” asks garden designer Tess Beistel of the mounds of discarded material inside the football field-size building. It’s as if she were revealing an exquisite landscape whose beauty leaves you speechless. “We’re finding incredible things for the Cracked Pots artists.”

On her knees in a pile of solid trash Ñ no hazardous materials or wet garbage can be dropped off at a Metro waste transfer station Ñ Beistel painstakingly moves items aside as if on an archaeological dig. Her blue eyes light up as she uncovers a piece of paper with a fish motif. She dusts it off and shakes her head.

“This will make a beautiful card or work as part of a collage,” she says. “If only people took a minute to ask themselves what they might do with things before they throw them away.”

Bits and pieces of debris cling to her jeans as she rises to check out the clear glass teacup that artist Mary Lou Abeln has uncovered from the rubble. “Not a mark or chip on it,” Abeln points out. “Someone can tell a new story with it. Maybe it will be a birdhouse. Or a sculpture. You never know what character a recycled object will become through the eyes of an artist.”

A passion for gardening and the environment brought Cracked Pots co-founders Abeln and Beistel together. Since 1998, the two women and their core group of 10 artists have sought ways to salvage materials for reuse. Driven by a love of art and a dire concern for the amount of usable material crowding landfills, Cracked Pots members spend countless hours increasing environmental awareness while providing recycled materials for artists.

“Synchronicity played a big part in how Cracked Pots was created,” Abeln says. “Tess and I had spoken on the phone about gardens, particularly healing gardens, but didn’t meet in person until I held a sale at my house that included work from artists who use recycled material. Tess came and loved it.

“The sale was a great success, and Tess and I brainstormed about doing more shows like it. And that was the beginning of Cracked Pots.”

The nonprofit project has worked with more than 150 regional environmental artists selected through a juried process to become part of the organization. The group culls salvage, organizes an annual sale and oversees public art projects. It also forms partnerships with others concerned with environmental issues, which led it to Metro and the culling process.

Because Cracked Pots’ message about recycling and reusing material is consistent with Metro’s mission, Cracked Pots has special permission to salvage material twice a year.

“Cracked Pots creates high visibility for materials that people just discard that could have a second life,” says Metro Outreach Planner Genya Arnold. “Their creativity encourages others to think of new ways to use things they’re thinking about throwing away.” Arnold says Metro sends more than 1,500 tons of discarded items to landfills daily. Cracked Pots helps bring awareness to the problem.

Joli Pfaller, a Metro recycling information specialist, spends her day taking phone calls from people trying to find out about where to dispose of or recycle materials.

“The more I know about the Cracked Pots, the more impressed I am,” she says. “They do a great job of helping us keep things from landfills and a wonderful job of contacting artists to let them know what our callers have to recycle.”

Pfaller estimates that Metro refers at least 40 callers a month to Cracked Pots.

Beistel adds a book of wallpaper samples to the stack of goodies that the Cracked Pots have “teased” from the rubbish Ñ a vintage baby carriage, rugs, window frames, metal scraps, stuffed animals, cutlery and scraps of wood.

“Our motivation is waste reduction,” she says. “And so it was logical to reach out to Metro. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get permission to salvage things from the waste station, and we can only do it a couple of times a year.”

Bowling balls find a home

Despite the red tape, Metro and Cracked Pots have a strong partnership. “We have a list of artists always looking for material,” Beistel says. “For example, last month Metro asked if we knew anybody who might be able to use 10 bowling balls. One of our artists was thrilled to take them, and just like that, we saved the bowling balls from the landfill and the landfill from the bowling balls.”

People also can get territorial about their castoffs. At a recent culling, a woman drove into the waste transfer station and began unloading items in usable condition. “We approached her, explained who we were, and asked if we could take a look at what she was throwing out,” Tess recalls. “She not only told us no, but she then started throwing things so they’d break.” When she left, she took off her shoes and threw them out her car window.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit