Category: Trash Art

February 21, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m kind of all over the place this morning, and this weekend. We had a phenomenal pediatric drive through vaccine event yesterday. That’s already posted and publicized over several facebook pages and Instagram accounts. Then we did some parenting yesterday, and finally bought some underclothes for our daughter and much needed running shoes. Between Dicks Sporting Goods and RoadRunners Store (which I actually don’t recommend), we spent $350. So much for being frugal! We haven’t really purchased any sustaintial clothing for her in months. I don’t remember the last new piece of clothing? She is such a good daughter and okay wearing hand-me-downs and on this sustainability journey with me, but when you need sports-underthings you need sports-underthings. Mr. Plastic Picker and I are both real middle-managers and it doesn’t make sense during the COVID-19 pandemic to spend time exposing our daughter to possible infection and time is money, so we spent 3 hours shopping for things and spent $350 on things she really needed which are quality products that should last her a very long time. I told her honestly yesterday, “Mommy always likes to reuse and/or find a deal. But honestly dear daughter, we have plenty of money and daddy needs to work so let’s just get what you need and get home. It’s okay to get good quality clothes and spend money sometimes.”

I was pleased that we didn’t fall into the Road Runner’s trap of getting the custom orthotics for our daughter who has no foot issues. Sheesh. It was like going to buy a new car, and them trying to sell us all the bells and whistles when you just want to go home with the basic model. Definitely a hard sell. But we walked away and even had a good dinner, and avoided take-out yesterday. We almost ordered pizza and almost got burgers. But knowing that I could whip up dinner really fast, we saved ourselves the unhealthy fats and saved the earth a bit of emissions yesterday.

But I feel so connected with everyone today, even though I am just sitting at home typing away at the computer. I have been on and off typing, but in between communicated with the amazing students at the Sustainable Pharmacy Project who are applying for a grant, posted on my Crimson University Alumni Page about the same grant that all aims to increase the discussion on climate change and health. I made the Bobby Flay’s pizza dough again, as I looked through our fridge and homemade pizza is a great food waste recipe! So lunch will be pizza after about a 6 hour rise. I made one further step in solidfying the judging panel for the Green Ribbon that one of my amazing colleagues is organizing for the Greater San Diego Science Fair. And then I made a trash art piece that is very profound.

February 18, 2021

by drplasticpicker

The Black Phoebe is my favorite bird. You could say she is my spirit animal, in a non-religious way. The Black Phoebe belongs to the order of birds Passeriformes, which means in Latin sparrow – like. Can you tell I’m reading Wikipedia? These are usually songbirds and perching birds, that have 3 toes pointing forward and one toe pointing backwads. Half of all birds belong to this family. Most passeri are smaller than other birds.

The Black Phoebe is part of the Tyrant-Flycatcher family. This bird’s range is from southern california to Oregon, and does venture to central and south america. Usually the Black Phoebe stays within it’s range and doesn’t really migrate. She is a songbird, and eats mostly insects. From Wikipedia, “The phoebe can be recognized by a characteristic “tail-wagging” motion, in which the tail is lowered and the tail’s feathers fanned out. It accomplishes almost all locomotion by flight, which is direct, with steady wing beats.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_phoebe

Anyway, I love the Black Phoebe. I see her a lot. She’s a pretty little black bird. Now that we have our composter which is working well in the corner of our backyard, I think the Black Phoebe is visiting more as there are little insects that are the natural part of the decomposition process. One was perched on my mother-in-laws fig tree the other day, sallying forth eating some unknown insect in our new container garden and bird habitat.

I also made this beautiful upcycled succulent planter basket, in between my chores yesterday. Most of the components of the upcycled succulent basket was going into the landfill. But because I always have cactus/succulent potting mix, I created something I think is lovely. I made it myself.

It’s ready in the back of my plug-in hybrid, and I will put it on one of the outside employee lunch tables at work. I need to spruce up our outside work space. Plus, I think it will bring people joy. They’ll look at it and think a little bit. If someone takes it home, that is okay. Maybe they needed a bit of joy. I hope it can stay and grow though, and provide happiness to my fellow co-workers who are sitting outside and eating lunch.

January 23, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I made this wine-cork upcycled ocean plastic figure yesterday. I was in an intense storm of professional angst, and he came together from the bits and pieces I had saved from the last solo beach clean up. I remember where I found the figure, who I now know is Evil Kenevil, in the sand embankment where the Surf Rake deposits it’s load. I found the blue plastic sand toy handle nearby, broken as many cheap plastic beach toys are. People are often surprised that there are plastic hangers in the beach. I’ve found many like the one above. Just the top parts. I don’t know how and I don’t now where from. I just find them and keep the interesting plastic bits. It all came together to make a sailboat, and a plastic figure (now I know from Toy Story 4) that was trying to ride off into an unknown future.

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January 18, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I think my work iPhone broke! Oddly I’m totally okay with that. I was carrying it downstairs this morning to start blogging at about 430am, and it was on top of two laptops. I was balancing the iPhone and two mouses as I walked carefully down the dark stairs. When I reached the kitchen safely, something plopped loudly on the ground. I was worried it was the mouse, but it was actually the work iPhone and it had fallen exactly horizontally planar onto the ground. No glass is broken. But it won’t turn on. I’m oddly OK with it. I have the day off anyway today. My work iPhone is the only way for me to check Instagram and udpate (or at least how I typically use my devices) or for people to text me. I’m sure it will start working when I replug it in, but I’m enjoying the work Iphone quiet right now.

My interview on KevinMD posted and I’m still in that cringy/shy stage after revealing myself and the blogstory. https://youtu.be/d4QVLqg7Okg or https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/how-ocean-plastic-picking-made-me-a-better-pediatrician-podcast.html I watched it several times, and am truly happy with it but can still be cringy. My friend Dr. McFrugal was right, Kevin Pho is a very kind and encouraging interviewer. In the end, my daughter and mom really liked the interview and that made me happy. I posted it on my personal facebook page and several groups I am part of. The entire point is to raise awareness about the plastic pollution crisis and environmentalism, so I need to share it. I questioned again why I am so open and why I began this blog journey, and my daughter reminded me that “Mommy, if this encourages one person to start picking up plastic – than it is worth it.” Tweens are so wise at times. And so it’s all worth it. The story is simple and straightforward and it’s mine. I should be proud to share it. I did look great on camera though! My mom liked my shirt. She doesn’t know that I bought it at Good Will. LOL.

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January 12, 2021

by drplasticpicker

It wasn’t enough to make an entire dish, but I grew it. I grew it all myself. The shallots were from the store but I saved the ends and just stuck them in some water. I chopped them up, and put the bulbs in my container garden. The radishes and beet greens I planted from seed in my container garden. I did it myself. I sold our Honda Odyssey Minivan https://drplasticpicker.com/the-road-to-fise-let-it-go-the-2006-honda-minivan/, turned our backyard concrete parking pad into a minicontainer garden. This took learning how to sell the Minivan myself and filling out the DMV paperwork. Then after selling the minivan, taking multiple trips with Mr. Plastic Picker to Home Depot to buy the containers and soil. I had to clean the entire area. I moved an old outside rug that had been upstairs on the roofdeck for over a year, and very dusty. I vaccumed the rug and carried the heavy thing downstairs myself. Then I moved the patio furniture around, and a chair over to my mini-container garden area. Suddenly a small wicker end table appeared, my mother-in-law brought it out from their stash. I bought seed packets of radishes and beet greens. I bought them because I want to start eating them more, and I read that they are almost impossible to mess up. And then I started gardening. It’s been a multi-month process. The parsley I tried got riddled with these unknown bugs and I have no idea what they are. But finally, yesterday – it was time to harvest.

It’s so important to plant things. I need to set a good example. I was standing at the local taco shop across from our clinic, and Dr. Dear Friend and Dr. MM and I were buying lunch. Then Jupiter Ascending was playing on the screen. That movie is a closet vampire movie about this god-awful sci-fi fantasy about people harvesting souls. It’s horrible and now a cult classic. I want to be a creator of life and I don’t want to live forever young. I am happy being middle-aged and wise (but with lucious hair from my new HiBar shampoo bar!). So I am trying to plant a garden myself for my children and myself, and to set a good example for my patients and the world. I honestly didn’t know if I could do it. Succulents that people have gifted to me in the past have died in my office.

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December 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m looking at yesterday’s trash art piece and I’m still blown away. This is going as a set to someone but as I look at it more there are layers and layers of meaning. When I make the trash art, I have to be in the right mindset and then it just comes. I honestly don’t know or understand what I’m making until it’s done. And then I relook at it and sometimes I get scared or awed at what my subconscious does.

This is the High Priestess and her two insectoid supplicants. They are bonded together by the wooden knitting needles which is my daughter’s which was broken and I carefully salvaged. The bodies are upcycled wine corks. I didn’t realize until I was discussing the pieces with several colleagues yesterday (I had randomly texted them the pictures of the pieces while we were discussing our institution’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout) is that I was really intriqued by each person’s eyes. Each eye is different and none of them are normal. The High Prietess has tunnel vision and is looking inward and her one eye socket is deep. The one eyed insectoid has an innocent wide eyed mouth, but sharp ends to protect the High Priestess. It also has a purple felt half heart and purple is the color of valor. Half a heart, is what we should bring to work. Then there is the insectoid supplicant with the disconjugate gaze. I now understand that this one is me. Looking looking everywhere. Scanning. Scanning with a visual field different than humans. Blunt arms ready to protect and defend the insect colony.

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December 22, 2020

by drplasticpicker

This is Blue Fluffy Bird. He is made from an upcycled car-wash mop that was pretty clean I found on a litter picking walk, but then also cleaned again several times by me. I could have just kept the now cleaned car-hand mop in my car, but the fluffy blue bits were speaking to me. It was just too interesting to pass up. I initially made a shirt for my daughter’s old Diego toy. But then magically by wrapping the blue fluffy polyester oil-based material around a wine-cork, and then using the safety scissor covers as the beak, I had the head of a new species of bird. It’s a plastic bird. I won’t go into the rest of the plastic bits that make up the bird, because I detailed it already on Instagram. But this bird inspired a lot of amazement and wonder, but also intense disgust in some people. It’s amazing because I cleaned it all – I know this bird is cleaner than most toys out there. But it still inspired a lot of intense emotion.

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December 17, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am a trash artist. I am a trash artivist. I just posted my items and almost opened an Etsy Shop LOL, but they wanted the last four digits of my social security number so I shut down Dr. Plastic Picker’s Toy Shop after 5 minutes. That was vaguely interesting! But Dr. Plastic Picker’s Toy Shop is actually open, and it’s open in my actual office. All items are FREE but only to invited guests into my office. When Etsy wanted the last 4 digits of my social security number and I know that Etsy shops are a bit of a scam, as the makers make very little, and Etsy makes a lot. I remember reading an article in the New York Times or CNN on some expose. I’m not surprised.

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December 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Dr. Plastic Picker is under attack! Yes my blogsite is under attack by a random brute force attack outside of the US (actually it looks like France). I was very upset about this, but I did more research and talked to my brother (also voluntary web consultant). I learned that this is just a random brute force attack. The danger is that getting into our site they could infect others. But Dr. Plastic Picker when I am attacked, I WAKE UP!!! I started researching online about how to parry this attack and made some simple changes. I’ve made some changes to increase the integrity of this site. And in the end, what are you attackers from France going to gain? This site is about picking up trash and I don’t store any data. But I do have my beloved blogs I’ve written, so I’ll work in the next few weeks to back everything up. This attack made me so mad, but I guess it was meant to be because I WOKE UP EARLY TO PROTECT MY SITE and I also did more environmental work because of it.

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November 28, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am always eager to get up in the morning (its 4:44 AM, yes three 4s in a row) to write to you. This morning I got up trying not to wake Mr. Plastic Picker or irritate the 12-pound poodle fur ball that sleeps with us as well, But very little will deter me from sitting in front of the computer tapping away on my laptop. I turn on the electric hot water kettle, check on my vinegar projects (which sits on the shelf under the coffee station) and give it a quick stir, and then settle down to write. Literally this morning I woke up and thought, “what nonsense can I write about this morning?”

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