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.

For various reasons, making this set really brought up issues I did not know I needed to work through. It will be gifted as a set to someone I admire and fear (like the High Priestess). LOL. But Dr. Plastic Picker is subconsciously serious.

As I have decreased our family’s consumption or material things (except yesterday when Mr. Plastic Picker went crazy at Barnes and Nobles and Michaels – but at least it wasn’t plastic things), I have been able to zero out the noise of the pre-packaged inputs that other people have tried to put in my brain. Prepackaged vacations. Prepackaged bodies. Prepackaged families. Prepackaged careers. Prepackaged foods. Really why? Now that I have lived in this creative life, I fully understand that it’s so boring. You (and I) are so much more interesting than anyone really understands. We just needed to zero out the noise to find that creative self.

And that is why I was super excited to finally have a meeting with one of our premedical interns and other pediatrician members to move this project forward. We met just briefly about 30 minutes but accomplished a lot yesterday. Assigned tasks to various members, put deadlines out, and decided on structure of the youth arts exhibition.

Dr. Plastic Picker is now a trash artist, and I really want to give the children I know around me the opportunity to express themselves. We want to showcase their art and poetry, but I also really want them to go through the process of finding their creative selves. And that is how we will save the earth. The theme is going to be “Living Ocean.” I’m super excited!!!