Recycle Granville

A few months ago when I accidentally locked my keys in the truck, a friend loaned me the money to have the tow company come and rescue me.  I promised to pay her back as soon as I could secure funds, but she insisted that I make her something...a surprise.  We all like surprises on some level I guess.  I gave her a newly made recycle sign that was a byproduct from the metal quilt project.  This was a perfect gift for my girlfriend because for years she was in charge of the local river clean-up, where volunteers take canoes and heavy duty boots and gloves and clean up the river.  The annual event continues to this day and is called The River Round-up.  I call her The River Round Up Queen, and as you might have guessed she was thrilled with my gift to her.
Soon thereafter she arrived for a visit, and wanted me to take my metal quilt to a tea house on River Rd. in Granville Ohio, to put it up for sale on consignment...which I no longer do as consignment is disastrous for an artist (my opinion).  The metal quilt has a patron, and is really not for sale, although it is tempting to take it around to the local shops just to take everyone's temperature on the subject of recycled art.
The River Round-Up Queen struck again yesterday and dropped by to tell me that she took her own RECYCLE sign to a shop on that same road in the same little complex of shops on the outskirts of Granville...a store called Going Green Store or something to that effect.  Of course I have not failed to see the irony in all this.  As long as I am not being recognized for the Granville Labyrinth Project from 1996, I won't be trying to promote my art there.  Anyone can make these recycle signs.  They are 100% profitable...if you already have the material laying around taking up space and THE TIME TO MAKE THEM!  And that is the crux of the matter.  This morning I took the time to pull together a few lids, cut up loyalty cards, an Obama propaganda DVD from election time, a pop can, and I started arranging them on a board someone threw in a trash pile a couple years ago.  I smiled this morning as I cut out the letters and got the project out of the way.  It won't hurt to have one of these done and sitting around in my workshop for a quick sale, or trade.  So if you are over on River Road in the next few weeks, check out the tea shop and the Going Green Store and let me know how my sign is doing.  If anyone asks you.....tell them you can't get one, you have to back order them.  It might take up to 6 months after your initial deposit.  Hell....you could outsource the sign and have it back from China in that amount of time!  These are the signs of our times my friends.  This same woman who used to do the River Round-Up said (20 years ago) that someday we (our society) will be mining the land-fills.  I knew way back then that she was on to something...and I haven't ever forgotten about that comment, or her efforts to clean up the river.  It is never too soon to start doing the next, best, first, right, thing!