Friday 22 February 2019

One man's rubbish...


                                   Image result for artists easel

The day I left my Art College Foundation Course, I came across the Caretaker throwing away all sorts of (what he considered) 'rubbish'.

He was pushing a cart-full of broken easels (like the one above) towards a giant bonfire; ready to chuck them on.

I asked him if I could take a few of them, and piled about 7 or 8 onto the roof-rack of my VW Beetle.

Whilst talking to this discerning cleaner, I asked him if he was chucking out anything else that might be of interest to me. "Only those old plaster casts" he replied, nodding his head towards a pile of old and broken plaster Greek and Roman torsos, heads, feet, etc. I grabbed a large torso, a corinthian capital, and a head. I still have the head (below).


Back at home, I managed to assemble two complete easels from the pile of bits-n-pieces. The assembly work took about ten minutes, and I was left with a nice pile of rejected wood which went on the fire.

I still have one easel; the other one I lent to a friend. When I eventually went to collect it from her, she told me she'd thrown it away. Charming!

I don't wish to moan about the UK's Education budget, but multiply that carefree Caretaker's attitude towards equipment by tens of thousands schools and colleges, and you begin to see just a tiny fraction of the unnecessary waste.

Not that I'm complaining, of course!


27 comments:

  1. A throw-away world, nothing seems permanent any more.

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  2. People moan constantly about lack of funding for the NHS, education, police, etc; but sort-out waste and it would make a huge difference.

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  3. Get rid of waste and top heavy management, and there would be much more funding for all kinds of institutions.

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    1. Exactly. We see it daily, yet no-one is prepared to act.

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  4. Once on NZ we found an old cricket bat in the rubbish of a local school. My parents lived next door. Took it home and fixed the handle and brought it back here. Still got it!
    These places need a handyman for a caretaker.

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    1. Our throw-away society is self destructive. So many people in the world own just what they stand-up in, and no more; whilst we throw (or give) away so much.

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  5. The caretaker would have been, and still is, acting under management orders. Bad management is what it is. Bad management. No common sense decisions made. And as Andrew says etc.

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  6. Drew Pritchard on the programme Salvage Hunters loves buying those easels. They are worth a fortune and he buys any plaster casts he can get his hands on !!! At least he is recycling things.....,, and don’t get me started on the NHS .... they tell everyone to throw crutches, Zimmer frames, commodes etcetc away !!! They reckon it’s cheaper to throw them away rather than clean/sterilise them .... I don’t believe it ! When I last had a blood test I complimented the nurse on her dark grey uniform .... she said that, a couple of months ago, they had perfectly good light grey ones as then were told to bin those and were given new ones !!!!! If they sorted that and administration out, the NHS would save trillions !!! XXXX

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    1. I don't think those aluminium crutches are ever used more than once either.

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    2. My Health Board accepts the crutches and gives them to people who need them but are not usually eligible for them. I think they also go to the Red Cross. I'm not defending the cost of new verus sterilisation etc but I know of people who have refused 'used' items. I wondered how they even knew and they said they had specified that they wouldn't have used and, of course, in this day of suing and Facebook campaigns etc it's easier for public services just to just cave in.

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  7. The management board at our apartment building recently provided a skip for personal items being stored in communal areas, they are a fire risk. I can't tell you the decent things being thrown out, we have rescued brand new items for ourselves. What makes it even more shocking is the fact we live in Yorkshire, giving anything away is not normal I thought common sense was.

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    1. You only have to visit any council tip to see the things people throw out. Even sought-after antiques get tossed into skips. Amazing.

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  8. There is a lot about food waste in the media, but no one seems to bother about perfectly good and usable other stuff that is chucked away. Our library had a refit, tons of fixtures and fittings went in the skip. They could have been sold to buy more books. I got quite a lot of good quality floor coverings out, couldn't get the furniture in my car. Nobody cares any more.

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    1. I suppose that Charity Shops are testament to the things that people throw out. Good hunting grounds, especially shops in wealthy areas.

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  9. Reclamation yards used to make a lot of money when builders realised they could make a few quid from things they would have thrown in the skip.

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    1. And saved priceless objects at the same time. You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen thrown away here.

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  10. About 25 years ago a friend tipped me off that a school were going to throw out a large technical drawing easel because it was too heavy and cumbersome. For me it was just the job. I painted away happily for a couple of years until domestic circumstances changed and I had to leave it behind together with all my artworks and come here and start again. Today I paint on an octagonal table.

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    1. I've seen several of those big architect's 'easels' chucked out. They're too big for most people's homes.

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  11. One person’s trash is another’s treasure. Unless an item is damaged and beyond repair or worthless to a scrap dealer, most items can given to charity stores. It has tax advantages which is a good incentive to many. The one thing that is difficult to get rid of is upholstered furniture. Unless it is a relative you know well, nobody will take it because of the fear of bed bugs.

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    1. In the UK, all beds, sofas, and other furniture, has to have a safety label attached, otherwise it goes direct to the tip!

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  12. I gave all my first husband's art stuff away - including an easel like the one in your photo. It gave pleasure to others just starting out and struggling.

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    1. A lot of my stuff was stolen here in France when we moved. Portfolios of drawings, studio equipment, paintings, etc. I have no idea where it all went.

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  13. A rehab facility in Cleveland shut down. We saw a room full of looms going into a dumpster. Crashing and smashing. We were not allowed on the property and couldn't get any phone number to anyone in charge. That night we went back. Some of the looms on top of the full dumpster were just stacked, willy nilly. We unloaded two good looms. We wove on one for 20 years, and gave the other away. I think we did a rough count of 40 destroyed looms, times $2000. Ohio taxpayers sure took a hit.

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    1. That's a sin. It's so easy to give an order (clear that building!), but once it's gone, it's usually never replaced.

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