An Amazing Race...

CRAZY:  Here's me and the contestants (back seat), camera man, and celebrity guest from the Amazing Race (European version: PK Express).  

The other day, I was on my way home from Sagada with my latest trash painting (see below!) when I noticed a gaggle of white people in my village.

They were doing their best to wave down cars.  In three months, I haven't seen another white person in my village, so, after dropping off my stuff at home, Tomayo, my Police officer buddy, drove down with me in the police truck to investigate.  We were immediately swarmed and asked for a ride!  Two Belgians and a Parisienne were urgently trying to get to Baguio.  

Two of them spoke no English, only French-- (which fortunately for them I speak!).  I was able to understand that they were part of a race to get to Baguio.   At the moment they were badly last.  The younger teams were ahead of them with their English and good looks (a group of girls had put on Bikini tops to get a ride!).    

 My mind raced to help them out.  Tomayo could only drive so far in the Police car. Who could help us in Sabangan to get to Baguio? I had Tomayo stop at the mayor's house along the highway.  Mayor Donato, keen to help, had us jump in his highpowered SUV in a stunning display of impetuous generosity.  Off we went!  A crazy, full out, auto-race ensued on the most winding and precarious mountain road that you can possibly imagine.  The mayor was an AMAZING driver and we we took hair pin turns at full speed.   By nightfall-- skimming past the others in outrageous driving maneuvers, we were all queasy, but-- in second place!  

In Baguio, I got them to my friend Akira, who let them sleep at the back of her bar (the rules are that the contestants can't pay for anything and everything has to be given to them).  I bought them dinner.  It was the least I could do for two Belgians-- when I was in their country on my amazing journey, know that I was shown sooo much kindness and hospitality.  My new Baguio buddy, Alvin, stayed up all night with me and we found a van to take them the next morning at 7:55 AM.  

And juuuust in time,  the race began again at 8 AM!  

I am proud to say that Alvin and I got them then up to first (in another outrageous pass that will surely make the show)-- even if we faltered a bit at the end.  They caught a ride in a fast car in the town where they were required to transfer, and off they went!  

I wish them the best of luck and am deeply grateful for the profound lesson in following one's intuition.  

The art of following one's intuition never stops folks.  To waver in one's unending gratitude for each twist and turn, to regret the past, to wish something other than it is-- is to falter on the journey.  To give kindness to anyone at any moment is furthermore the best possible thing you can ever do, no matter the intricacy or solidity of one's own plans in that moment.  Do what you can!  That's what we are here for.

Merci Damien, Noela, Daniel, et Christophe! 

'Persistence' -- Our Latest Abstract Trash Canvas!

 Detail from canvas #4: Persistence

So, you all I've been working with Trash. We're making all sorts of great products with the trash weaving in the villages-- from bags to wallets to placemats.   These weavings are collaborations with communities as we collect, wash, cut, and assemble the trash.

Of course, I am first and foremost an artist. Thus, what I am most passionate about are the Trash Paintings that we are making using this same technique of weaving used sachets and wrappers.

I am tremendously excited about this. I've been working with the villages and the women weavers for almost a year now to establish the technique of weaving the trash in a compelling abstract aesthetic and mounting them appropriately. They are getting better and better!

And, now we now have a new painting complete!

Title: Persistence
By: Russell Maier, Karen Kalinga, (created in Sagada and Sabangan villages)
Size: 4'9 x 3'3 (145cm x 100cm)
Medium: woven trash (wrappers)
Price: 1900$ (available)
Framing: to be mounted on a pine stretcher backing (can be easily assembled and dissembled for shipping)

Trash to Treasure-- progress!

We've been real busy here in the village experimenting with home you can transform Trash to useful, beautiful and salable items. The idea is that by transforming trash three things can happen:

1. transform community pollution
2. increase the standard of living of poor folks with freely-made functional items
3. generate a new stream of livelihood income for the unemployed (mothers, farmers, out-of-school youth).

My house has been transformed into more than even a studio-- a laboratory for playing with trash: creating, refining and using. We've had three workshops now and created the coolest stuff. Here's some photos of our progress and play!

A table made from small plastic Yakult bottles (which are 100% non-recyclable!)

This one is simple but revolutionary-- drinking glasses from bottles. Here a mother's group learns to make them for their homes and to sell. The finished glasses are beautifully sanded and far nicer than the cheap glasses that folks normally here buy.

This table was made entirely from gin bottles.

I've also been working with Aunt Rose (who literally works at a city street corner as she sells candy and cigarettes to passer-byes) to transform drinking straws into mats, lamp shades and placemats.

Using wrappers of every sort I've been working with the local ladies to make everything from wallets, to clutch bags, to placemats and more.

My biggest passion however remains art. We are using the technique of weaving wrappers to generate large abstract "paintings" made entirely of trash. Here's some more examples of artistic collaborations using nothing but trash:

My dream is to show BIG trash canvases back in Paris and Berlin. We've got a few new ones in the pipe. I'll post soon!

A Full out Day of reTrashing

So, as many of you know, I've opened up a laboratory here in the mountain-perched village of Sabagan. My lover Bianca and I have been experimenting with transforming what is commonly know as Trash into our living accouterments in what was our bare house.

The house, has turned into a virtual laboratory. Studio or house is no longer the word. We've been delving deep into the requisite conceptual shift to see trash not as trash but rather something immensely practical.

We've been making some dazzling discoveries.

Today, I opened up the house to show the village youth and a mother's group our discoveries. The type of creations we are making out of trash are imminently salable products. Knowing how to make this stuff is an awesome livelihood skill for these out-of-school youth and unemployed mothers.

Fun! Here they are learning to cut bottles to make glasses, vases, ash trays, etc. We're all excited! Tomorrow everyone comes back for more.

Poverty as a Creative Opportunity

A living on the street in Manila receives a heart shaped banana pancake in a decorated banana leave sleeve.

I've been reflecting alot on my art practice in the last year. I have been doing art (which is usually for rich people) in one of the most materially poor countries in the world.

What is poverty exactly?

When it comes right down to it, poverty is a perspective, personal or collective on one's financial, material or existential state. Yep, that's what I am saying: fundamentally, poverty is an idea, a label-- a belief even. It is the idea you are lacking something that you should have or need.

Now, many spiritual folks will debate that this is in fact possible: Our moments are our perfect creations and we have all that we need Here in the Now. Poor people however, will urgently disagree, "I could really could use some food/money/gas right now!"

Such thoughts of lack however provide an opportunity to the other-- the neighbor, you and me. It is the opportunity for generosity, magnimitty, goodness, love. Poverty is an opportunity for the you and me to provide those immersed in need, precisely what they feel they lack. The condition of poverty is the perfect correlate for it's polar opposite to express itself: abundance and generosity!

Yet relieving another's need can be peformed in different ways. Giving can be cold and mechanical-- a welfare check from the government in the mail. Or it can be full of creativity and colour-- a gift wrapped in a hand painted paper and encircled with flowers. It can be about admelioring societal statistics, or it can be about creatively embracing the unique nuances of a person or people's existential state. The later takes time and imagination of course-- like a good painting. Truly, it is not so much about the material provided, but about the way of giving-- the way one expresses abundance to the other. As such, giving becomes an art. As such, I dare say, poverty becomes a blank canvas of artistic opportunity.

In this way the antiquitated verb 'to bless' gains relevance. In the way that The Lord would 'bless' a person or people with particular abundance, so too can we artfully address poverty with profound, poetic and luminous blessings of creativity.

This is even more so when we unite together to collectively and creatively express light to the shadows of lack and poverty. When two or more join together to craft and weave a blessing, the effect gains luminosity exponentially. Through socially media, an unprecedented opportunity presents itself for social co-creative blessings.

Such blessings are like a soft and colourful tapestry woven by a village to lay over a neighbour's rough and jagged floor. The co-creative expression that is woven for poverty has the opportunity to attain the highest ideals of beauty. For this is a tapestry woven not out of threads of cotton or silk but of hands joined together in a common task. The primary colours that form the expression are not red, blues and green, but instead joy, connection and oneness.

I can see it now, one day in the not so distant future, things will be alot more harmonious here on planet Earth. The enlightened humanity ahead of us will shake their heads with envy at our era. "There was so much poverty back then!" Poverty will then be seen clearly and valued for what it is. "They had so much glorious opportunity to manifest the most beautiful things and express love so colorfully!"

I am smack dab in the field here. Drop me a line if you'd like to help co-create.

Jaffari gives the Japanese ambassador an origami lotus flower made out of his youth group's prayer for the Japanese people after the 2011 Earthquake.

Completed! The Women of Gilbraltor neighborhood, Baguio, Phillippines pose with 113 coasters made entirely from recycled and woven trash (sachets from chips and other corporate food). These Trashure coasters are next their way to a Fair Trade store in Germany. Orders like this inspire massively here in the cities, jump-starting community recycling and, most of all, getting folks to think differently about garbage.

Building a re-Home

My lover Bianca and I have decided to undertake a novel challenge.

We have been laying the ground work to manifest another library project in the village of Sabagan for the last month. The library is to be built using recycled bottles. Bianca and I will be moving there in the next two days to fully apply our expertise to the project. The mayor, councillors, the guide association and schools are getting very excited by the project we are proposing. They are keen to get the community recycling going and with the "trash" that flows in, build their library.

But our moving there is the easy part. Getting settled is another matter! We'll be moving into a completely empty house. We'll be bringing our backpacks with nothing but our cloths and living gear. And... our creativity.

You see, we are going to make our furnishing from trash. Our chosen house, is located right beside the library site and the town recycling depot. The depot is there but the community is not yet using it. I will be working with all the community schools to jump start the project. Soon the recycling depot will be filled with all sorts of exciting and sorted items.

And... We're going to build our home! Yep. That's our self imposed challenge! We're going to build everything from our couches to mats to mattreses using recycled materials.

You can follow our village adventure and more of my Trashured discoveries (trash > treasure) on this new Facebook page that I have setup.

Www.Facebook.com/trashured