When Spring time rolls around many of us get into closet clearing mode, quickly to realize we have spent a lot of time working for money that we use to buy stuff that we end of trashing. It’s a bad cycle, for our psyche and for the planet. If more of us stopped or slowed the cycle, we’d have a lot more time to enjoy our lives – rather than spending a gorgeous morning managing crap. Despite understanding this, the cycle rears its ugly head.Â
On a recent evening while walking down Nassau Ave in Greenpoint, we noticed a very peculiarly painted piece of furniture on the curb. It was a stool; the back had jaundice yellow eyes and the base was a bubblegum pink painted body with cock and balls front and center. Greenpointers have some interesting decorating tastes, I thought. Jon got that look in his eye, throw it into the back of the pick-up truck? We are big time trash collectors.
We are also big time art collectors  (in a hoarder sense) and when I go on my “getting rid of stuff” rampage, I never think to get rid of the art – don’t touch the art! Art is – posters I peel off lampposts or paint by numbers I find, where else, but in the trash. And that art I “save” from the trash, I can’t find it in myself later on to trash again.
Had we taken the pink stool, we would have been feeding our garbage and art hungry beasts, because we later realized the piece was the work of Barcelona born, Brooklyn artist Francisco de Pajaro, whose #artistrash pieces can be chanced upon on garbage night or anytime on Instagram. And if we took the piece – we’d be missing the point.
I got a hold of Francisco on the great digital trash heap that is the internet. Below is our Facebook conversation. What is lost in translation makes the conversation even more interesting.
GP: do you live in brooklyn?
Francisco: yes
Francisco: I paints for all the places that I think important
GP: do you think greenpoint is important? i have seen your work there
Francisco: yes, I think so
GP: why?
Francisco: because they are desolate places
GP: what do you find desolate about them?
Francisco: places where not many people, I like to create surprises people who know walk around and look.
GP: have you ever seen anyone reacting to your #artistrash?
Francisco: not much. I’m going to rid the place of installation art.
GP: what inspired you to create your first #artistrash piece?
Francisco: Many personal problems. Not having money to paint, not to exhibit in galleries, have no interest to anyone.
GP: when you were painting before – were the same characters (the man, the bird) in your artwork before?
Francisco: talk about what drew me to the street for the first time
GP: you talk about it
Francisco: these characters the painting at age 10, at school
kid
GP: has anyone seen you creating artwork with their trash and asked you what you were doing?
Francisco: no, I’d never seen nor that of giving
GP: is your work a reaction to the art world? if so please explain
Francisco: The idea is to die in municipal waste, is action. I see all people as you can. I do not care to see him at home.
is garbage
GP: “is garbage” = art world?
Francisco: the ephemeral message is important
society
GP: what about you as a person? what is your relationship to your belongings?
Francisco: art should not give much importance, there are more important things and close our eyes.
GP: art is a byproduct of people? just like garbage? and …
Francisco: sold everything automatically becomes garbage
GP: so museums are just collections of very expensive garbage
is anything precious to you?
Francisco: are human stupidities that we have instilled in our education as something wonderful
for me the most valuable is the life of a person or animal
GP: thank you. is there anything you want to add? or a message to people in brooklyn?
Francisco: all the rest are things that fade
You’re welcome. I will tell you going in the trash.
to paints