I had a visit today from one of my professors. I really enjoyed having someone in the container, showing off what I've been doing. It was also very nice to hear that my professor thinks the work is good - very poetic, nice imagery - and also nice to hear that she thinks the book piece is as beautiful as I do.

The artists have been asked to weigh what we collect, to see how much we are diverting from the landfill. Deborah said she thinks everyone will be surprised by how much we're pulling out. I think she's right. Today, I collected 200 pounds of stuff. I got a fabulous chandelier and one of those chairs that looks like something from ancient Rome - all for party girl's apartment - along with a really frilly pink party dress. I also found a crate full of metal cooking tins from a restaurant or something - mini cake tins, mini muffin tins, and a lot of escargot holders, go figure.

I also have a new idea for the faces piece - I found a set of silver charger plates that reflect would reflect the viewers face when you're looking at the piece and reading the poem. I like that a lot.

One of the biggest challenges of working at the dump is needing to balance what you'd like to create with what you can create given what shows up when you're collecting. Everything comes to the dump sooner or later, but you better hope that what you really want shows up while you're there. For the most part it does, but I've had plenty of times of walking into the shed and having one of the guys say, "You should have been here yesterday (or this morning), we had...." The experience is a great zen experiment - don't get attached to any one idea, be flexible and willing to change, and don't stress about how it's all going to come together.

No pictures today. Phone running out of battery power and I forgot my camera at home, but no real progress on any one piece. Today was mostly about collecting.