Judy Kunkle's glass artwork will be among the pieces featured in the 19th annual Crackedpots Reuse Art Show.

By Judith Spitzer | For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Trash, rubbish, junk, refuse, waste, by any other name it’s still garbage – unless you’re talking to one of more than 90 artists who will be selling their unique creations at McMenamins Edgefield at the annual Crackedpots Reuse Art Show.

The event, in its 19th year, showcases the whimsical, the quirky, the random and the off-the-wall work of artists whose supplies include reused, semi-destroyed and reimagined materials that otherwise would have been trashed.

Creative reuse is at the heart of the Crackedpots show, according to Tess Beistel, a Portland garden designer and artist who, along with artist MaryLou Abeln, started Crackedpots in 1998.

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Ophir El-Boher, textiles artist.

“We have a mission: to use art to encourage our community to creatively look at trash,” said Beistel.

Whether you've never heard of the Crackedpots show or you're eagerly awaiting this year's event, you'll find artists from the Pacific Northwest as well as two international artists: Diederick Kraaijeveld from Amsterdam, who works in reclaimed wood, and Ophir El-Boher, who hails from Tel Aviv, working in upcycled fashion.

Artists are required to use a minimum of 80 percent materials which have had a past life, have been retired from that life, and have been repurposed to a new life. The categories for artwork include wood, metal, glass, jewelry, collage, assemblage and textiles.

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Kay Sims, "Peony Ranch," metal

Northwest artists

While rusty old shovels are not most people’s idea of edgy décor, after Kay Sims is done transforming them into charming rusty sculptures, they find homes in and on some of the most elegant gardens and walls around.

Sims, a Portland artist, says she digs forgotten machinery out of the ground in Oregon’s forests and plucks shovels and other tools out of the trash to fashion her unique pieces.

“We create garden art, sculptures and furniture out of scrap steel and found objects,” Sims said. She added that her past work as an industrial welder “influences the creative process.”

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Everett Bone, "Cloud Nine Recycled Creations," assemblage

Local artist Everett Bone uses what he calls upcycled, mostly electrical parts and pieces to create art lamps that look like a marriage between Dr. Seuss and vintage steampunk. Materials are everything from scrap metals and auto parts to kitchen utensils and vintage lamp parts.

“I use lots of materials that I have visions of incorporating into retro-futuristic pieces,” said Bone. “I like to use items that someone sees as useless and not only make them useful again but make them part of a whole new thing.”

Zoe Wylychenko, a Portland textiles artist, takes secondhand wool and once-expensive cashmere sweaters, as well as knit items and vintage T-shirts, and repurposes them into warm and colorful fingerless gloves, dresses and unique skirts (with pockets). Wylychenko haunts secondhand stores to find discarded materials which she reinvents.

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Zoe Wylychenko, Zoe Jones Designs, textiles

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Chelsey Clark's jewelry piece "My Favorite Button" will be among the works at the Crackedpots Reuse Art Show.

ReClaim It

Jane Comerford, a fourth-generation Oregonian who has been involved with Crackedpots since 1999, is also one of the owners of ReClaim It!, a retail offshoot of the Crackedpots nonprofit in North Portland.

Nearly every Friday, Comerford throws on trash-diving attire and picks through other people’s rubbish at the Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland. Comerford and other volunteers have unearthed some incredible finds, including a British sterling silver tea set, a handmade French country table, a 1940s set of Disney toys, letters from a World War II soldier to his wife, and even $50 in cash stuffed into a tin can.

This year, “we’ll be bringing two truckloads of stuff from the ReClaim It! store for a pop-up store at the Edgefield show,” Comerford said.

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Among the artists featured in the Crackedpots show is Pamela Consear of All Hands Art, who made this assemblage.

Organizers expect between 4,000 to 6,000 to set eyes on some unique creations and to help the planet.

“At the show a person is surrounded by examples of all these creative people who are doing these things and it turns out to be delightful,” Beistel said. “The purpose of it all is to really look at consumption in this world and to open the possibility of not being a consumer in such a predictable way. It changes something when you see others’ creativity. You cannot be unaffected if you come in with open eyes and an open heart.”

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Crackedpots Reuse Art Show

When: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, Aug. 14-15

Where: McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale

Admission: Free; crackedpots.org or 503-669-8610