PICA Yard Sale or When Heaven fell to Earth – Photography by Justine Avera

In preparation for T:BA:07, PICA decided to do what most of us should have done this summer, which is hold a yard sale. By the time I got there, there were a few cool items still left for sale. I managed to make it home with several really large mirrors that had come from a previous installation, and this really nice small curved piece of wood that will be perfect for an altar that when not in use for art projects will double as my coffee table. I met Scott from Sincerely, John Head (he got the other cool curved pieces of wood which I am sure I will see in the studio at T:BA:07 for the Foghat LIVE tribute encounter piece thingy), and a neighbor Eric who coincidentally co-owns Someday Lounge and the Backspace Lounge/Cafe.
Now, I live in Southeast, so normally when we have a garage sale you get to meet the fat woman from down the street who was petitioning to keep the people from the local church from parking in her spot (you know, the one on the public street in front of her house??). So I was kind of chuckling at the crowd here. I met Bob, a wonderful man who had started a dance studio in L.A., and who was excited to reconnect with the dance scene here in Portland. He had just moved back, so we tossed the catalog back and forth trying to decide which performances were on the must see list. Then I saw Ned, one of the teachers for 6th grade at MLC (my daughter Margaret had Jeff), and tried to talk him into an immersion pass and encourage him and Jeff to get the kids out to see some of the public art installations.
A bit later, a woman was standing talking on her cell phone. She was interested in buying this great neon board with “Heaven” and a halo on it, pale blue with little puffy white clouds. She was talking to whoever on the phone, trying to decide whether or not to take it home. She didn’t have a generator, but I did, one that I had managed to drag all the way from Houston Texas with me, so right as it looked like the whole deal was going to happen, a great gust of wind came and blew the whole thing over. Neon went splintering everywhere, and the general consensus was that Heaven had just fallen to earth, and after that the whole thing just went to hell.
A number of PICA people helped me load the huge mirrors into the trusty PICA van and bring them to my house. I am eternally grateful, so maybe there is a little piece of heaven still out there…

When Heaven fell to Earth

Lemonade Stand – with tEEth

Confused shoppers looking on while Jorg lectures on how to build things using materials from the Dollar Tree store.
– Justine Avera www/flickr/photos/justineavera or talk to me at flickerboxpdx@yahoo.com