Robert is the best "trash hunter", 90% of the furniture in the gallery is found from the streets. When we lived in San Diego we used to go every weekend to the swap meet, and now we cruise the streets
of
Barcelona!!!!!!.
Here is Robert at the kitchen room in the gallery, all in this wall is found in the street, his favorite piece is
the cross because is real iron, hand pounded, there is no welding, and he says is very, very, very old. Also the
books that look great in the kitchen,
marble molding shelve that belong to a church, and Robert rescued it. Then the restaurant in front of us got rid of the
chalk board with the desert menu, it doesn't have any value but again we thought in the kitchen will look great.
Robert always wanted a
Mona Lisa and he got it!!!!!!!!!, and also we have lot s of
iron pieces like this, that are beautiful for decoration, and also this
chest where I keep Dylan's toys,...one day I was on the bus and I saw 2 big travelling chests from the 60's in the street that would have been great for tables, and I almost jumped out of the bus,....but also would had been a big nightmare to carry those back to the gallery....and the beautiful
sunflower lamp!!!!!!!
Robert found this
painting yesterday, and I absolutely love it!!!!!! we have to restore it and we think is from the 1920's, it 's really damage but it's so worth to keep it, I hope one day we get a bigger apartment and put this painting in Dylan's room. Also along with this he got
newspapers from the late 1920's and 30's when Barcelona was getting bombed during the civil war, and there is some news about Hitler, the italians, quite amazing, I'm so glad we don't live in a war like that..............Robert told me that it was crazy somebody empty a whole apartment in the street, and was quite hard to get anything. He found an antic vise for jewellery but this girl told Robert "It's MIIIIIINE!!!!!!" so he had to let it go, though he got also some very fine old
tools for jewellery that the girl didn't see, JA, JA. You have to be fast and agressive!!!!!!!
This is my sewing studio and I think it's all from the street but the green dresser and mirror that belongs to my grandparents, the
white cabinet and the matching
white table from the street,
the chair from the street, the old sewing
SINGER machine from an apartment that some british bought and they didn't care about all the stuff inside so they invited us and another neighbors to empty the apartment, and Robert got this for me, he also got
glass ware, and I regret not have taking the bed linens, and the funniest one
2 paintings from what it was the old owners that passed away, and we have them hang in one of the kitchen walls in the gallery and people think are my grandparents............Also we have an
old sign from the 1920's from a butcher shop "Ternera 27", and one day the grand-daughter walk in the gallery and recognized the sign from her grandfather's shop, but she told us her father dump it on the street and she was happy we keep it, she didn't care about having it either......also I love the
painting frame Robert found for me, we painted and I put my first illustration somebody wanted to buy but it but has a sentimental value, more like a lucky charm, so No for Sale.
And more furniture from the street, white
lamp from the 70's, the
white dresser, and the
chandelier!!!!!!!!....... I was walking Peggy and I saw this man with the chandelier in his hands and I was so fast!!!!! before he would let it go in the street and break it, I was not shy at all and asked him if he was going to trash it and said yes!!!!!!,........literally I took it from his hands!!!!!!!
And some
architectural finds, this big stone Robert thinks is from the Roman period for the size and the way is cut. There were these workers digging a trench in the street and they pulled this big stone, and Robert asked if he could take it!!! I'm sure the working guys thought he was crazy, because it's a heavy stone!!!! buy hey! .....and we have beautiful tiles, and is an endless list of all the amazing things that Robert has found!!!........Hand made iron locks 200 years old, chairs, furniture, artist supplies, old iron pieces, lamps, old paintings, mirrors.
I'm making these new series with type that I want to print them into t-shirts, so I have to search for a place that let's me print just a few to test it, ......I still want to work more on the type and the colors to make it pop out even more,................sometimes I get a little bit of vertigo to dedicate myself into this new adventure, because I've stopped working in graphic design, a career that for many years was my way to make money, a financial stability, and with my new direction in life sometimes I don't know where is taking me, because I don't have an assure future, because it all depends on me and it doesn't, but when I start thinking in this loop that doesn't take me anywhere, then......I stop, and keep going with my instinct and keep doing what I like, and keep going, because life is to be lived, to be explored, and to be enjoyed.
