Hawaii Spam

We have talked about finding rivers of rusty tin cans in the desert (www.apezoo.com), how they fascinated us and captured our imagination. With 'Hawaii Spam', items salvaged from 'rivers of rust' star as the main components, we created an object that, for us, provokes fond memories of our years in tropical Hawaii and wandering the deserts of the Southwest.

The tall can holding the paint brushes is an old J & J Band-Aid can we found in a trash heap off the Turkey Creek trail near the Village of Oak Creek, in Sedona, Arizona. The attraction was its square shape, and the still-attached lid gave the rusty can added pizazz. After a little cursory cleaning, it found a featured spot in our kitchen window, where it lived for alone for several months.

Finding the Spam can in a mainland desert was a hoot because the tasty, chemically enhanced, highly processed lunch meat is such a popular ingredient in Hawaiian food culture. Sort of déjà vu all over again. [And yes, we ate a lot of Spam (Hot & Spicy) while we lived in Hawaii.] Notice how the artful crimping adds substantial interest to the finished piece.

As we positioned the two old rusty cans in our West-facing kitchen window in the late afternoon glow of a golden Sedona sunset, it quickly became obvious; to us at least, this was a true symbiotic matchup. It seemed only fitting the old Spam can receive equal exposure as its Band-Aid buddy. The object 'Hawaii Spam' was born.

Because our time in Hawaii was filled with coffee-related activities, using a flattened old Folgers-type coffee can as a platform for this tableau was an easy decision. We used dice to add a little height.

The motorbike was found embedded in the muddy path leading up to a farmer's market in Waimea (Kamuela), Hawaii. We kept it, photographed it at various locales while in Hawaii and used it here because of the Hawaiian theme. The miniature 'Hevy Hitters' motorcycle takes center stage cooling it's jets on the sides of old Spam and Band-Aid cans.

Scattered about the assemblage are the spent cartridges and wire so ubiquitous to the American Southwest. Plus one small red rock, a placeholder of sorts.

Not to be out done are the plastic dried-up paint brushes that provide jolts of primary colors to the ensemble, not to mention their strong lines exploding outwards.

Finally, standing quietly in the back, is the demure glass bottle. Dug up in the old ghost town of Jerome by a jilted, bottle-collecting husband of a garage-sale lady, she callously chucked his treasured collection into the local dump. We rescued several hundred or so of these prized antique bottles. We chose this little translucent gem to anchor our work.

And that is how 'Hawaii Spam' came to be.