Read about what a few of the junkyard regulars have been working on recently!
Artists Rebecca Anders, Haideen Anderson, Lynn Luzano, and Dana Albany have been keeping themselves busy throughout the pandemic. Check out their latest happenings below!
Rebecca and The Horse Car. Photo by Eric Neumann / KQED.
Rebecca Anders remembers Ace Junkyard as a place that created a “social swirl.”
The practice of sharing ideas and building community was a big part of Rebecca’s experience at the junkyard. In her work today, community plays an important and functional role. At the end of 2020, for example, she and her crew moved a large sculpture, entitled Illumacanth, onto the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa.
One of the most significant elements that Rebecca misses about Ace is the “give and take of material culture, on a level about use, not money.” She remembers moments where a car would break down in the junkyard, it would be picked clean of its parts within a matter of hours.
In the same spirit of reuse present at Ace, Rebecca is still creating sculpture and art from recycled materials. Recently, she was commissioned to build a custom stainless steel fireplace, as well as a fire and water sculpture out of stainless and mild steel, both for San Francisco residents.
The sculpture Illumacanth, a new addition to Paradise Ridge Winery, Santa Rosa.
Haideen in front of her container at the Box Shop. Photo by Miranda Hunt
Haideen Anderson attributes her ability to live as an artist in San Francisco to the significance of community.
Her experience at the Box Shop, for example, has been of extreme benefit to her and the other artists working there. With all of the abundant resources and knowledge present at the Box Shop, the community can largely feed off of itself: “There are so many different skills in our group that if you have a project, and you’re worried about some aspect of it, you might say yes anyway because you can troubleshoot with someone right at the shop.”
Her current project is a commissioned copper fire piece that will accompany a fountain created by another artist. The artwork is shaped as long-stemmed flowers that will breathe fire and create a ring around the fountain. Utilizing copper for this piece marks a departure from Haideen’s primary work involving steel.
Lynn Bryant at the Box Shop. Photo by YasiMak
Lynn Luzano has experienced a smooth transition to remote work during the pandemic.
After moving to the Philippines in 2018, much of her art had to shift mediums. Though Lynn has been creating crypto art for many years, her move, combined with the onset of COVID-19, created a situation in which working collaboratively online became vital. Luckily, Lynn’s time at Ace Junkyard and the Box Shop, according to her, “… has prepared me for working virtually, since I already know how to work with people.”
In addition to her virtual art, one of Lynn’s important ongoing projects has been with her organization, Returning Wave. The nonprofit upcycles used surfboards for kids in the Philippines to use. Lynn, in fact, got her first surfboard from Ace. Now, similar to Ace’s impact and legacy, she continues to recycle used materials and give back to her community.
Lynn’s virtual artwork for Burn2Regional, The Forbidden Metaverse.
Dana in front of her sculpture Tara Mechani in Hayes Valley Green, San Francisco. Photo by Jana Asenbrennerova / SF Chronicle
Dana Albany still managed to find outlets for community gatherings during isolated times.
Over the last year, Dana has worked on a few large-scale projects that involved collaboration but still remained COVID safe; one project is a mosaic mural she has completed with a group of collaborators. Utilizing her own studio, as well as her container at the Box Shop, Dana helped put together a mural to liven up some more barren spaces in the Portola District.
Dana has also been helping to build a monument called Mothers of Gynecology in Alabama as a tribute to Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy, three enslaved black women who were wrongfully experimented on by a doctor in Montgomery. Traveling between the Bay Area and Alabama, Dana has worked with activist Michelle Browder and a group of artists to finalize the monument: “It was an honor to work on it; an intense subject matter, but important.”
A mosaic mural in the Portola District, created with Dana’s help.
Thank you to Rebecca, Haideen, Lynn, and Dana for updating us on your art and your amazing work! We’ve appreciated hearing your stories, as well as your thoughts on community and it’s role in the life of an artist.
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