Many thanks to Downey resident Roy Shabla, who curated a show called “Contraptions: electrified, mechanized, digitized, funk-junk art show.” The show featured assembled whimsical gadgets, “useless” machines and art constructed from the discarded objects of our materialistic world. As you can see from the photos, the show took place in the evening, in the parking lots at Number 34 on Florence Avenue. Thanks Ronnie, the proprietor at Number 34!
An Art-Making Machine
A Piece by Ruben Acosta
scenes from life
layer upon layer
bits of paper and plaster
some wire and some paste
some color from an old paint can
a diagonal swath of gauzy mesh
family friends and kindred folks
tangled up with mending tape
to form a map of the wandering path
and the years I stumbled through
my vision is my vision
but found pieces that I pick
and those that somehow
come to me and stick
are green if they are green
no matter that my vision
calls for blue
and then my canvas too
reveals itself
as fragments held with glue
that gradually dissolve
to shed foundation pieces
a brother here
a city there
until the air flows
gently through
scraps of colored paper
and fellow wandering souls
swirl in the dusty wind
some come to rest
against the back
to find some daubs
of still-wet paste
that bond the paper
to the place
and form perhaps
the image of a face
the sun slants
through the parking lot
and lights the easel
part by part
the rhythm
and the shadows
spring alive
to become art
Copyright © 2012 Francis Kearns
So Cal Yankee 
Hey 🙂 I'm visiting you from the A – Z challenge. This was a really interesting post 🙂 It's nice to meet you!Nikki – inspire nordic
What a cool show to get to attend! I'd love to go to something like that.Looking forward to your A-to-Z posts!Aside from that, I'm your co-host for the A-to-Z! If you didn't get an email from me the other day, it may have gone in your spam box. Please feel free to contact me via my profile or reply to that email if you need anything or have any questions.Shannon at The Warrior Muse, co-host of the 2012 #atozchallenge! Twitter: @AprilA2Z
Dropping in from the A-Z challenge. I like the recycled art post!
That looks like so much fun! I used to do art from found objects all the time as a kid, and even some as an adult. Then writing took over my life, and I just stopped doing stuff like that. As much as I LOVE writing, I sometimes really miss the art I don't do anymore.I'm here from the A-Z Challenge. Nice to meet you!
New follower here. I’m enjoying reading my fellow “A to Z”ers. I look forward to visiting again.Sylviahttp://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/
Thanks Nikki, Shannon, C.M., Peggy and Sylvia. There was something special about the recycled art – kind of a deconstruction -I look forward to checking out your A-to-Z blogs!