FAUXBOT 1000

When I was a young girl, maybe 10 or 12 years old, I built a spaceship / club house in my parents side yard. Truthfully, it looked like a heap of boards stacked in some weird world cone shape. And though I don't remember much about how many people could fit inside or even if I ever climbed inside it myself, (it was about the size of a 4 foot tall porta-potty), it marked a great accomplishment for me. I built something! And I think it must have been a success as I came home from school one day and it was gone. Right now, as we go about our merry lives, that pile of boards and nails may be orbiting our planet or be on it's way to world's unknown. Of course the truth is more likely my Dad threw it on a burn pile and that was the last of it. Yet I like to think of it somewhere out in the universe - an unmanned ship - so I never asked too many questions.

Recently, my friend Julie, my son Barnaby and I stopped by a new restaurant / art gallery in Greenfield, Indiana. It's called Rock, Paper, Scissors. As I walked into the restaurant, in the corner stood a 7 foot tall robot sculpture made mostly of wood and what looked to be old stove parts. Immediately, I knew that I had to have one. A few days later I was at work and I happened to look out across the street to the parking lot and I saw a hunk of black plastic. I walked over and picked it up. At first I thought, "What if this is a bomb placed here by terrorists?" (That's just the way my brain works). It had "Ford" imprinted on the top of it so I figured that it had fell off someone's vehicle. I couldn't help but notice that it had 2 holes where eyes would be and well I kind of went from there. A week later I had made what I refer to as a FAUXBOT - it looks like a robot but doesn't really do anything. I figured it for a garden sculpting. It can hold a planter and has a bird house in it's back. Also, the roofing rubber that covers it's body makes a great chalk board message center. I like the idea of garden art make from junk. Maybe it's a way of keeping more debris out of landfills. FAUXBOTS of the world united to preserve the planet!