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PHOTOGRAPHS

With the help of a grant that I won from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, I designed and built an organic vegetable stand that incorporated the work of a regional folk artist, white oak baskets made by two local women, and locally letter-pressed posters promoting farmer's markets in the area.

I started building the stand after seeing my favorite band, Low, perform in Memphis, on 3-3-3, and finished in the beginning of July 2003. Many of my friends showed up at the most opportune times to help me build the stand, so it was built a lot faster than I expected. (Special thanks goes to Pete Chramiec and Scott Johnson!) I used common wood found at any hardware store for the roof structure, so if repairs were needed in the future, the materials would be readily available. The posts are local cedar donated by a neighbor, and were used specifically since they are nature's answer to pressure treated wood. The gates are the art of Alabama folk artist, Butch Anthony. They are made from steel, old local license plates, found signs and old aluminum siding from a trailor I dismantled with other "outreachers', Lucy Begg and Richard Saxton.

Many volunteers came to put together the "hogwire" gates. You can see one of the baskets hanging on the branch of the post by Estelle and Freda Jackson of Demopolis. The stand provides a lockable large work area, or selling area, a washing area made from an old tub and a refrigerated area to cool the vegetables. The plan was to have the gate open into a field of vegetables, which I have had reports now that turnip greens have grown to the edge as planned. There are now fruit trees planted south of the stand, and I hope one day with the fruit and veggies becoming a-bounding that they will use it as a stand, community center or a sorting facility.

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