Artist with a small lamp

Wandering about in-town Atlanta neighborhoods seeking yard sales I often encounter other artists both buying and selling. The seller shown here is a painter, curator and professor at a local college of art. I seem to encounter many other artist having sales, perhaps because artists accumulate a lot of stuff or always need extra money. Sometimes the stuff they are getting rid of goes from one artist to another. Sometimes their art goes on sale. It’s recycling at its best and can be integral part of the local art scene.


A local photographer and a conceptual artist at their own yard sales.




Works by popular local artist at bargain prices sometimes show up when you least expect them.



A variety of materials can be found for all manner of artists.



This sign has a message that is understood by all contemporary artists.

Willie on Black Velvet

Yard Sales should be fun for all involved. The presence of adult beverages makes them even more fun. These two women were sipping cocktails hanging out in front of their East Atlanta Home amid a yard full of clutter on a pleasant Saturday morning. They let us know that divestment is a fine thing and that someone somewhere really needs a black velvet painting of Willy Nelson. The presence of intoxicating beverages at sales is often an unexpected surprise, be it in the presence of Bloody Marys offered to early morning shoppers, beer from a keg left over from a party the previous evening or just discounted half empty bottles of the hard stuff that the sellers no longer want in their homes.

Among other items at this sale were oversized Hulk hands and a cute painting of a unicorn.




Some offers of potent potables at yard sales.


A times estate sales and even yard sales double as package stores as half empty bottle of the hard stuff are put on sale.

Rainy Day

Some days are not meant for yard sales but yard sales persist. This photograph was taken on a terrible day for selling clutter in a yard or driveway. The photograph was taken through the window of my car. If it weren’t for the photograph I would have thought the whole thing was a mirage brought on by the dire lack of yard sales on a very wet and rainy Saturday morning. I do know that the image documents the determination of the seller to rid himself of the few strange objects placed in his driveway.

Other sales are given up one more easily.



This sale appeared to fail before it begun.

Swords

Some times people have things you would not expect them to have. In this relatively small sale in Midtown for some reason this young man had a large collection of martial arts weapons and blades. I have no idea how skilled he was with their use. All manner of dangerous things can be found at yard sales.

Other stuff at this sale included kitchen wares and books.




This man was also selling sharp objects.


An assortment of dangerous objects I've seen at yard sales.

Deer head and ferret

Taxidermy is viewed as the clichéd fodder of yard sales. The most common cliché is that of the oversized moose head. In urban tales a husband will purchase the found moose head much to the disdain of his spouse who loathes massive mounted animal heads. While I have purchased a number of items over the years that my spouse disdained, in all my explorations I have never encountered a moose head at any yard sale. But I have run into considerable taxidermy as well as a variety of faux animals and real animals. The highly distressed head shown here was being sold along side a living, crawling and squirming ferret. They sellers were moving to Sweden where they had not need of a distressed animal head and could not take a domesticated weasel. While I was there they spent some time trying to talk a friend into giving the creature a new home.

The woman who owned this mounted crab told me she was drunk when she purchased it in Destin.

A large shellaced blowfish was among a collection of Tiki goods being divested.

I purchased this pheasant pelt with the hopes of using it in an art project. I sold it at my own yard sale.


This dog in Cabbagetown was a bit disturbed over all the early morning shoppers.

Cats like this one enjoy being around piles of clutter.


I think this was a lifelike faux dog. But I'm not sure

An assemblage of kitchen items

This is another artist, a long time Callanwolde figure painting teacher who was having a moving sale. She seemed to have put considerable time into creating elaborate arrangements with the things she was selling. At sales I find many of these intricate arrangements akin to sculpture, assemblage and installations.





Other arrangements around Atlanta - Vases on plastic chairs, Shoes on a brass table and a wet suit in a car.

Woman with Ryden print

Things come into people’s lives for many different reasons. This woman told me she once had a job cleaning out apartments after tenants had moved out. She had found this print on the job and had kept it for several years. She also told me she once worked at the Clermont lounge. Other items found here included a single deer antler, a figure made of straw and some books.