What We Learned From What You Dropped and Lost on Main Street

Did you know there is a lovers lane right on Main Street in Morehead? There is, and if you come to our reading Thursday, you will find out where it is. If you've been on Main Street in the last seven years, chances are you've seen us walking; chances are you have dropped something; and chances are we have found it. If it had your name on it, chances are it is on the paper and cardboard quilt we made featuring 63 names. Titled "a Quilt By Any Other Name," it is 42 inches tall and about two feet wide. The binding is made from the silver lining paper from cigarette packs. This is just one of around 50 pieces -- photos and collage/mixed media -- in our exhibit, "Down On Main Street: Reclamation Art," currently at the Rowan County Arts Center and staying until July 31. And to complement the artworks, we are having a slide show of additional photos and a public reading Thursday, July 12, at 5 p.m., of what we learned doing this project. We have been walking the two-mile stretch of downtown Main Street Morehead for more than seven years, almost daily, in the sunshine and snow, at lunchtime and at night. We started picking up trash from the beginning, tossing it in the nearest garbage can. Pretty soon, we noticed that some things were lost instead of littered. Many were interesting; some we could return. The others we saved for art we would make some day. We made the art as we planned and in the process we learned a lot about our town. It is uniques to Morehead, but also speaks to the universal human condition. It tells us what is important to those of us who call this place home. It documents things that happen to us as we go about our daily lives. Come to the Rowan County Arts Center Thursday and let us share with you what we have learned from our collective trash. It will be humorous as well as informative.