And that’s a good thing, because 62-year-old Ringois king of castoffs. What he hauls home doesn’t end up in the lake or alandfill. Imagine this: art devised from plastic productscigarette lighters,pencils, pens, etc.all mixed in with toothbrushes, stones, bottle caps and anyother items deemed useable junk. A piece assembled in Florida, his home awayfrom home, features a baby-blue mesh shoe resting on a bed of wildly variedpieces found while beachcombing. The shoe is a delightful, totally off-the-walltouchor should I say, “off-the-beach”? It says a lot about our throwawayculture. Who wore that shoe? Where’s the mate? When I look at Ringo’s art, Ifind it difficult to disassociate myself from the people who tossed the trash.
As we tour his North Avenue home, Ringo chomps a crabapple, plucked a few hours earlier on a bike ride through Riverside Park.He shows me a stack of peach-colored Styrofoam trays, found at McKinley Beachfodder for a future collage. Ourconversation moves on to “self-taught” artists, and he brings forth Miracles of the Spirit, published in2005, featuring a large color photograph of his work on the cover.
Summer and fall is the time for gathering stuff, hesays. The dark of Wisconsin’swinter provides time enough for assembling his finds. You can view the fruitsof his labor at the Portrait Society Gallery (207 E. Buffalo St., Suite 526) throughOct. 30. The venue embraces a trio of spaces, so expect additional treats.
As I head down a steep flight of stairs fronting hishouse on a hill, Ringo waves goodbye with a bag of tomatoes. “The people I dojobs for gave me these,” he says with a laugh. “They’re like a tip.” I noticethat North Avenueis adrift in castoffs blowing in the breeze. Who knows, perhaps at least a bitof this or a bit of that will end up in a Ringo White collage.
