Wherein our Goldsworthy-esque hero engages in a speed-run of environmentally-conscious detritus arrangement and presence simulation, to the dismay of fellow riders. Something for everyone!

After a long wait in the soaking rain, I stepped onto the first bus of my commute home. My mind begged for the fifteen minutes of sleep this, the shortest leg of my trip could afford me. But the muse of public transit had other plans.

Starting Materials:


Immediately, my eye was drawn to some colorful pages of local papers, lying next to a styrofoam coffee cup. I was seized with the idea of creating a garbage "floral" arrangement, but I realized that I'd have to work fast to make anything on this short trip.

Energized by the creative process, I made a preliminary bouquet of papers in the cup and set about looking for something that could become a central flair of the piece.

Supporting Materials


Finding a discarded orange transfer slip (the remnant of a Halloween-themed batch, I suspect). I also gathered a couple bus route fliers, to use as structural material for any construction I'd need to make, and a few all-natural leaves and a piece of bark that had been tracked into the bus.

But I realized it was still missing something a real centerpiece that drew the eye and set it apart. That was when I made a real discovery - on the seat to my side, I found a discarded lens from a pair of eyeglasses!

The Focal Point


Grabbing the lens, I hooted in triumph. What few passengers were riding with me gave me odd looks, but I wasn't concerned. I had my central concept!

I set about creating an "eye" for my bouquet, using a torn piece of the newspaper, with a leaf crudely attached. The lens was then placed on top of the eye, which was nestled into the bouquet.

I quickly decided that this was unsatisfactory, and resolved to try again. It had been 10 minutes - I had approximately 5 more minutes before my stop.

An Unsatisfactory First Attempt


Like a bargain-basement ocular surgeon, I tore into the eye. I reworked it so the bark acted as a Sauron-like pupil, and pinned the eye itself between the lens and a structural piece of the bus flier. Then I carefully replaced it in its paper nest. Even so, I wasn't quite pleased with the eye itself.

Still Not Quite


By this point, the bus had begun to fill up, and I knew I'd reach the end of the line soon. At some point, I'll have to find time to digress into the magic of headphones, and how a skilled trickster can turn them into an impenetrable ward against interruption by the confused. Suffice to say, I was given plenty of space as I worked on my curious garbage arrangement.

I realized that lens needed some sort of frame to properly set it apart from its setting, and the bark that had been the pupil became a makeshift eyebrow. Its pupilary duties were assumed by still more leafy detritus, and before long, I had an eye of which I was properly proud, with eyebrow, forehead, pupil, and lens.

A Capital Eye


Looking at the various torn remains I had collected, I was reminded of my camping rules, and decided not to leave the bus messier than I had found it. So the remaining scraps were stuffed deep into the coffee cup, to be covered up by the paper bouquet. The eye was then carefully nested in the final piece.

Final Eye Bouquet



At the very end, I was quite enamored of my work. And as you can see, my fellow riders shared my fascination.

The Crowd Expresses the Deepest Interest



And it was all done in a brief 15 minutes.