“In my workshop .. I have not words to describe the feeling of joy that overcomes me when I can turn some of this “Trash into art.. I see myself fishing for trash hopefully turn it into gold. ”
We met Frank as luck would have it because we decided to get rid of all the all CD’s and BR’s in the house. After giving away all the special editions and the kids films we stilll had 100 or so disks and cases we just felt a bit guilty throwing away.
So a friend of ours tells us he knows this guy in Santo Domingo that makes art from cd’s and that we should take some of the stuff to him. We finally put all of the dvd’s in a big yellow box and let me tell you..that that thing drove with us for a while… like for months I would look at the stupid box every time we went to do the groceries and we would look at one another…. “We need to take the box to the guy in Santo Domingo” , and then we would go to the city, and between all the cahos in the city and the inevitable Tapones!!!!! we ended up never having time to go take the cd’s .
In dispair the box sat all forgotten until one day my dear mother came to visit and the box of cd’s happened to be in the front porch (part of the live cycle of the box was periodically jumping in and out of the trunk of the car when we needed extra space). My mom looked at the museum piece with a puzzled expression and we go through the past year of our lifes with theo orange box. My mom looks at us smiles and says.. I’ll take the box to the guy.
This was the piece Frank made for us..
You’re taking home a piece of DR with you
Finding the sculpture that speaks to you.
I wish I could tell you it hangs in my studio but the truth is we are in the business of sharing art not hording it. This little guy flew with a German couple back to their home. I like knowing that my old cd’s are halfway around the world.
Frank is a wonderful human being , a very humble artist full of ideas that come straight from the heart. When my mom finally got to his studio and sent us pictures we inmediatly scheduled a visit to meet him. starting 2021 we’ve been collaborating with Frank( that’s what he call’s it when we take trash to him and he turns it to art) in return we also show and sell his pieces at the store in Punta Cana.
A few months ago we payed Frank a visit and recorded this video, enjoy:
Frank is kind of a private guy.. not much into cellphones not much into social media so not many links to share , that’s kind of the point of the taino stories, it’s something special you wouldn’t find somewhere else
W. Windmill
