Staff Spotlight: James Talon

Staff

Jun 3

Each month, we feature one of the incredible staff members who help make the magic happen at ACR. This month, it’s Reuse Specialist James Talon! James brought his abundance of energy to the ACR team a year ago, during the early months of the pandemic. During his shifts, he keeps everyone engaged with his enthusiasm and positive attitude, making the days fly by quickly!Read more about James below and see his tutorial for a DIY Jellyfish Lampshade! How did you find Austin Creative Reuse?I believe I found it when I googled where to recycle stuff, and it was on one of Those Lists! What’s your favorite part about working at ACR?All the shiny things! I'm pretty much a magpie/raccoon hybrid, inhabiting a lumbering, two-legged human body; think Miko the raccoon from Pocahontas. (Secretly also a Flower Share society member.) Are you an artist, crafter, or maker? What mediums do you work with?I am a pet portrait commission artist, and I primarily paint with acrylic and incorporate mixed media (aka, the shiny things I find at ACR). I have so many little bits and bobs that I eventually had to add shelving units to my wall just to keep it organized! What do you do when you’re not working at ACR?In pre-pandemic times I hoarded savings for backpacker budget trips across any given country, using mistake-fare airline prices whenever a deal came up! I stay with locals wherever possible, because for me, they're the piece that stays most vibrantly with me in my heart after I leave. (Well, besides the photos. But those aren't in my heart, they're just my desktop backgrounds.)I do a lot of volunteering, like with Double Take, as well as for other environmental causes. Additionally I instruct art, run my pet portrait business, and end up inventing 26 hours a day in order to be able to also hang out and meet new people!I also greatly enjoy: writing, reading, buying used books I'll never read, donating said books, vegan cooking and baking, photography, and running tabletop games with friends! What’s the craziest thing you found in donation mountain?One eccentric, mixed media artist's donated estate. They had stashed several decades' worth of sawed off wings (from dolls, ornaments, bird toys - you name it), gears / hour and minute hands (all dismantled from old watches and clocks), oddly shaped metal (spirals, fleurs, etc), vintage toy parts (but only arms and legs), and de-hooked tackle gear (like all the faux fish. Some of them were even cobbled onto legos to make fishhead people?)Yeah, I guess you had to be there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

About James:

James Talon thinks it’s fun to make art by finding the most beaten up vinyls and painting on them, and that’s how he discovered the coolest non-profit ever: ACR! In the past he was Art Director / Producer for Furcadia, lived abroad in Poland, and has a Linguistics degree. He’s all about animals, meditation, puns, imaginary friends named Paul*, silly profile pictures, and not including any puns in his bio. His handle on instagram is @james.talon.art if you want to see his work! *Note: He doesn’t actually have imaginary friends…just don’t tell Paul that.