Restoring Beauty, From Street Gutters to Oil Paintings

Sharon Cochran (1300 block of Emerald Street NE) and Marc Borbely (536 13th St. NE) came across Pamela Volkonsky (525 14th St. NE) picking up trash on the corner of 14th & E Streets, the morning of Saturday, April 10.

They spoke with her about her efforts, as well as about her job. Mrs. Volkonsky said she would be glad to organize a neighborhood cleanup in the corner forum area.

Don't you get tired of cleaning up?

Sometimes. I'm not a coffee drinker, so this is the first thing I'll do in the morning. Actually, this morning I've been out here for three hours. I like it — it's exercise. The first thing I do, the minute I pop out of bed, is do the trash.

Every day?

Every day, when I'm here — which is most of the time.

Did you fill the trash can over there?

Yeah, and half of the one over there. It's heavy, because I got up a lot of gravel, too. Our roads are being eroded by cars leaking oil — on my block it's really bad. It just tears up the asphalt.

Would you like any help?

Sure. Even if someone wanted to donate trash bags and a broom. This one's getting worn out. I'd love to have help, any day.

I guess it's kind of hard to set a time.

I don't. `Cause I'm home almost every day — I work at home. So I'm willing to help anybody, anytime, with trash. If it's something that's too heavy for them, I'll come try to help.

Why trash? Why is that your thing?

I don't know. I think it started when I popped my tire on a nail, when I was parking my car. So that's when I started sweeping the side of the curb, and one thing led to the other. Actually, it's helped my back! I used to have lower back pains. You'd think this would make it worse, but it's actually, over time, made it better. I haven't had any back problems since I started this.

Would you willing to organize a neighborhood cleanup?

Sure! I only know the people on my block — I don't really know anyone outside of my block.

Ms. Cochran: I would be willing to help do flyers and stuff — we had one last year, and we had a pretty good turnout.

I think the alleys are especially bad. The alley [running alongside Emerald, on the F Street side] — I haven't really walked all the way through it, but from my view it looks bad again. I think there are some houses being worked on, and the contractors — instead of hauling it away, they just throw it out in the alley. And they're unidentifiable things, so we can't catch anybody. Yeah, I'd be willing to — I'd love to see that. And I think that people are gonna be more likely to do it in the next few weeks, before it gets hot.

You know how it works, right? The city brings you all the supplies you need — rakes, and bags, and brooms. And they come pick up the trash.

The streets are looking pretty good, but the alleys —

Mr. Borbely: My street, 13th Street, is pretty bad, which I'm embarrassed to say, but —

Oh yeah, 13th Street, that's bad. Sometimes I go to N-A Minit — I can't even attempt that on my own.

But even the 500 block —

Yeah, but around that market it's really awful. I've noticed that 13th Street's pretty bad — I guess all the way down to Maryland Avenue — probably beyond it. I wonder why.

What do you do for a living?

I restore oil paintings. I've been doing it for 20 years, in the Dupont Circle area. I do restoration of oil paintings on canvas or wood — cleaning, repairing, painting in lost areas, all that sort of stuff.

You've been doing it for a while.

20 years. That's what I do for a living. I almost worked on the Capitol Dome years ago, but the lady that I was working with was getting older and was afraid to get on the scaffolding — I missed out on that job, unfortunately. There are so many things that only need restoration that people would otherwise throw away — and they're shocked to find out that they can be fixed. I've found paintings in the trash can that were beautiful paintings — they had a tear in them — and the person just said, "Well, this is ruined. I'm have to throw it out" — not at all. I take paintings that have been fire damaged, water damaged, missing half the painting — it's crumbled off. Fix them up, they look good as new! So that's what I do.

If people are interested, what should they do?

They could just call. 399-7676.

Great. Thanks!

Okay! §