Robert Rauschenberg, Helen, and Functional Objects

My appreciation for 20th century American art is very shallow.  While I'd heard of Robert Rauschenberg, I really knew very little about him until reading the obituary today. 

Fortunately I don't need any expertise to observe that this quote from Rauschenberg made me smile: "I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly, because they're surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable." Later in the article comes the more serious reason for Rauschenberg's dismay--he loved to make something out of (seemingly) nothing.

Helen is very talented at turning everyday goods into functional objects.  Just today I noticed that a jelly jar had become a vase. 

For a dessert exchange party last year she converted a cereal box into a makeshift container.  Everybody else brought Tupperware, and people marveled about the creativity of using a cereal box instead.  At the time I didn't know it, but now I do: Helen's talents would have made Rauschenberg smile.