DENVER, CO – “Surviving starts with breathing,” says Desiree Vuocolo, founder of LocalGood, in a recent conversation with Colorado-based artist Kiwi, known legally as Rebecca. “And that’s the best we can do right now.”
It’s a sentiment that lands softly but powerfully, especially when delivered by someone like Kiwi, an upcycling sculptor, poet, and self-proclaimed “trash panda” who’s turning discarded objects into communal joy.
From her small studio near Denver, Kiwi gazes daily at the mountains and makes beauty out of refuse, cardboard, sawdust, pool noodles, and broken plastics. She creates sculptures that are modular and magnetic, antlers you can swap like seasonal flags, deer skulls adorned in fake flowers and bells, and installations that invite community members not just to look, but to build, to laugh, to breathe.
But Kiwi’s journey to art and community wasn’t paved with gallery openings or elite MFA programs. It started with hunger.
From Scarcity to Skin-and-All Abundance
“I came from a situation where there wasn’t a lot of food in my household,” Kiwi recalls. One day as a child, a friend’s grandmother a hoarder, offered her pounds of unfamiliar fruit. “They were fuzzy and brown. I didn’t know what kiwis were, but I ate them. Skin and all.”
The nickname stuck, out of love and laughter and survival. “Kiwi” became not only her name, but a symbol of transformation of accepting life’s strange, fuzzy gifts as they come, and finding delight in their oddness.
Radical Constructs, Tangible Joy
Under the moniker Radical Constructs, Kiwi and her partner sculpt, mold, 3D print, and cobble together artwork that walks the line between whimsy and reclamation. “I’m a mixed media upcycling crafter if I’m being polished,” she laughs. “But really, I’m a trash panda. And I love it.”
Their work doesn’t just sit behind glass, it lives. One piece, a 3D-printed deer skull, will soon be fitted with interchangeable antlers that community members can decorate. It’s less about the sculpture and more about the invitation: come touch something, change something, claim something as yours.
The Magic of Making, Together
This spirit of hands-on collaboration has found a home in the Denver Magic Makers Market, where Kiwi is a regular contributor. She speaks with the spark of someone who’s found their “why.” Recent installations have included flower crown stations made from chopped-up pool noodles, moss, and discarded florals. Attendees, strangers, sat elbow-to-elbow, hot-gluing crowns to match their rainbow hair or rolling moss around foam, laughing and exchanging stories.
“It doesn’t feel like a lot,” Kiwi says. “But it’s everything.”
For the market’s upcoming Beltane Block Party, Kiwi is crafting a light sculpture that will be assembled piece by piece by the community. Local businesses will distribute “fins” of the sculpture. As people return them, the pieces snap together literally building the installation, and figuratively building something deeper: connection.
When the World Feels Fractured
“I don’t think it would be foolish to note that the world is a little bit terrifying right now,” Kiwi says, voice quiet but firm. “People are afraid. And sometimes they act out in ways that are harmful. I’ve asked myself for most of my life, ‘What fixes the world?’”
The answer she’s landed on isn’t policy or platforms, it’s community. And for her, that community is formed one hot glue gun, one flower crown, one conversation at a time.
Two years ago, when a beloved community market shuttered overnight, Kiwi could’ve walked away. Instead, she hosted her first event. “It was so hard,” she admits. “But it was so worth it.”
That first gathering became a blueprint. Now, her installations and events create entry points for people to return to something ancient and essential: shared joy.
“Sometimes helping people is just asking how they’re doing,” she says. “And sometimes it’s bringing them cat food.”
No Degrees Required
There’s a reverent irreverence in Kiwi’s approach to art. She’s educated trained in experimental poetry, but she refuses to hold the door shut behind her.
“I think it’s BS that people are told they’re not creative,” she says. “Good is a capitalist lie. Just make something. Nothing I make is ‘good.’ I just do it.”
Her mantra is refreshingly radical: Art is not about perfection. It’s about permission. And everyone’s invited.
Where to Find Kiwi
Kiwi shares her ongoing work and events through her Instagram, @radicalconstructs, and through LocalGood.com, an online platform for artists and activists alike. She encourages everyone, near and far, to “make a doodle” the next time the world feels too much.
“Even if it’s not good,” she adds, “who cares?”
Because in Kiwi’s world, art isn’t about excellence. It’s about existence. Survival. Breathing. Skin and all.