Islanders and summer residents have a history of collecting buoys found on the island’s beautiful beaches. The buoys are rather artistic in an unobtrusive way, as they were once painted rather brilliantly but fade after years in the water. One might consider the buoys to be Martha’s Vineyard’s distinctive type of ‘found art.’ Old lobster pot buoys, large boat bumpers and the like are often used to decorate doorsteps, mailboxes, and other personal property. Several businesses—such as the Sand Bar in Oak Bluffs—have a large collections of buoys decorating the walls and ceilings. It is also a tradition to install large pink buoys as children’s swings—hung from trees, a more island-oriented tire swing. It is charming to observe how buoy’s have been given a second life in this long established and largely unintentional practice of island recycling.
