How This Metal-Working Mechanic Moved Mack Trucks
“That is my dichotomy: my belief in taking care of the planet, and my love for mechanical equipment. May we all find a balance some day.”
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Meet Emilisa Robles, the recipient of this year’s DSNY Art Show Sustainability Prize, awarded by Mack Trucks
By Anne Whiting
DSNY Mechanic Emilisa Robles receives her Mack Trucks Sustainability Prize
The DSNY Art Show is officially open for view! We kicked off the program with a grand opening with over 300 guests in attendance, from within and outside DSNY, including our Anthropologist-in-Residence Robin Nagle, multiple news reporters, and, of course, the show’s sponsor: Mack Trucks.
Historically, the DSNY Art Show has had a winning artist. This year, Mack decided to give an Artist of the Year award to the Sanitation employee whose work most emphasized reclamation and upcycling of preexisting materials. This theme exemplifies Mack’s push for a more environmentally-conscious approach to making and manufacturing.
“Mack is committed to developing products that focus on sustainability, like our first fully electric refuse vehicle, the Mack LR Electric, which DSNY is currently testing,” says Dean Bestwick, Northeast Regional Vice President for Mack Trucks. “For this reason, we sponsored the event and the award, encouraging recycling and repurposing items to help improve the environment.”
The recipient of this honorable award is DSNY mechanic and artist Emilisa Robles, whose piece Metal Moving Sculptures most effectively incorporated repurposed materials—with a sincere sensibility and awareness of sustainability.
Made of discarded engine materials, Robles’ sculpture brings people up close to the heavy machinery that makes all vehicles run. It exposes the hefty and dangerous nature of these mechanical parts, but in an approachable and interactive way. Moreover, it elevates these hidden, overlooked aspects that keep our trucks—and thus our society—running.
An exhibition guest explores Robles’ interactive, sculptural simulation of mechanical motors, which gives viewers (and participants) a glimpse into the intricate workings within the engines that power DSNY trucks and beyond
The artist is also the painter of a series of colorful inside looks of various engines, including a painting of a Harley Davidson engine.
“People may not know exactly what they are looking at,” she says of her paintings, “but that is my point: people get into cars everyday—and don't think about how running engines impact the Earth.”
Robles’ striking, intricate, and beautiful paintings of engines and engine parts
Robles knows her way around a truck’s engine. She has been with DSNY for 15 years. She first worked in California as a mechanic for ten years, before then moving to Denver to cut her teeth on Diesel trucks. There, she worked at a private waste collection company, and worked on everything from engine rebuilding to tire maintenance. She decided that she wanted to work on New York garbage trucks, and upon moving to the city, went around asking who she had to talk to to get the job.
Her hustling paid off: in a male-dominated sector, she was hired as the first female mechanic in the history of the department. Upon promotion, she also became the first female Supervisor of Mechanics (SOM). She’s currently working toward getting promoted to the SOM II level.
“Just one more history to make,” she says, “and I will be satisfied. My dream is to make the Bureau of Motor Equipment (BME) and the Department better for all the people who tirelessly work and show up when no one else will, to keep the streets clean and passable in times of disaster—and everyday.”
With all this career climbing, where does she get the time to make art? We were lucky to get a minute with the insightful artist to learn about her background and the meaning of her art:
SF: How long have you been painting and sculpting?
ER: I have been drawing since I was a child. I’m self-taught, though I took some private classes as an adult.
SF: When did you start turning your machinery into a form of sculpture?
ER: It was always sculpture, but I made this from my mind’s eye. To me, it was just cool, because it moved and could be manipulated or played with, even if it’s a little dangerous—the big one at least. 😊
SF: How did you pursue your expertise in machinery?
ER: Everything I learned about being a technician—except the basics which I went to school for—was from being a tradesman and from on-the-job experience. No degree; I just spent time at a tech school and learned all the subsystems of motorized vehicles. That’s why I have always worked on anything and everything motorized. It’s crazy, all these years of being a master technician. It helps me trouble shoot many problems unrelated to mechanics.
SF: Are you inspired by the work of other artists?
ER: I have always gotten inspiration from my friends who are artists. Unintentionally, I have always surrounded myself with other artists, so some of my favorite artists are my friends. I chose my career over art—not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t want to be a starving artist. I hope my art will take a bigger role as I go further into life. As with mechanics, I do not limit myself with my art: I like to use many types of mediums, pencil, paint, metal, and writing graphic novels. I also dabble in paracord, and I invented a cool cat toy. But alas I work a lot, so art has been second, though not to my heart.
Robles and Mack Trucks’ Dean Bestwick are all smiles at the award announcement
Robles’ recipient of the award is very merited. Through her art, she touches on how her mechanics career plays a key role in the conversation of a cleaner, more eco-friendly future.
“While my paintings are surreal and beautiful, to my eye at least, running engines are dangerous to this planet and our way of life. I have spent my life working on and around the internal combustion engine. I love drawing them, painting them and working on them. That is my dichotomy: my belief in taking care of the planet, and my love for mechanical equipment. May we all find a balance some day.”