I love trash. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandma Iya, witnessing and helping with her many creations. During our visits we’d often go to the dump to find and collect discarded treasures for our numerous art pieces that lived throughout her house. We mosaicked the walls of her basement, built insects out of chicken wire, painted on doll heads, and meticulously peeled the bark off of dead trees in the yard. Together, we took the mundane, the discarded, and made it wonderful. In my own practice, I’ve learned how much I love the intimate relationship that comes with using found objects. The process of sitting with each one and taking the time to gain a unique familiarity lends itself to an understanding of the material that expands beyond their originally intended uses and recognizes the beauty and character of their physical forms. My hope is for the objects to remain reminiscent of our usual relationships to them, while also inviting the viewer to notice how colors move and reflect on their surfaces, the differences and similarities between how the materials look and feel, the fluidity and movement of the shapes, and the many things we don’t often observe in the objects we use so often.

Huge thank you to Silvie and Micah for their help!