My six-year-old daughter Emaline hates when I throw things away. I have caught her several times pulling items out of the garbage or recycling bin and using them in her art projects. When I tell her, “Please don’t dig things out of the garbage,” her response is, “Why? You do it.”

And she’s right. While I am not a hoarder by any means—don’t all hoarders say that?—I do have a nice collection of cardboard, wood, glass, aluminum, and paper that I, too, use in my art projects.  All of my shallow relief carvings are created from cardboard, Kentucky barnwood, and leftover paint. My glass collages are layers of reclaimed glass and paper. My #MeToo Virgins as well as other graffiti live on reclaimed surfaces: cardboard, fabric, brick. They represent a marriage of repurposed materials and childlike imagination.

I portray what is often ignored on a medium that is often wasted.

As I type this statement, I am sitting across the table from a shadowbox Emaline made from the wood I had discarded. In the box she has glued some corrugated packing material that works as a backdrop for the chicken bone she has affixed to the box with masking tape and string. And to think, I threw that chicken bone away.

Click on any of the images below to enlarge.

LAYERED GLASS COLLAGE

Entrance

Layered View

ENTRANCE . Discarded glass, paper, resin . 6″ X 6″

Red Entrance

RED ENTRANCE . Discarded glass, paper, resin . 6″ X 6″

RECLAIMED

Topography . Discarded cardboard, fabric scraps, acrylic . 81″ X 42″

Reclaimed cardboard, spray paint, resin

Watchers . Discarded cardboard, spraypaint, resin . 60″ X 36″

Point Click . Discarded cardboard, spraypaint, resin. Barnwood frame. 43″ X 43″

SHALLOW RELIEF CARVINGS

Hummingbird . Discarded cardboard (prepared with stenciled graffiti), resin, string . 36″ diameter

Eclipse . Discarded cardboard (prepared with stenciled graffiti, mylar, resin) . 42″ X 42″

Knuckle Sandwich . Discarded cardboard (prepared with stenciled graffiti), resin . 42″ X 42″

OLDER WORK

Sarah and Shark (4′ X 4′ cardboard Relief) $200

Portrait of the Singer (4′ X 4′ Cardboard Relief) $200

Exhaustion with artist

Joker (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $200

Josephine Baker. (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $200

Ballerina (Matte Board Cutting)

A Hermaphrodite in Iowa (Matte Board Cutting)

Fear and Loathing(Small cardboard relief

Never do celebrity art (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $150

Frida (Small cardboard relief) SOLD

Fur-Lined(Small cardboard relief)$140

The New Holly Golightly (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $300

Fairies are real (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $300

Scorpio (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $200

Exhaustion. (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $150

Velcro (Matte Board)

Vi (Matte Board Cutting)

Art (4′ X 4′ cardboard relief) $150

Troubadour (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Sarah and Kitty (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

16 square feet. Try finding a frame

Andy (Mat Board Relief) $25

Real Eyes (Screen Print) $12

Electric. Spray paint on matte board

Update. (Mixed media.)(SOLD)

Force (Cardboard Cutting)

Velvet Elvis (Velveteen Mat Board Relief) $50

Pensive (Mat Board Relief) $20

Joe (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Kazim (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

The Inspector Disguised as Pris(Small cardboard relief)

I’ll Be Okay (Maybe) (Screen Print) $12

Belle Brezing. Cut cardboard

Decision. (Mixed media) $20

Sarah Light and Dark (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Emaline. Cut cardboard

Cut (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Flight (Mixed Media) $30

Ragamuffin (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Silenced. (Mixed media) $20

Esme. Cut cardboard and acrylic

Dr. Dawson. Spray paint on paper.

Warm Socks (Screen Print) $12

Bingo. (Mixed Media) SOLD

Gabe. Cut cardboard and acrylic

Just…No (Screen Print) $12

Vanity. (Mixed media) $15

Rhett’s Mommy. (Small cardboard relief)(SOLD)

Bloom Mixed media in glass layers

X (Mat Board Relief) SOLD

Esme’s eyes. (Screen Print) $12

Tool. (Mixed media) $10

Happy Robot. (Screen Print) $15

Flight Mixed Media: glass, water color, thread, paper, cotton, acrylic

Done (Screen Print) $12

Professor Booty (Screen Print) $15

Untitled. Mixed media

Jed! (Screen print) $12

Stooge (Mat Board Relief) $25

Dia de los Potter. (Mixed media) $15

Beauty Libre. (Mixed Media.) SOLD

Picasso. Spray paint on matte board

Rob. Spray paint on wall, Marid

Queen of Smiles. (Mixed media) $12

Fire Eater. (Mixed media) $20

Gruntled (Screen Print) $12

It’s a Dove (Screen Print) $12

Flood . Discarded cardboard (prepared with stenciled graffiti), resin, string . 42″ X 42″