Trash Babies
Once I identified that I wanted my sustained investigation to focus on the environment and sustainability, I began collecting pieces of trash to use throughout my works. From food packaging to cardboard boxes, the amount of trash I collected seemed endless. Upon flipping through receipts, plastic bags, and food packages my eyes were drawn to the multitude of warning labels on many of the plastic I had collected. Many of these labels warned of the dangers plastic bags posed to children and the risk of suffocation associated with them. I was compelled to explore this relationship between babies and the waste we create.
As with several of my other works, I knew I wanted to juxtapose the colors of the trash with the subject of the drawing--in this case the babies. The erasable nature of the babies is suggestive of our impermanence as humans: the trash and the waste we create will outlast us.
This series also explores my guiding question: how can art inspire change. I think the babies are not only suggestive of our impermanence as a society but also of the future we are leaving for subsequent generations. The actions and choices we make today determine the world we will pass on to our children.