Swept In Americana - Series

Swept in Americana is an ongoing series of maps created by found, collected, and discarded objects. They are maps made from single-use plastics, gifts, embellishments, old tape, COVID-19 test kits, dried flowers, lost items picked off the sidewalk, advertisements, sticker bombing, old bracelets, expired IDs, paint caps, discarded cigarettes, peeling skin from a healing tattoo, parking stubs, candy wrappers, and decorative pearls. The painterly qualities of the work is seen through how a material influences its place and positioning, much like how a painting tool will inform its stroke characteristics. Organized in chaos, objects intersect, overlap and hide behind each other. The attractive aesthetic of pop colors and silky textures overstimulates the eye.

On a societal scale, they represent how culture is made through an abundance in disposable materiality. The works’ physical qualities communicates the American persona, marketing the allure of superficial beauty through color and materiality. On a personal level, all objects have been acknowledged by the finder, selected for preservation and repurposed to provide a new purpose in its existence. Funneling from society to the individual, is the selective process behind a map, creating a lean in personal taste, values and authority within society’s acceptance.