This piece utilizes a graphic paper collage — made from a Japanese illustrated children's book and images from a dinosaur dictionary — mounted on a wood panel. The code was created with acrylic, glue and painted glitter.

Note: the items used in this series are objects that were no longer useful to their owners — meaning they were either pulled from the trash, from the side
of the road, or purchased at
a thrift or second-hand store.

Purchased at a thrift store, this canvas-mounted photograph was so strangely appealing; I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.

Inspired by a 1970s atlas ocean current illustration, this cut-paper and graphite drawing piece is mounted onto a discarded Lois Powers lithograph print.

This framed rooster was found discarded behind a craft mall. In terrible condition, the rooster (cut from ¼-inch hardboard) was mounted to rusted chicken wire, and the entire piece was black spray-painted. The rusted wire was unsalvageable, so I remounted the rooster to a hardboard backing. The piece was created using acrylic,
wood, glue and glitter.

Mounted to five secured wooden circles are 75 athletic trading cards from my childhood collection. My parents were purging my boyhood closet and came across a pail of cards — instead of throwing them out, I asked them to be saved for this and another Cipher piece.

This layered piece integrates a laser print on paper, a discarded vellum clothing pattern and acrylic paint.

Finished, this piece will consist of 45 (12 x 12 inch) vinyl album covers. The albums were found, purchased at thrift stores or given specifically for this project — they are mounted to wood panels and completed with painted glitter.

Purchased at a thrift store, this 1977 Coca-Cola bottling crate is solidly constructed and was left fully intact, with an additional ¼-inch hardboard inserted to contain the code.

Children’s book illustrations collaged and mounted to 11-inch wood circles. The illustrations are from discarded library books.

Found in a thrift store, I remember having a similar colorforms play set around my house growing up. Secured to the back of this piece are the vinyl accessory and optional clothing sheets.

This work is on a discarded lithographic print of Paul Detlefsen’s Americana Scene.
The frame is original to the print, although painted for this project.

I liked the seeming opulence of this thrift store found decorative cameo — but closer inspection reveals a cheap plastic gold frame and a portrait on a poorly printed paper lithograph. The contradiction made this a must have for inclusion in this series.