Trash Talking

Listening to rubbish, looking to find something surprising or beautiful

Toffee Geisha

I’ve been working on a series of drawings and paintings that are prompted by bits of rubbish that I pick up on walks. Very 2020! The image above is one, her head is a toffee wrapper I picked up round the corner. I love this way of working. Sometimes the scrap instantly tells you what it wants to be. Other times you really need to worry it, turning it this way and that until it reveals its second life.

There are a couple of lessons in this that I’m trying to learn — there’s always a creative opportunity, even when all you have to work with has no perceived value — and there’s richness and beauty in the small things of life. I’d like to cultivate both these ways of looking at the world, I think it makes life better and more enjoyable.

This image is available as a print here.

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