City Jewels

Inspired by both the highly reflective surfaces of freshly painted dumpsters combined with unusual textures and markings created by both natural and unnatural elements, I started seeing a collection of jewelry emerging from these otherwise unsightly rectangular beasts. Each freshly painted dumpster presented me with a challenge, how can I make this smelly, ugly container into something soft and beautiful?

In City Jewels, I targeted freshly painted dumpsters in order to attain the best reflections. Once dumpsters were identified, I focused on areas where there was slight weathering on the containers to create depth and texture in my photographs. For months I carried around various props including a water bottle to create shine and depth; purses, sequin pillows, scarves, a lampshade, and more to create colorful reflections and shapes. Using photo editing software I manipulated colors and saturation to produce a collection of bold jewel-tones rich in texture.

Images are printed on metal bringing City Jewels to life.

Urban Beach Day

I never realized how much I enjoyed living near the water until I moved from the Bay Area to Atlanta. One day while driving around the streets of Atlanta running errands, I saw a glimpse of the ocean, at a carwash parking lot on Cheshire Bridge. I started to see the ocean in driveways and side streets around the streets of Atlanta.

Inspired by summer days at the beach and urban models (also known as dumpsters) found around the streets, I created Urban Beach Day, a collection of photographic abstracts depicting a day at the beach. Beautiful blues paint the ocean landscape, textures so rich you can almost feel the sand between your toes while the waves crash against the shoreline.