Shopping Cart Series 

In my neighborhood, the shopping cart exists in polar opposite contexts of city life. People survive in the streets, carting their belongings around, recycling discarded containers and consumer packaging. Consumers push shopping carts around stores, collect items to buy, or fill virtual shopping carts online. These two communities are invisible to one another even as they live on the same streets. The shopping cart represents a vacancy longing to be filled. It is a container which attempts to carry the weight of the needs of our human condition.

I combine imagery from nature with gritty urban objects. The oak tree represents Oakland, the land we have built our cities upon, and the nature that sustains itself in the spaces between the concrete. The carts are a container for something beautiful to grow.

As this theme evolves, it has become increasingly important to show my printed images in everyday, public contexts, including unusual and unknowing venues. I experiment with street art, printing large scale and posting around Oakland.

I think about where art belongs and who does public space belong to? How can worlds that exist together be so invisible? And how do we as individuals attempt fill the container?