Dumpster Abstracts

Dumpsters are intriguing. Images found in them can be quite striking and beautiful. I find it poignant that dumpsters, the ordinary, utilitarian, and lowly objects that they are, can reveal such beauty. And it seems that the more disfigured they are—the more decayed, rotted, defaced, gouged, scratched, splattered, buffed, and rusted—the lovelier and more interesting they become. Dumpsters lend themselves to abstraction, where the focus in on line, form, texture, color, movement, and emotion. While some dumpster images are non-representational abstract images in this sense, others are more interpretive—suggestive of landscapes, animals, people, and scenes or situations. As a treasure hunter of sorts, part of my purpose here is to reveal the beauty and wonder of dumpsters and abstraction.