A box containing two slices of cold pizza—sitting on top of a garbage can in the street. Squirrels scurrying around the city park—sandwich crusts hanging from their stuffed mouths. The kitchen sink drain—clogged with morsels of broccoli and rice.
“What? It’s just scraps,” my mom would scoff whenever I criticized her for tossing the unfinished food on her plate into the bin.
“They’re not good for anything, anyway.”
But what if they were?
During the COVID pandemic and resulting global supply chain shortages, my family reduced our grocery trips in an effort to live more sustainably. Consequently, I became hyper-aware of how much food we consumed and threw away at every meal. I started taking photos of our “scraps”: the so-called inedible bits, spoiled leftovers, and trimmings. Maybe burnt apple crisp and fish bones weren’t mouthwatering snacks, but perhaps they could be turned into art.
Inspired by still life images, I rearranged my family’s food scraps into different sculptures, occasionally adding fallen leaves and flowers from our backyard. This series is the result of challenging myself to create meaning from everyday waste.
