Reclaimed glass and ceramic from an abandoned municipal dump, melted ceramic from an overfired kiln, vintage bunch of glass grapes, and gold leaf.

Decomposition - the state or process of rotting; decay.

Recomposition- the act of composing or forming something again or differently.

As individuals we often have a hard time deciding what is garbage and what is important. We hold on to some things too long and dispose of others prematurely. As a society we are disastrously bad at this. Our personal struggles to clear our lives of the unused or unneeded are replicated endlessly by those around us and that effort has caused us to foul the earth in unimaginable ways. This piece is a small act of reclamation and recomposition.

The subject, a fish decomposing under a golden sun, is symbolic of an important phase of transition from one state of matter to another. It is breaking down and will become building blocks for other parts of the natural world.

The materials used in the mosaic are another matter entirely. With the exception of the fish’s spine and the glass spheres rising from the decaying body, the mosaic is created from materials reclaimed from an abandoned municipal landfill. The objects, some incinerated, were pushed out into the waters of the adjacent bay and much of the domestic trash of the small city ended up tumbling around in the surf and washing up again on the beach. The objects that reappear are transformed by fire, the ocean, and age it’s self, becoming windows to an earlier time and displaying an often fascinating physical transformation.

In contrast, the spine of the fish and glass spheres are the remnants of a once treasured bunch of decorative grapes. Passed from one member of the family to another they ended up in my studio. It gave me much pleasure to use them as the starting point for my recomposition of this pile of transformed domestic trash.