Traffic Jam

Traffic Jam is one in a fleet of Push Toy Monstrosities: gigantic push toys made from discarded toys lashed together with hand painted cotton rope. The toys, all collected from people’s garbage heaps around the City of Buffalo, are anywhere from forty plus years old to almost new, toys that you may even have in your own backyard. They are engraved with play and dirt, and scribbled with the children’s names who once played with them.

Traffic Jam shares my dedication to the environment and saves these relics of play from our local landfills while having fun doing it. Traffic Jam explores new themes within my work: wonder, excessive consumerism, garbage picking, destruction of our oceans and carrying one's entire life on their back. The endless supply of toys once gave me great anxiety but have now become my building blocks for infinite creation.