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Community Trash

ByRay Bernoff

Community Trash, 2024-ongoing

Mixed media art waste from friends and community members (including watercolor, acrylic, fabric paint, spray paint, PVA glue, paper, resin, and wood) on previously used canvases

The ‘Community Trash’ series is an extension of my series ‘Trash Paintings‘. For Community Trash, I collect discarded or unwanted materials from friends, family, and community members: too-small offcuts and scraps, dried-out or contaminated paint, canvases lumpy with failed attempts, boxes laden with the dust and guilt of abandoned hobbies. Repurposing this creative trash reduces both my effect on the climate and the clutter in my friends’ homes.

See more of my art.

An abstract painting on canvas. The background is blue and the foreground is deep purple, dimensional swirls and speckles of red-painted art trash.
Community Trash #25 (Black Rose)
A mixed media assemblage on a square piece of plywood. The piece is mostly yellow, with a grid of multicolored foam circles. One circle is decorated to look like a happy face.
Community Trash #24 (Harvey)
Appeared in MCD Gallery’s “Play“.
A mixed media assemblage on a rectangular canvas. The background is half purple and half multicolor paper towel. Paint tubes, paint brushes, and pens/pencils are arranged in a gridlike pattern on top.
Community Trash #23
A square assemblage. A cluster of trash bursts out at the center, while a ring of the word FUCK cut out of small pieces of wood and painted blue and green expands outward over a red background.
Community Trash #22 (FUCK)
A rectangular assemblage with a paint-stained paper towel background and a cluster of wooden and metal clay tools and popsicle sticks in the foreground.
Community Trash #21
A square multimedia assemblage. The background is blue, with a paint-covered paper towel, paint-dipped tongue depressors, and runoff from acrylic paint pouring over top.
Community Trash #20
A square wooden assemblage. The background is navy fading into a bright lime green center. Broken, dirty paintbrushes are arranged in a ring that extends beyond the edges of the background.
Community Trash #19, 2025
Appeared in Hunchback Gallery‘s “Reframe the Dark”.
A vertical rectangular wall assemblage of paint and jewelry on canvas. The jewelry and some of the paint are silver, and the rest is splotches of dark green.
Community Trash #16, 2025
A large-scale collage on canvas featuring art trash and several smaller pieces of art such as failed prints, paintings on mini canvases and Shrinky Dinks. The color scheme is white and dark red with hints of pink and green. Kiwi cross section block prints appear across the piece.
Community Trash #18, 2025
A vertical rectangular wall assemblage of paint and jewelry on canvas. The jewelry and some of the paint are gold, and the rest is splotches of dark green.
Community Trash #17, 2025
A vertical rectangular wall assemblage made of arts-related trash. The top half of the assemblage is vertical rainbow stripes and the bottom half is painted solid white.
Community Trash #15, 2025
Appeared in MCD Gallery’s “Play“.
A square wooden assemblage covered in art-based trash, including jewelry scraps, pens and pencils, and 3d printing offcuts. The edges of the assemblage are painted black. The background fades into orange at the center, leaving the trash itself exposed there.
Community Trash #14, 2025
Appeared in Hunchback Gallery‘s “Reframe the Dark”.
A square multimedia assemblage. Red and green tissue paper and rhinestones, pieces of mirror, and assorted arts trash partially cover the plywood base, on which the plywood product information is still partly visible.
Community Trash #12
A rectangular art assemblage made of art trash, mostly discarded beads and pieces of jewelry. Most of the piece is bright yellow, but a triangular strip passes through the middle where the background is purple and the trash is unpainted.
Community Trash #13, 2025. This piece appeared in James Library’s 2025 Fall Juried Art Show.
A 3 x 5" blue, white, and yellow assemblage on an clayboard panel. Scraps of material are glued to it, including wire, a transparent resin outlet plate, and a dangling chain with a silver bead on the end.
Community Trash #10, 2025
A wooden tray abstractly painted with thick layers of blue, green, pink, and yellow paint. The background layer of paint is matte and the thick globs of paint over top of that are glossy.
Community Trash #8, 2025
A large assemblage on a rectangular piece of wood. Empty paint tubes are arranged in a regular horizontal/vertical pattern, with different colored rectangles behind each tube.
Community Trash #7, 2025
A tall, narrow, small abstract multimedia wall piece, all white and cream. A white piece of ribbon with gilt edges snakes through it, around faux pearls, bits of plastic, and beaded chains.
Community Trash #11 (Debutante), 2025. This piece appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Monochrome.
A small rectangular purple art assemblage made from art-related trash. Multiple heart-shaped objects and a big piece of yellow foam poke out of the purple paint.
Community Trash #9, 2025. This piece appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Small Works 2025.
A wooden tray abstractly painted with thick layers of black, orange, green, blue, and yellow paint. Objects are embedded under the paint: dice with visible flaws, wooden rings, resin scraps. Gold glitter accents some of the surface.
Community Trash #2
Community Trash #6, 2025. This piece appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Thirteenth Annual One.
A 12" square painting with many small items glued to it mosaic-style. A strip at the top of the painting is white, with all white and transparent items; the rest is blue, with areas that have a green background and show the original color of the items. The painting includes pens and pencils, resin scraps with a hexagonal tiled pattern, and a candy wrapper chain,
Community Trash #5, 2025. This piece appeared in Gallery A2’s Iterations: Perseverance of Craft.
A 12 x 16" mixed media painting, all painted bright red with subtle tonal variations. Art scraps, primarily wood, fill the canvas. The laser cut word 'FUCK' appears many times. A wooden star, partially contoured and partly flat, stands out in the top right. The edges of the painting are matte and the center is glossy.
Community Trash #4 (Red), 2024
A 20 x 24" mixed media abstract painting. It has a central mound of arts and crafts trash in the center, bursting outward to the edges. The entire surface is painted in shades of green.
Community Trash #3 (Green), 2024. This piece appeared in Gallery 263’s “Future Craft”.
A 12 by 16" abstract painting. Black and blue paint studded with failed dice castings drips down from the left of the canvas. The bottom and right side of the painting fade from bright yellow-orange to red, with swoops of color and random objects dotted throughout.
Community Trash #1, 2024. This piece appeared in Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery‘s “Fire and Water” and on a City of Worcester municipal waste bin.

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